This is a comment by Miguel on the post “The Trouble with Monogamy and Mental Illness“.

Miguel said:

“Shawn, thanks so much for bringing this issue out to the forefront. It’s very important for people to know that when someone is experiencing a hypomanic or manic episode some of the primary things that generally happen are; your inhibitions become severely lowered, your judgement becomes extremely impaired and your sex drive dramatically increases. In some instances it’s like going on automatic pilot and the person may have very little to no control. I remember clearly when I first started getting episodes of hypo-mania in the mid late 90′s. When I would experience these mixed rushes of increased energy, hyper-sexuality and irritability I felt like I was turning into the wolf man or some other fictional character.

“Looking back I know now that I caused a lot of pain not only to myself but to my partner that I was with at the time. I certainly didn’t have any understanding as to what was happening to me let alone any control of it. I felt like I was being driven like a robot to reckless behaviors. It was a very awful experience as these urges would hit my mind out of the clear blue sky and I would keep going until I ran out of energy which sometimes wasn’t for extended periods of time.

“As a fellow Man of Color living with Mental Illness in America the path to acknowledgment, acceptance and understanding of having a mental illness for me has been that much more difficult due to our community’s historic disdain, stigmatization and dismissive attitudes towards people with Mental Illness. Thank God for those of us who are managing to find our way despite all of the obstacles that we face in coming to terms with our mental health challenges.

“People like yourself are helping to bring change to that by assisting us in becoming clear that we like anyone else can be affected by Mental Illness and that if we at all can (depending how ill we may be) have both the right and the responsibility to try and do something about it. Bless you Shawn for the work that you do. You inspire me. Keep Shinning. Much Love, Miguel!” 

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