Altered Sensory Phenomena Experienced in Bipolar Disorder
Sense | Hypomanic/Manic Episode | Depressive Episode |
---|---|---|
Smell | “I’m more sensitive. Things smell better and worse, everything is a bit more intense.” | “Everything becomes dull.” |
“You can smell everything, you’re alert, it’s like, magical.” | “Things smell less vibrant. There is a lack of depth to whatever it is I’m smelling.” | |
“I pay more attention to preferable smells, like flowers.” | “Definitely repressed. I really have to center in order to smell something.” | |
“A smell of a rose means more to me.” | “All smells are less strong.” | |
“I can smell things that other people can’t smell.” | ||
“I can smell things that make me feel sick. Food smells.” | ||
Taste | “Exaggerated, everything is more extreme. Spicy is spicier, sweet is sweeter.” | “Everything is bland.” |
“Things are more tasty, tastes are heightened. I taste more flavors in what I’m eating.” | “Things don’t taste at all in some cases.” | |
“Food tastes a lot better. I have gastrointestinal problems, but when I am high I eat more.” | “I only eat not to die, but I can’t taste anything.” | |
“Fruit tastes better, I’m more inclined to eat it.” | “Reduced experience of tastes. I don’t enjoy things as much as I normally would.” | |
“I will try more foods. I normally can’t stand mushrooms but I enjoy them when I’m high.” | “I don’t like anything. It all tastes rotten. Things just taste horrible.” | |
Vision | “Everything is clearer. I don’t need my glasses for reading.” | “When I’m depressed, things aren’t as bright, like there’s a shade. Bright blues are dull.” |
“I might have just been imagining it, but I see vertical white lines.” | “Sometimes I feel I don’t see anything. I don’t notice changes around me in my mind.” | |
“I feel like I can see auras or glows around people. I can see what they’re thinking when they’re saying something.” | “I use my glasses a lot more, as things are out of focus.” | |
“I see everything. You see things more with your head. Seeing with your third eye.” | ||
Touch | “My skin feels more sensitive and more alive. Touch feels more real, especially humans or plants.” | “It becomes nothing. If I’m feeling depressed I can’t feel a hand on my leg.” |
“Even my son tickling me is like someone stabbing me.” | “My body goes numb, I lose all sensation, it’s hard to discern things like temperature.” | |
“Much more sensitive, sensual, sexual. Things are much more powerful. Heightened degree of sensuality.” | “Like my skin is crawling.” | |
“When I feel high, it’s more a sense of being more sensitive to touch and your body feeling more connected to the universe.” | “I don’t want to be touched. Being touched feels almost repulsive and I recoil from it.” | |
“My sense of touch is the same but my interest in different textures is heightened.” | ||
“I’m much more tactile, I feel the need to touch things and have a tactile response, I especially notice it when shopping. I need to touch all the cushions.” | ||
“I’m a very kinesthetic person. I went into a lift with laser-etched surfaces, and it was the most wonderful thing.” | ||
Hearing | “Everything is louder, more crisp.” | “Minimal hearing. I don’t notice the things I do when I’m up.” |
“I zone in on something I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed, like someone eating. It becomes a point of focus instead of being in the background.” | “I’m deaf as a head post.” | |
“I guess that I hear things that other people struggle to hear or can’t hear, like a beeping or telephone.” | “I’m more aware of things, especially yelling, chewing, etc.” | |
“I have tinnitus, but not so much when I’m high. This means I hear more.” | “Unable to handle certain sounds, especially high-pitched, like a spoon against a bowl or the sound of people eating.” | |
“If listening to music, I can hear individual lines, not just the whole thing. Certain instruments stand out, my attention is caught.” | ||
Danger | “I don’t think that I’ll get hurt; climbing around rocks on a cliff face, I thought I could jump and not get hurt. My husband had to physically hold me back.” | “Everything is dangerous, everything is scary. My driving is different, I’m much more careful.” |
“Danger is something to be relished/chased. Should I list all the dangerous things I have done? I shouldn’t be alive. I perceive my ability to handle it is far greater.” | “I don’t care. I’m not afraid because I don’t care if I die.” | |
“I find I am more likely to take risks. I don’t believe bad things will happen to me.” | “I just don’t care about my personal safety.” | |
“At work when people don’t reply to e-mails, I worry I’ve done something wrong.” | “I perceive danger as good because it could kill me and maybe I would feel something for a second.” | |
“When I’m feeling high, I feel like people are watching. When I look into people’s eyes, they can feel quite ominous and frightening.” | ||
Intuition | “I can understand what they’re meaning even if they’re not saying it.” | “I tend to focus on other people, be more observant.” |
“I read into things that aren’t there. I pick the most outlandish explanation, and assume people are thinking negative things about me.” | “I’d misinterpret interpersonal changes.” | |
“I don’t really pay attention to people’s intentions.” | “I assume everyone thinks badly of me.” | |
“I find it hard to understand where people are coming from, what they’re saying and their motives.” | ||
Empathy | “Feel connected to everything and everyone. Feel like you can have deeper conversations and more intense connections.” | “I feel completely disconnected from everyone around me, as though they’re inside a bubble and I’m walking on the outside.” |
“Everybody is my best friend and I’m everyone’s best friend. I’m exceedingly gregarious.” | “I don’t connect with anyone because I’m so wound up in my issues.” | |
“I’m less empathic. I have had issues understanding how something would affect another person. I can become quite selfish.” | “I feel empathic towards people, but I don’t feel connected to my husband or son, etc.” | |
“I can understand what they’re meaning even if they’re not saying it. I can feel their aura or emotions just by being near them” | “I’m there for others, but they’re not there for me. I notice more.” | |
“I find it difficult when people don’t keep up. It irritates me.” | ||
“I feel like I’m just that great, I can understand everyone.” | ||
Prediction | “I feel very psychic. I feel like I can see the future.” | “Very clouded thinking. It felt like I was trapped in my own body, I couldn’t react instinctively like I could when high.” |
“I know I’ll get a car park.” | “It becomes unclear. I see what some of the alternatives are, but I can’t filter out the unlikely ones and find myself in a loop of what-ifs.” | |
“When I’m high and playing soccer, my reflexes are so much faster.” | “I probably overthink things, so I’m more aware of what could happen.” | |
“When playing sport, it was like everything was slowed down and I could see the way things would go.” | “More negative. I think bad things are going to happen to me.” | |
“I’m just more aware of my surroundings, looking a bit further, and I can see what’s going to happen quite easily.” | “Everything is futile.” | |
“I think and it happens.” | “I don’t care what is going to happen next.” | |
“It’s too quick. It occurs to you mentally—you can see it but you’re too fast to do anything about it.” | ||
Synesthesia | “Music. I see music as having colors or shapes.” | “I can taste words.” |
“See music in color, and everyday objects will get a personality.” |
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