with your bipolar do you act on impulse at time ?

Yes. I've made many mistakes from this. I believe the disorder has clouded my judgement at times. You react without thinking and later regret it. I don't like to use my condition as an excuse. But sometimes I just KNOW it's not really me. That sometimes the condition controls me. And it scares me. When I'm running that manic high I feel... invincible I guess. Like things won't hurt me and I'll keep doing stuff to keep the good mood going. I'll say mean things, do mean things, buy weird odd stuff, stay up all night working on some random project that HAS to be done. I'll crash and regret it later. Also the aggression... I react on impulse when I'm mad a lot and I feel really bad about it later. I've had some nasty fights with my boyfriend cuz of it. As for shopping impulse, I tend to obsess over something and can't rest till it's taken care of. I've bought lots of things I don't need either but was kind of obsessing over until I got it. For some reason there are moments where I just HAVE to have something. It can be maddening. I do feel bad for my family who have to put up with it.

Acting on impulse is one of the most difficult parts of being bipolar. The depression I can handle, I get my good ice cream, my stuffed animal I've had since childhood and curl up and cry until it passes. How can I get into any trouble when I'm holed up in my room? It's the mania that truly causes a problem. I've over drafted my account more than I can count, ran up all my credit card and took out a student loan just to spend on shopping. I've hurt my family and my friends and have made more than my fair share of mistakes when manic. Recently I've started taking fish oil supplements which have really seemed to help. I've posted a topic regarding this if you're interested, it might help you with mania as well.

I do the impulsive shopping thing too and now that I'm on medications thats about the extent of it. I used to be more excessive in my shopping sprees and regret it afterwards not finding any use in what I just bought (like clothes that didn't even fit me) but now its just buying 3 books instead of 1. I was soo impulsive before meds and it's something you should certainly consider because if your bipolar and its left untreated you can cross the lines of just impulsive and step into 'delusional' and the impulsiveness will lack reason. Like me, I almost ran off to California, with no job waiting for me, no home, I had kids and Its something that makes me shutter thinking back to now. The one thing I do wish the meds didn't affect is my overzealous exercising. The mood always struck me, and being bipolar its like being on a steady dose of adrenaline (i sympathize more with men in this condition) and I just couldn't sit still always had to be doing something and nobody ever noticed any difference because exercise is good. Now Im just mellowed out and exercise is effort, like normal people, lol

I am Bi-Polar and for use I was soo impulsive. I have gotten a control on it through meds and years of therapy, but at times it still likes to pop out its ugly head and cause trouble, but lucky for my I married a Psychologist and he is totally understanding of my situtation and he knows that I work daily on my mental disorder, I take my meds every day and I see my therapist once a month. So NO you are not not alone in this, and if people were real honest there are people out there that have no mental disorder that makes good jugement hard to do, and they are very impulsive. Happy MyLotting!!