An acquaintance remarked that the Bay Area seems to attract bipolar people. Not sure how true this is statistically, but they're definitely around.
It seems to get passed around like the flu; there is a delay in effects. Suddenly a couple of people start exhibiting manic, irritatable, sometimes paranoid symptoms, and then soon enough as the manic people are crashing, some other people in social proximity start to go manic themselves.
People come out here for art, music, underground tech, radical politics. Where you have people trying to do exciting things, you usually have this condition, though the condition is certainly not limited geographically. Simply, there is more likely to be a preponderance of it.
The cycle often appears as so: one is crushed, so that to compensate one must do or make exciting things. One's ideation of what should happen is raised, increasing the chances of being disappointed again, and one is most likely crushed again, this time in a greater way. One develops greater ideas for compensation, and so the cycle continues, its peaks and troughs growing in height and intensity.
Sometimes the cycle produces wonderful things. Sometimes it just disrupts things. And then sometimes one has a psychotic break.
Well, if you're excited about something, you should keep doing your thing. It is what you live for. But don't forget to mellow out here and there.
