Being strapped to an electrical fence and you are not in control of the switch is the only way I have some up with to explain what it is like to be manic.  At times I can feel this switch in my head.  Other times it is not so apparent this switch has occurred.  People tell me "stop and think before you get mad"  or "just pull yourself out of the depression."  My response is (when I am in my right mind) "try to stop your knee from jerking when the Dr. hits it with a mallet", is there a thought process?  Or even "try to stop labor with a thought process.  these are not possible because there is no thought process involved.  I am what you call a mixed episode rapid cycler.  Bipolar Mania and depression happen at fast and furious rates.  I can be depressed an manic at the same time.  Exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.  I have experienced mania sometimes for months (usually mixed with some depression) and have been known to cycle within minutes.  In a matter of minutes I have gone from rage, laughter (hyena like), curled up like a baby crying and extremely paranoid , to just start over again in minutes.  I can only share my experience with you as it happens with me.  I am not speaking for anyone else  but me. My thought process usually comes after I am out of a manic episode.  Over the years I have learned to tune into when I am getting manic so I have developed certain safety nets, however, there is nothing that actually stops the mania.  The safety nets are only visible when medication is working properly, which does not always happen.  I have been know to flip table through walls, throw coffee in someones face  (luke warm coffee not scalding thank God) and spend 4000 in a few hours.  These are some of the consequences of my mania.  Somehow over the last 20 years or so I have managed to keep myself out of jail but not institutions.  The coffee incident was actually in an institution.  By the way a psych ward is NOT the best place to find a husband!!  I DO NOT make toothbrush commitments today because I tend to roll over men with a steamroller and back it up just in case.  I stay out of relationships because I am afraid of what I will do to them, not what they will do to me.  My life today is manageable.  Ever since I can remember I have had an extremely violent temper.  My mother tells me when I was a toddler my doctor told her during one of my check ups - this child has a really bad temper, according to her he was doing nothing more than a routine visit.  At the age of thirteen I started to self medicate and since then it has been an extremely long bumpy road.