FULL QUESTION:
Julie A. Fast does certain perfumes and smell give a high to bipolar brain? My husband of 12 years never liked loud music and strong perfumes, he even hated entering certain hotels and restaurants because they have this weird perfumes in the corridor and he used to get headache..and its same with me and our son. We cannot sit in any and every car except ours, the perfume from previous passenger in cabs or even in escalators would give nausea. This same man, used to go to a particular section in his office because he loved the smell and variety of perfumes the operators or tele callers used to wear…he happened to pass through the same bay and it gave him a bad nausea like it always used to. He told me this 2 days back. He was buying perfumes, lotions, body polish, hair serum, which I have never seen him use, since he was very unkempt and I didnt know at that time why he is like that and I was fed up of cleaning the whole house for 2 years, I gave him one bathroom and asked him to maintain it…his sink, racks were all full of me cosmetics…and he would not even tell me that he is buying these…No he cannot tolerate those products because of the smell. Is there any article on this?
JULIE’S ANSWER:
Meera D Yes! Mania changes the person in many ways. This change is episodic. Here are some examples of what mania can do:
1. An obsessive increase in looking good and smelling good. It feels good to preen in the mirror.
2. An absolute tolerance for what is normally intolerable. This is especially true when it comes to danger awareness. A manic person for example will go to dangerous places and feel no fear.
3. An incredible increase in the capacity to tolerate substances. For examples, when not manic a person may get tired from drinking two beers. When manic, the person can tolerate eight beers and keep on partying.
4. Extreme interest in what other people are doing, saying and wearing.
4. An attraction to anything that is shiny, loud and over the top.
These changes are in contrast to how to person acts when stable.
Mania is episodic. The different behaviors always have a sleep component as well.
The answer here is mania prevention as you learned in Loving and Take Charge.
Julie
