Intuition, the Paranormal, and Bipolar - Any Connection?

John McManamy Living With It Author and Advocate John McManamy is an award-winning mental health journalist and... Send Message Subscribe: John McManamy

Friday, August 14, 2009
View All of John McManamy's Posts

Last week, I opened up a can of worms only to find the elephant in the room. The topic was the connection between intuition and bipolar, which is sort of taboo outside our community. As Spirit Animal in a comment put it: "It's difficult to talk to doctors or therapists about it because you'r...

Hide Comments | Add comment

The Fine Line
monica22
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 11:31 PM

I have been asking fellow bipolar patients about the connection between the illness and intuition from the beginning of my diagnosis. I learned quickly not to query the docs or other staff members I came in contact with because the answer was usually, "That's all in your head."

I consider this topic to be my Achilles heel. As soon as I am certain of my abilities as an intuitive person, here comes the manic episode and out goes my credibility. I was reviewing some old posting I did (back in February) just last night. The question I posed to other readers: Hyperintuitive or psychotic...? or something of the sort. I was voluntarily hospitalized for a week after posting that lovely piece. By then I was hurtling toward paranoia and my infallible intuition was sorely off base.

My point is, if only I could live in the place between fully rational and not touch psychotic I'd be happy. There certainly is a fine line I must balance to stay healthy. What I find the most intriguing in your piece is you mention the connections us bipolars make and the ability to do so. I enjoy the mode I'm in when everything is "making too much sense" but it has its limits. Ninety-five percent of the time I can dial it back with a trip to the doctor and more sleep. It's the other five percent that scares me. Great topic, I hope more people weigh in.

re: The Fine Line
John McManamy
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 12:49 AM

Hi, Monica. Very glad you weighed in. There are lots of issues here, each with numerous angles. I think it's fair to say we've experienced heightened reality that our doctors have no understanding of. What they do see is the tragedy of us going off the edge. It's understandable that they want to reel us back in to their concept of normal, where we have more control. I believe with practice we can learn to extend our control so we can stay in states of heightened awareness, but it's a dangerous game. I hope more people weigh in. It's an important conversation that we need to have among ourselves.

Untitled Comment
tabby
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 09:18 AM

In the last 3 years I've had 3 tdocs mention to me "possible psychic" responses to very vague comments I've made. I have then asked "do you believe in the possibility that if someone says that they've heard a one-sided conversation in the next room with no one being there that it is possibly spirit and not psychotic?" all 3 of them said "yes, it's possible to have a experience and it not be exclusively psychotic."

It was explained, by all 3 of them separately during the times I met with them, that as long as I was aware that it was happening, that I knew no one was actually there doing it thus not fully believing a man was standing in my living room having a one sided conversation... then it wasn't exclusively psychotic. However, if I knew it was happening and yet believed truly that a man was standing there but that I just couldn't "see" him... we'd have a problem, they said.

I told them that if I related the same thing to the pdoc... he'd list it as psychotic and insist I take a anti-psychotic med (this did happen once or twice). They, in turn, all at differing points in time... nodded yes.

I've had psychotic experiences like believing the cars on the freeway were out to get me, or that a huge engorging spider was coming out of the wall to chomp on me, etc... or the male evil snickering voice inside my head that interactively speaks to me

when I'm highly symptomatic... I understand those are psychotic or psychotic disturbances.

Still.... I am very very leary and weary of discussing any of the shadowy figures that move in my house, disembodied voices in my house, or the cat that prances on my bed at night (when my actual cat is locked out of my room), the stiff tugs on the back of my head, or the whatever that cranks up my Amazing Grace music box in the wee hours... to anyone in the psychiatric community.

I am not psychic.. I just have unexplained stuff in my house that I'm okay with but I don't tell any pdocs AT ALL. I only tell tdocs I know well and know me really well.

yes, I know... I'm different... and a little nuts.

re: Untitled Comment
John McManamy
Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 11:00 AM

Hey, Tabby. I love your last comment: "I'm not psychic. I have unexplained stuff ..."

So rational, so reasoned. Weird stuff happens, but you're not jumping to conclusions. You're not saying you're psychic, and - unlike psychiatrists who are notorious for jumping to conclusions on this issue - you're not saying you're psychotic. I think you're speaking for a lot of us with this observation. Certainly you're speaking to my experiences.

I've had a bunch of weird stuff happen in my life, stuff I can't explain. I'm not going to dismiss the fact that once in a blue moon it's like I have a third eye or that a higher power is guiding me. But if I truly had reliable psychic powers or was tight with mysterious forces I would be a lot better off than I am now: winning lottery numbers, choosing romantic partners who are the right match for me, on and on.

I once picked up a pool cue and downed four balls in a row. I know I could never do that again, so I'm not about to call myself a pool player. Same with the paranormal. I'm not psychic just because I happen to experience the occasional fluke psychic event.

But I do know I'm highly intuitive and creative. Different kettle of fish to me. I can perform with great reliability in these dapartments at the drop of a hat.

I also know that my brain has a way of running away from me.

So, yes, I think psychic experiences are valid, but it doesn't mean the person experiencing them is psychic. Most of us are cool with that, but for some individuals "magical thinking" goes on.

Psychic and psychotic undoubtedly overlap, and our doctors see this happen every day. Nevertheless, there is a clear distinction, and psychiatrists need to be more careful in their assessments.

A lot of what some people define as psychic is simply highly intuitive. Again, there is overlap, but we need to be careful.

And, of course, that fine line between heightened reality and breakdown in reality. I think our best defense is brutally rational self-assessment at all times. It's great to trust our intuition, but our thinking functions are there for a reason.

psychic/psychotic
Elizabeth
Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 11:40 PM

  
O.K. I have had some really weird experiences in my life concerning the paranormal. I'd chosen to stop responding to this blog concerning the issue because frankly, some (but not most) of them frighten me. The paranormal is odd and blinky and usually unverifiable, and at least in this place and time, most everyone I know who has explored it has gotten way off-track as to what they should have been thinking about and doing, which is living in the here-and-now and dealing with the reality of their own lives. My philosophy is, yes, there are things I cannot explain. but so what? Sure, paranormal experiences confound our scientific viewpoint, but I really don't expect that viewpoint to explain everything. We—I mean scientists and society—are really just groping in a vast dark. So let the hauntings carry on: the vast majority are harmless. I’d far rather a ghost in my house than a robber. Enjoy the premonitions, but don’t think you’re some mastermind with a direct line to the divine if you have them.

But this evening, something happened that really freaked me out.

I have a friend who lives with her four-year-old granddaughter. Recently this friend has been mothering an abandoned newborn kitten. My friend has been very protective of the kitten and has chastised her granddaughter about being careful with it. I’ve been with this child with the kitten and really don’t see anything she does that could be damaging. So I said to my friend, I really wouldn’t worry. Babies, you know, bounce.

(Let me qualify what I just said. I’m not advocating playing basketball with a baby. I’m not saying anything any pediatrician already knows: babies are resilient, given good care. I’m not saying that we should do anything dangerous to babies, or indeed anyone.)

OK, now that I’ve said that and getting back to the matter at hand, I know that I was way out of hearing range of this child when I said babies bounce. I know, and my friend knows, that I was about 250 feet away, and speaking softly, specifically because I didn’t want the child to have any possibility of hearing. She was playing with her dollhouse in our visual range.

Yet later in the day, when I checked back in, my friend informed me that her granddaughter had said that “Elizabeth says that babies bounce.” My friend wasn’t accusing me of anything—she knew what had gone on.

What the f@ck?

intuition and bipolar
spirit animal
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 07:02 PM

Hi John,

I feel honored that you quoted me twice! But especially for believing me. You said it right when you said, "weird stuff happens" and it goes beyond rational thought process. For us 2+2 doesn't equal 4. Our brains throw in a ton of other information that the brain has no way of knowing but somehow we know it anyway. My wierdest was several of years ago. I have this friend from high school. We have a bad habit of loosing contact with each other for a few years. Well, several years ago I started having dreams that he was upset, sad, depressed, etc. These began in June and I had these dreams off and on all summer. In September, I had a really vivid, real feeling dream that he was devastated. 2 nights later I had the same dream. So, the next day I called to check on him. Here's the wierd part, his dad was diagnosed with cancer in June. His dad's funeral was 2 days prior, the night I had the really vived dream that he was devastated.

Science can't explain that. Your doctor or therapist will think you're crazy. You loose friends over it because they think you're nuts. But we who live with this know its very real and we know that we shouldn't know the things we know. Is this "gift" connected to mental illness? It's definately a subject I was very happy to see. I know I'm not alone anymore. Thanks for opening up a forum on this subject, it was needed.

meta physical relations
dark angel
Friday, August 21, 2009 at 02:57 PM

i have had many of these experiences. sometimes when i am so bogged down with manicdepression, i get outside myself. it is sort of a defense mechanism. it is how i see sometimes and the only way sometimes. that is how i learned so much about the world. i can see the world as like i am watching myself living it. i am like a guardian angel---to my self!--ha ha. i see these things and they help me. now i know how to live and succede in life. thanks,

respectfully,

dark angel

Hi, Everyone
John McManamy
Friday, August 21, 2009 at 07:58 PM

I'm in LA at a conference. No time to respond individually, but I'm very grateful for your responses. The best way to arrive at an understanding on this is to talk and listen. I think I'm seeing a consensus that we are not crazy just because stuff happens to us. But care needs to be taken into how we react to the stuff. When do we trust our intuition? When is it wise not to take some of this stuff too seriously? We learn from experience, ruthless self-inquiry, and talking and listening. Keep add to the conversation ...

re: Hi, Everyone
mejeba
Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 04:33 AM

I've had many intuitive and psychic experiences over the years. Naturally, I didn't connect them to having Bipolar- I'd never even heard of the thing, although i was vaguely aware of Manic Depression. Now I can see many events in my life that mark the illness, but that isn't to say that my intuitive and psychic experiences were the product of delusional thinking. Well, maybe some of them were...

I agree about the overlapping of heightened perceptions and delusions, and also the fine line that can shift ever-so-subtlely into a symptom of the illness. I'm not so sure of myself now. I think that people with MI may be inherently more perceptive, as our sense of reality is more plastic- less rigid and confined by logic.

But the health care pros are most likely to blow us off if we dare to talk of these things, and that can be harmful too. I hate that look of patronizing scepticism on my tdoc's face and it makes me want to smack her. ok, I know I have skills to work on there about not being taken seriously etc....

Living with spirits
wgm
Sunday, November 08, 2009 at 02:25 PM

My son, who is bipolar, has seen things his whole life. He is now 17, and currently feels he is under attack by some sort of negative entity. He told me scratches appeared on his forearm as he was playing x-box, and that they burned. I have always wondered what people were labeled 200 years ago that were bipolar. I would imagine the native americans making an individual a shaman or medicine doctor if they had this illness. I think some cultures revered the people who could see the spirit world. Now we try and lock them up because we fear them, or we don't understand what it is they're seeing. My wife, and my son are both what we label as bipolar, I have lived with them for 20 years, sometimes its hard, but for the most part, they're like everyone else.