hi Danielle, I tend towards the other pole - depression. This mania was more a problem when I was growing up. It was one very important experience that taught me to supress all emotions.

Wildcat, Hypersexuality is an increased need, even pressure, for sexual gratification and is often a symptom of mania. It may also include decreased inhibitions or a need for "forbidden" sex. When you are manic, chances are the neurotransmitter dopamine may be pumping into your system. Dopamine, amongst other things, is responsible for pleasure and reward, which drives sexual urges. When you're depressed, your dopamine tends to get depleted so your sexual interest drops to zero. I hope this helps you to understand why your urges may peak or seem uncontrollable. I would encourage you to speak to your psychologist or a sex therapist about this matter. There may be exercises that can help you channel your energies back on to your significant other or allow you to use these peaks as an opportunity for exploring your sexuality and jump starting your sex life with your significant other. Danielle, Bilingual Health Educator

ok ... I do not want to discuss positioning, and frequency, nor normal. I want to explore the why... Why is our sexuality so much affected by these mood disorders? ... eh yes mood - and intimacy are related -duh. Why are the brain chemicals and the other hormones so closely related... and how much is really under our "conscious" controle... I ask/explore because of what I am BiPo. At my group this week one person brought up the manic troubles she has been living with since the summer. The absolute drive to escape and find a stranger/partner. It is wrecking her intimacy and big chunks of her life. I remember my adolecent highs. I had had several partners used no protection (illness and pregnancy) and lived for the next situation. There was nothing to worry me, I was immortal and those "things" would not happen to me... Each male between 16 and 55 were fodder for daydreams and unrealistic hopes... I lived near a cycling path and I would race for hours; looking and escaping. Another person who is so very lonely and depressed used the internet and self satisfication to hold on to the last threads of life... So ... where does the conscious needs and the chemical interactions find their limits? How do these limits hold or fade with depression? with manic episodes? Is it these limits or my own twisted thinking that has me afraid of males in general ... afraid that I will lose that fine line of acceptable behaviour? I am still driven, happily married, two kids, stress-filled life and all this weight... I am still driven. Sometimes it is the gentleness of a PERSON's hand movements while serving coffee... sometimes it is the wrinkles around the eye's while a person squints in the sun... sometimes it is the shape of a person's foot swinging on a bus-bench... (yes Person there are some women who push that drive). It is horrible sometimes. It is like the Yoga energy rush from the root chakra. I guess it is a part of all I hold so much in control that eventually drives me to exhaustion and a deep depression. My psychologist mentioned that I tend to implode my anger an hurts ... I guess I do this with the sexual energies as well. I have not spoken of this to my psy because it was only a feeling and I had no words to describe it ... so gang, what are your words...??