Human Development
Mania
Description:
This state is a symptom of mental disturbance characteristically marked by distracted and agitated behaviour, hyperactivity, excitability and excessively elevated moods and cheerfulness. There may be senseless rambling and laughter, and often violence to the person himself or to those who attempt to interfere. In cyclothymia, or manic depression, the state is at one "pole" of the cycle of behaviour; but mania may occur without the balancing depression following. The term is often used as synonymous with an irresistible urge (kleptomania, pyromania); and also to describe a furor or frenzy.