Welcome to Hypomanics.com

Dear Friends:

            Welcome to our website. Until now, there has never been a community, either in cyberspace or the real world, specifically for hypomanics. Until the publication of my book, The Hypomanic Edge, there had never been a book specifically about hypomania. Even though as individuals we are often big talkers, as a group we have been a silent minority. So, the time is ripe for us to come together.

            What are our goals? Well, as this group grows that answer will undoubtedly grow and change. Have you ever met a hypomanic who didn't have a great new idea? But put simply we need what every human being needs: to understand and love ourselves, to be understood and loved (or at least tolerated), and to have fellowship with people like ourselves.

            You can't entirely blame the world for misunderstanding us. We confuse everyone, most often ourselves. We can be creative, confident, and productive, and for that reason we are disproportionately represented among the overachievers of almost every field. Research shows that as a group, on average, we earn more, rise to positions of higher socio-economic status, and have more creative achievements. Are we geniuses? But we can also be impulsive, act without thinking, try the most improbable schemes, and fail in the most dramatic and silly ways. "What were you thinking?" is a question we hear a lot. Are we fools? And finally, we can be arrogant, impatient and irritable, which to many people spells:
a-s-s-h-o-l-e. Are we assholes? Well, we're all three--geniuses, fools and assholes--in different ways, at different times.

            What most people don't understand is that we were born like this. All of these traits are all different manifestations of our core biological make-up, which we could no more change than, say, our sexual orientation. But because almost no one on earth has ever heard the word hypomania (including most hypomanics), it's understandable that we are perceived in extreme and unstable ways, idealized one moment and devalued the next. Let's face it. We're extreme and unstable people, at least compared to the average Joe.

            I believe God put us on earth for a reason. But without resorting to theology, there is an evolutionary advantage to having a small proportion of the population with these genes. If everyone on earth were like us, life would be too crazy. (thank God, my wife is an understanding non-hypomanic, though even her patience has its limits). But without us, humankind would stagnate. Someone has the be the adventurer, the explorer, the inventor, the evangelist, the entrepreneur, the outlaw, the rebel, the conqueror, the con-man, the poet, the charismatic leader.

            One purpose of this website is to promote understanding. The better we understand ourselves, the more we can maximize our strengths and minimize, or at least modify our weaknesses ("just count to three before you talk!" is my wife's mantra). Another, is to better promote understanding by others. But finally, it is to tell each of you: You are not alone.

            How will this virtual community of hypomanics evolve? Well, that's unpredictable, of course--just like us.

                                                                       Yours,
                                                                       John D. Gartner, Ph.D.
                                                                       assistant professor of psychiatry
                                                                       Johns Hopkins Medical School

P.S. Special thanks to Laurence O. McKinney. On March 2nd, he asked me if there was an association for hypomanics. By March 7th, he had posted this website to start one. Isn't that just like a hypomanic?

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