mission mode

http://www.bipolarchild.com/newsletters/0210.html

Mission Mode

Sometimes “Mission Mode” can be a sign of impending mania, but not always; Sometimes there is more of an obsessional, anxiety component to it.....

Parents write to us often and mention that they are assailed all day long by their children’s intense need to buy something or to do something. The children seem to wake up, decide they have to go to the pet store and purchase a hamster or a puppy, ...... and no amount of reasoning or discussion can deter them from what parents describe as “Mission Mode.” 

Their sheer persistence is all-encompassing and they become very adept at blocking out any agenda but their own (which they are feeling very intently and very urgently). Parents, pummeled by this relentless pursuit of the child’s own need or his or her agenda, describe it thus:

  He launched into what I call his “Mission Mode,” an insatiable state during which every thought that pops into his head becomes an obsession that must be relentlessly pursued. It doesn’t matter if it’s a must-have or a must-do. It could be the urgent need to go out and buy the new cereal he just saw on TV, or the sudden inspiration to mow the lawn when the neighbors are still sleeping. It’s as if his orders came down from God on a bolt of lightning.
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