Mania and disinhibition

Professor James Potash explains that people who are manic or hypomanic can be disinhibited - they have little inhibition or impulse control.

So certainly people with hypomania and mania are often what we refer to as disinhibited. That’s certainly one of the major features of the illness, and that’s one of the things that gets people into a lot of trouble. So it’s not unusual to have somebody in a work setting feel upset with their boss, and if they are hypomanic or manic they might start screaming at their boss, whereas under normal circumstances they’d inhibit that impulse and realize that it’s not a very healthy way to act. It’s also the case that people who are manic sometimes drink when they are manic, and that often compounds the problem because they get even more disinhibited because of course alcohol is another disinhibiting agent.