Webinar episode 1

Webinar episode 2

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When someone is experiencing a manic or hypomanic episode, their sex drive is often heightened. This can cause them to behave in a sexualised way, and in ways they wouldn't during periods when they're well. 

During mania or hypomania, it's also common to feel extremely outgoing, to want to express love for everyone around and to take risks. This combination of symptoms means someone can become extremely vulnerable. 

Content warning

These webinars and podcast explore topics that may be upsetting, including rape and sexual assault. 
If you need to, please book a call with our support team

Webinar episode 1 

In this first webinar, Dr Clare Dolman explores the link between hypersexual behaviour and bipolar, the emotions it can trigger and its longer term consequences.

Clare is joined by Anne Chataigné, who's made a film about her experiences. 

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Webinar episode 2

In this second webinar, Clare hosts a panel discussion around some of the repercussions of hypersexual behaviour, and ways for women to begin to let go of any unresolved self-blame 

Funded by Hypatia Foundation as part of our women and bipolar series
In collaboration with East Kent Rape Crisis Centre and the National Centre for Mental Health

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Podcast

Séamus O’Hanlon, a Bipolar UK media volunteer who lives with bipolar, spoke to experts and people with lived experience on his podcast, ‘Hypersexuality Stories’.

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About the speakers

Dr Clare Dolman

Clare Dolman is a journalist and researcher whose PhD focused on women with bipolar disorder’s decision-making regarding pregnancy and childbirth. She is a Patient and Public Involvement Lead for the NIHR-funded ESMI project on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of perinatal mental health services, based part-time at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

Clare also lectures on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ training courses on service user perspectives. Clare, who has a diagnosis of bipolar, is a trustee of the MMHA: Maternal Mental Health Alliance and of the charity APP - Action on Postpartum Psychosis, as well as an ambassador for Bipolar UK.

Anne Chataigné

Anne Chataigné co-wrote the BFI Doc Society-funded short documentary film Trust Me, of which she is the protagonist. Blending animation and live-action recreations, she uses humour and compassion to reclaim the story of her bipolar diagnosis in her early 20s and uses the film to challenge everyday stigma and pave her journey towards self-acceptance. Anne has lived in London for the last 13 years. When she is not making documentaries with her friends, she works as an urbanist, adapting the UK to flood risk.

Professor Arianna Di Florio

Arianna Di Florio is a professor of psychiatry at Cardiff University and honorary consultant psychiatrist at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. She is currently leading the Reproductive Mental Health clinical research programme, which includes a second opinion clinic dedicated to reproductive mental health.

Arianna’s research focuses on severe psychiatric disorders in relation to reproductive life events, such as mensuration, perimenopause, and hormone therapy. Arianna’s research is currently recruiting through the National Centre for Mental Health.

Daisy Harvey

Daisy is a final year PhD student based at the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health at Lancaster University.  Her research uses computational linguistic methods to look at how risk-taking behaviours are talked about by people living with a diagnosis of bipolar, with a specific interest in hypersexuality. 

Zoe Bell 

As Director at East Kent Rape Crisis Centre, Zoe frequently speaks at international, national and regional conferences. She has worked for the charity for just over ten years, initially as a volunteer and then taking on a paid role. She is an accredited ISVA (independent sexual violence advisor), and managed the service before taking up her current role.  

Zoe is also a qualified trauma-informed integrative counsellor who specialises in working with survivors of sexual abuse. She has worked with many children and young people across her career, including with ‘looked after’ children. She also runs a small private practice. 

Séamus O’Hanlon

Séamus is a trainee reporter on a local newspaper and a Bipolar UK media volunteer. He was diagnosed with bipolar type 1 at the age of 15.

Séamus says, 'I have chosen to come out of my bipolar closet as I want to help myself and others. My public disclosure was a happy occasion, a culmination perhaps of the last half-decade spent struggling, surviving and also living with bipolar.

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Last updated: 7 May 2024