REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

THE HYPOMANIC PERSONALITY 55

digious creative work. It was a trade - off really: I tolerated her eccentricities

in order to keep her talent. That wasn ’ t always a popular decision, though.

I had to protect her politically when things got bad, and I certainly turned

a blind eye to inappropriate behavior often enough.

Hypomania in the workplace

The practical consequences of hypomania include career derailment, job
loss, estrangement from friends and family members, major fi nancial
problems, drug abuse, alcoholism, and even hospitalization and suicide
(or attempted suicide). These consequences are suffi ciently serious that
anybody associated with hypomanics needs to be on guard. Yet people
close to the victims of this syndrome tend to engage in a conspiracy of
silence, ignoring the symptoms (see Box 2.1 ) and denying that a problem
exists.

Box 2.1 The Warning Signs of Hypomanic Behavior

What are the major indicators of hypomanic behavior? How do we

recognize when something is wrong? The following questions help

to determine whether a person tends towards hypomania.

• Does the person have grandiose ideas, make unrealistic plans, and
  exercise poor judgment?


• Is the person overtalkative and given to seeking out others aggres-
  sively (to the point that those others feel intruded upon)?


• Does the person laugh inappropriately and make inappropriate
  jokes?


• Does the person verbalize feelings of excessive well - being?


• Does the person seem to possess an infl ated sense of
  self - esteem?


• Is the person unusually distractible, jumping from one subject to
  the next and exuding a physical restlessness?


• Is the person quickly irritated, tending to become extremely
  combative and argumentative when things do not go his or her
  way?


• Is the person overactive, trying to do too many things at once?


• Does the person appear to have unlimited energy and a markedly
  diminished need for sleep?


• Is the person sexually preoccupied and inclined to engage in
  sexual indiscretions?