Flight of ideas is a symptom that involves rapid, erratic speech that switches quickly between thoughts and ideas. People who experience this symptom talk rapidly and jump from one topic to the next.1
While bipolar disorder is generally considered a mood disorder, symptoms can also include disorders of thought—particularly during manic episodes. People in a manic state may have difficulty filtering out meaningful versus non-meaningful input and may thus respond to their environment in surprising ways.
When this happens, ordinary sensory input, such as the sound of traffic or blinking lights, may become severely distracting. As a result, people experiencing mania focus attention on nonessential information.
During manic episodes, it is not unusual for bipolar people to experience “racing thoughts” and “flight of ideas.”2 These two associated symptoms involve extremely rapid thought processes that sometimes leap from topic to topic at incredible speed.
Racing thoughts and flight of ideas are also common symptoms of schizophrenia and some cases of ADHD.2
Causes of Flight of Ideas
Flight of ideas is not a condition. Instead, it is a symptom of bipolar mania. Mania is a period of excessively elevated mood that causes extreme shifts in mood as well as significant increases in behavior and energy levels. It is a hallmark symptom of bipolar disorder.3
Other factors that can play a role in flight of ideas include:
- Psychosis, which can occur with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease
- Schizophrenia
- Substances such as marijuana, which can cause psychosis and worsen the course of schizophrenia4
Other Types of Thought Disorders
In addition to flight of ideas, other types of thought disorders can occur in bipolar disorder and other conditions. Some of these include:
- Tangential thinking: This involves having connected thoughts but straying far from the original topic and never coming back to the original idea or point.
- Racing thoughts: Such thoughts occur rapidly, feel uncontrollable, and are highly distracting. This symptom can occur with bipolar disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Thought blocking: This symptom involves a sudden halt in speech because a person forgets what they were talking about as if the idea has been blocked or removed from their mind.
- Loose thinking: This type of thinking involves having thoughts that are not connected and do not follow a logical train of thought.
- Circumstantial thinking: In this type of thought disorder, people will follow a series of connected ideas, straying far from the original topic before eventually returning to the original idea.
Treatment
There is no specific treatment for flight of ideas, but treating the underlying condition can help with this symptom. The treatment that may help depends on the condition that an individual has been diagnosed with.
Racing thoughts and flights of ideas may be relatively mild or quite severe. When the symptoms are mild, it may be possible to use simple calming techniques such as:
- Meditation: Meditation is a proven technique for self-calming
- Deep breathing exercises: The physical act of deep breathing can often calm both mind and body
- Guided visualization: Tapes are available to help refocus racing thoughts to calmer thoughts
- Distraction: Watching television or otherwise distracting one’s mind from the racing thoughts
- Adequate sleep: There is an important connection between sleep and mental health
- Stress management: Reducing stress and using coping strategies may be helpful
- Understanding triggers: Recognizing triggers can help people avoid them or manage them more effectively
When symptoms are very severe, however, the person experiencing the racing thoughts and flights of ideas will not be able to stop and focus on such exercises.5 In such cases, it is a good idea to consult a doctor who may be able to provide medication to lower anxiety and/or help manage a manic episode.
Treatments for mania or psychosis may involve:
- Medications include mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, or sleep medications
- Psychotherapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and group therapy
- Electroconvulsive therapy
- Support groups