Tuesday, November 14, 2006

What do you call those pills that make you never have to sleep and you can get lots of stuff done?
That is what I asked the Hubby a while back when I felt like I had too many things to get done and not enough time to do them in. He refused to answer. Good call.
Reading Gypsy's account of her list-making obsession reminded me of a conversation I had recently about mental illness and mania. My question is this: is it possible to be just the right amount of manic? Can a person be deliriously happy all the time without being thought of as a clueless twit or someone perpetually wearing rose coloured glasses? One of the main points of the DSM IV-TR Edition is that a person could have all of the indicators for any illness addressed in the DSM but if these indicators do not cause the person any problems, it doesn't friggin matter.

So I have felt manic lately, but I don't think it is causing any major problems; it helps me get things done, and I like getting things done. It happens every year about this time - the flurry of all the parties compounded with the stress of working for a church during the holidays. Especially a church that calls the Sunday before Xmas "the Christmas Program" and then tells me I am focussing too much on Christianity. Who's crazy?

Etymology lesson: Mania comes from the Greek mainesthai "to rage, go mad," and from this same root, we got maenad, the name used to refer to the female members of Dionysus' orgiastic cult.
From Answers.com: "In Greek mythology, Maenads were female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine and intoxication, and the Roman god Bacchus. The word literally translates as "raving ones". They were known as wild, insane women who could not be reasoned with.
The mysteries of Dionysus inspired the women to ecstatic frenzy; they indulged in copious amounts of violence, bloodletting, sexual activity, self-intoxication, and mutilation. They were usually pictured as crowned with vine leaves, clothed in fawnskins and carrying the thyrsus, and dancing with wild abandon."

So somehow we ladies made a leap from being slutty partiers with a Greek sugardaddy and a penchant for mob behavior, to being mentally ill women who need depakote in order to function on a day-to-day basis. What changed?

posted by Rosie @ 11/14/2006 07:21:00 PM

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