manic episodes

At least once a day M has a manic episode that causes him to explode in anger.

I am trying to teach myself how to defuse these episodes. It starts by not allowing him to push buttons. Walking away or listening to an mp3 helps.

The theory being that if I don't feed the episode he can't explode. Started just letting him have things that he takes. Will deal with the consequences of his actions later. Far better to avoid the confrontation now then to have the stress of the extreme blow out now. He hates it when I do that, but it also seems to be helping with the problem. Once I am certain that he is past the blow out stage, then we deal with the consequences of taking things that don't belong to him.

M is a master at manipulating the environment to suit his emotional needs. Seems like if he wants a confrontation bad enough, there is no getting away from it. Once he has it, everything is fine.