ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two interventions for people who experience life in extreme highs and lows and wish to develop a greater stability of emotion without turning to psychotropic medication. Commonly such people experience periods of time in which their thoughts are racing. This typically leads them to speak or act in an accelerated fashion, buying too much, calling too many people, cleaning too vigorously. They usually experience this phase as extremely uplifting and pleasurable. When this frenzy has exhausted itself, such people experience a descent into the depths of emotional experience, often becoming overwhelmed with feelings of hopelessness, or worthlessness, sometimes taking to their beds for days on end. The theoretical underpinning of the interventions presented here is the hypothesis that such cycles are addictive in nature: people become addicted to the highs or to the lows.
