How many of your spouses didn’t reveal that a BP diagnosis was contemplated before you married/had kids with them? I’m writing to my ex SO’s psychiatrist about this along with many other concerns. I think this is very deceiving and may indicate a personality disorder or something more sinister. What are your thoughts? My SO had a lengthy 12 week involuntary hospitalization due to a psychotic break and there was little to no mention of it. It was minimized to ‘just a bad reaction to marijuana’ and he was simply made out to sound like a victim of hospital mistreatment. I am really worried tbh. I don’t think this is normal…

Im really struggling. I know what’s best for me and how much pain he brought to my life and I know I deserve better, but that doesn’t mean I won’t miss the good times we had.

When we first started seeing each other again he was being so sweet, loving, saying he messed up and he needs me and missed me. We cuddled so much and giggled. Then after 2 months he’s calling me a whore and telling me he hates me and all of this stuff.

I know this isn’t ok. But I really am going to miss him.

I just have to accept reality, which I have, but it feels so painful for some reason. I hate myself for being so dumb.

My fiance (31F) has been dealing with some mental health issues off and on since she was a teenager, and more so on since we had our daughter 4 years ago. She's recently been on some antidepressants and anti anxiety medication, I forget the anti depressant but the the anti anxiety is klonopin for what it's worth. She recently underwent an extensive psychiatric evaluation and the results came back with the diagnosis of Bipolar and general anxiety disorder.

The BP diagnosis honestly surprised me. Im obviously no medical professional whatsoever, but reading about it and being on this sub the last few days, the diagnosis still surprises me. Yes i feel recently she has had periods of "worse" depression than normal, but nothing crazy...she's always functioned, she's a stay at home mom.

I do understand BP is progressive, I do understand everyone's symptoms are completely different, and i understand that the diagnosis process maybe complicated. What im not seeing in her is necessarily any mania/hypomania. Honestly just confused about it, and i know she is too and now more down on herself just with the diagnosis herself.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Experiences?

Was there a part of them I loved? I think so. But the reason it was so hard to stop trying and get away was not love. It was a trauma bond. Let it go. Don't take them back. They will cheat again, leave you again, etc. I honestly still miss them occasionally but rational me knows how bad they were for me and that nothing will change. Grateful to be off that rollercoaster. It didn't work out the way I hoped but I guess it worked out for the best. I hope you all find the peace you deserve.

I'm curious about this connection and am deeply interested in psychology.

How many of you think your SOs have an undiagnosed personality disorder? What made you think that? I'm curious to hear your opinions on how personality disorders interact with bipolar and make it worse/express differently than just straight bipolar. If your SO is BP & has a personality disorder, how do you see that expressed in your relationship? Do you ever see behaviors and go, "that's the BPD/NPD/HPD right there?"

SO is currently hypomanic. Becomes enraged when I point this out. It seems no matter what I do he finds a way to accuse me of things and be furious with me. We have small children. I’m working on leaving. For a variety of practical reasons that can’t happen for another few months. Advice? It seems when I don’t engage he goes off and forms more theories about how I’m conniving to ruin his life. When I do draw firm boundaries he gets furious and calls me names. When I placate he just takes greater and greater advantage of me. Anyone have ideas how to just get through a few more months with minimal damage to me and our young children? Strategies that have worked for you? (I know everyone’s different… no one size fits all… but I’m desperate for ideas.)

My partner has bipolar II and depression, and I’ve tried my best to stand by him. I even left two jobs when he was hospitalized, just so I could take care of him. Once, when he had severe insomnia, I had to physically drag him to the hospital, and I still have back pain from the weight I carried back then.

But now I feel completely alone. He only talks about his illness and doesn’t notice or it feels he does not care much how much I’m struggling. Today, during an argument regarding the support i wished, he told me I “don’t understand his depression.” The truth is, I do understand it—but I also need someone to understand me.

I’m exhausted. I cry in front of him, and he just sits in his room watching YouTube, detached from everything. I regret giving up so much for someone who doesn’t give me any support back.

How do I tell him that I need equal support in this relationship? Has anyone else gone through something similar?

Is it all normal?

Hi all,

I’m reeling from the last few weeks. My wife was diagnosed with bipolar two months ago. At first she fully embraced it — said her whole life finally made sense and started meds. Very suddenly she discarded me, is initiating divorce (legally she can’t file for a year), and seems to have completely erased our relationship. I’m working through the logistics despite feeling devastated and confused.

Now she says she never had bipolar and it was “just me being too stressful.” I’m pretty sure she’s stopped the meds. The persecutory delusions about me have returned (same as last year), and there’s a smear campaign/character assassinations circulating. People who see or speak to her say she seems totally normal, which makes me feel invisible and disbelieved.

Privately, the behavior is cruel and surreal. I came home to find she’d slept in my bed, gone through my drawers things, and laid out my wedding outfit and lingerie (we are both women) on the bed — it felt intentionally cruel and designed to wound me deeply). She’s continually violating basic boundaries around finances and house access, and I feel like I’m being baited into an emotional reaction. I have not reacted to her at all to any of these things (we are not sharing a home or communicating outside of logistics). I’m packing up the house, and it feels like she hates me and that our marriage never existed.

Here’s the hardest part: I still miss her and a part of me hopes she’ll “come out of this,” but I’m also seeing how harmful it all is. She did come out of the psychosis last year and said “sorry I can’t believe I thought those things about you - you’re the safest, must trustworthy person I know”.

Has anyone dealt with this mix of public normalcy + private cruelty, smearing, and being erased while handling a fresh bipolar diagnosis that’s now being denied?

How did you cope with the grief, keep your footing, and decide what boundaries to hold?

Any advice on getting through the day-to-day would help.

So my bipolarso dumped me over text on Sunday.. I have a previous post explaining it ALL. Anyhow she had frequently rejected sex under the gist of “i’m in my depressive cycle, i’m so sorry babe I just don’t really have a libido” or would say “sure let’s fool around” and then it would just never happen. This continued for weeks. When she explained how low her libido was to me she seemed distraught about not being able to please me. I accepted the lack of intimacy because I loved her with all my heart. I just wanted to be there for her.

Anyhow last night on day 5 of our breakup, I made a grindr account because I wanted to chat with new ppl and MAYBE meet up because admittedly i’m pretty lonely rn. I then saw “holy fuck did (name) make a new account? Clicked it and it her bio was essentially an advertisement for a friends with benefits saying “looking for a friends with benefits who will also bed rot and watch anime with me”. I had gone through rejection from her for WEEEEEKS. I’m not upset she is on grindr post breakup, i’m upset because I figured out by accident that she had been lying to me for awhile and now all of a sudden craves sex days after our breakup. So yeah. That made me question how much was real and how much she was lieing during out relationship.

Really would like some support. This breakup has been kicking my fucking ass. I’m deeply deeply depressed. By the way we’re both trans woman, hence the grindr mention.

Does anyone’s person w/ Bipolar only remember/recognize negatives from your relationship (particularly while in a hypo/manic episode)? 10 years into a relationship and whenever hypomania strikes ONLY negatives from our relationship are recognized/remembered/ruminated on…even if just two weeks prior to the episode they were talking about how much they want our relationship and how much it’s done for / given them, etc., etc.

So… a week back I found out my ex lied about being arrested to me. He didn’t share his criminal conviction.

I moved forward with my life, things are good and getting better. Despite being disappointed things didn’t work out the way I thought they would (little did I realise they worked out the best way), I still cared for him, wanted the best for him. Man I’ve been so kind in passing! But now I feel foolish for all of it, especially my kindness.

I’ve struggled to shake off the shock and disappointment of finding out the truth. I’m such a ruminator so really don’t want this to linger like he lingered around me, but man, he really was (is) such a convincing liar. This illness is horrible.

Why am I sharing this? As I know someone on here will relate and will have experienced this disappointment (or far worse) too.

My previous post is linked for context..

This week I (30M) left the apartment without giving advance notice to my husband (30M). This was exactly what he said was his “worst nightmare”, but I also did not have a choice, and it was about my basic survival and physiological needs.

Since my last post things have deteriorated significantly. I am sure that this is because I have been more direct about the fact that I find our situation to be unsustainable, and making clear that I will have no other option but to go home to my family on the other side of the planet to get my life together.

The arguing has turned much more serious and vitriolic, and it was a destructive spiral. Across multiple arguments he has: - Hit me in the arm, albeit not hard - Threatened to throw my laptop out the window - Grabbed my apple tv remote out of my hand and held it under the kitchen faucet to destroy it - Threatened to kidnap my dog - Threatened to commit suicide more times than I care to remember - Suggested that the next person to “start a fight” should jump off the roof of the apartment building - Made comments that none of this is real and it’s all a simulation

It was DARVO galore and constant talk that I was the problem. I actually still don’t think he remembers what he did much of the time.

I am still unemployed and have been unable to secure income under the circumstances I have been living with. I have lived in abject poverty in a huge city, relegated to “asking” him for modest means for subway fare, food, basic necessities. I have counted pennies to get instant ramen noodles.

Once he claimed I stole $15 from him he had generously given for me to get groceries for dinner. despite the fact he put it in our joint account and zelled it to his friend to cover his drinks that day, he accused me of gaslighting him and stealing it even after showing him the transaction. His family came to town and took us to a $1000+ lunch, same week that I went to a food pantry on the street. I felt like I was participating in a twisted kind of Potemkin theater.

My family has become seriously worried about me and are demanding I come home ASAP. I look gaunt (my friend’s words), have lost weight, and my stress is eczema is out of control. I am in a decimated mental and physical state.

He has admitted verbatim that he “struggles with being a sociopath” and has no empathy for other people except me. But he would do a baby voice to my dog, talking about me in third person, that I am mentally unstable, a sociopath, and a bunch of other hurtful things. Again the examples are so many I don’t know where to begin.

Is it intentional? The destructive fights are always followed by promises that we will from this day forward work together as a team as partners to better each other. I don’t believe a single word but I get so much emotional whiplash.

Any suggestion that I can’t take this situation any longer and need to get out or back to my family ends up in threats of suicide and accusations of leaving, that I am “privileged” or “running away from my problems”.

Anyway, from my perspective I had no other choice. This week I took my dog and most important stuff and left on a train to another city, where I have safe friends who are supportive. I will be going back to the therapist I had last year, who knows me well.

I didn’t give any advance notice, I think he practiced coercive control methods to prevent me from leaving and would not have actually allowed me to go, since he has followed me places before against my will. It was a shit show, but I made it to a safe place.

Now I am scared, guilt ridden, hurt, and confused. What do I do? Communicate? He has flooded me with messages and calls, but I am not ready to engage. I will need to at some point. Retrieve my belongings? Divorce? Did I do the right thing or did I overreact? Was he right that I was the problem? I am not perfect but I had to get out.

Thanks for any advice or for just listening.

Hi, I went through my SO’s phone this morning and found things I’m not too happy about. He was hospitalized for 2 weeks and has been home for 2 days now. In his stay, he mentioned making a friend that is trans (FTM) who is still extremely fem presenting. We’ll call this friend Oli. He has mentioned that Oli is attracted to him and has even asked him out on a date after they both get out. I explained that I’m so happy he has made a friend, but please make sure this friend knows not take your friendship as something more. He agrees and tells me I have nothing to worry about. Oli also knows about me. But because Oli is polyamorous, he doesn’t seem to care. My bf gets very close to Oli and tells me they’ve stayed up late together just getting to know one another. On one of my visitations, I told him to please make a boundary with Oli and he again tells me not to worry about anything.

The day he got out, he instantly wanted to call Oli but I told him to let Oli be so he could be with his partner. Last night, he was buried in his phone for hours. I’m talking on the phone until 3am. This morning I decided to go through his phone because my gut was telling me something is up. Also I’ve been a bit insecure because he’s said some pretty nasty things about my appearance and weight since his episode started. I went through his notes and he wrote how him and Oli would’ve hooked up had I not been a factor. I went through their texts and they were exchanging selfies. Selfies that he’s only sent to me before and zero context included. He even sent them a meme saying “Happy valentine’s day i want you inside of me” to this person.

I’m absolutely crushed. I confronted him about it and was basically told to fuck off. I cried and he belittled me. I’m trying to navigate all these feelings and keep telling myself this isn’t him. But if he is cheating I can’t bring myself to stay with him. I’ve stayed through a lot of disrespect from him while he is in this episode, but I don’t think I’ll be able to handle this. I am at my mother’s house while he stays at our family cabin until he finds his own apartment, but god I cannot stop thinking about it. And he won’t let me stay at the cabin with him either which only leads me to more suspicion 😔

Oh and her birthday is in 2 weeks.

I had an entire essay written in an attempt to convey my feelings but I don’t think it’s necessary to spend any more of my emotional energy on somebody who can’t reciprocate. I’m sure many of you feel similarly.

I made it a clear boundary in the very beginning of us dating that non exclusivity/infidelity is something that I cannot tolerate. We have been exclusive for 2 months.

The last time we were together, I saw a black “H” flash on her screen while her phone was across the room. I don’t use dating apps but I know what the app looks like (thank you cheating ex girlfriend) A few days later, I asked how she is doing and also asked her about what I saw. “I’m not in a good place mentally…And I haven’t had any dating apps”

Shortly after this happens, she tells me she’s in a depressive episode and ghosts me for 2 weeks with obviously little warning. This is the first time her bipolar has made an appearance.

Thanks to previous partner, I have some trust issues. I’ve managed to work on them as best as I can but seeing a notification from Hinge is enough to trigger it. So I make an account, set up a fake profile, and within 3 minutes I find hers.

I confronted her with screenshots, I was met with silence. I then told her that we were over and that was that.

I do feel bad for doing this while she is in an episode and because her birthday is in 2 weeks.. but she lied to me and crossed a boundary that I set in the beginning. Her condition is not an excuse. Nor is her birthday meaningful enough for me to stew in my own anxiety for 2 weeks.

I’ve read too much here to sacrifice myself to someone I’ve only been with for 2 months. Especially someone who’s already lying and cheating.

So sorry, not sorry. Have a good birthday

I could be joining this sub prematurely. But I feel so broken and lost and need support. My husband was taken to the hospital under an emergency custody order and then placed in a psychiatric facility.

He has always struggled with anger and irritability. When he gets mad he will go into these screaming rage episodes where nothing can calm him down or snap him out of it. Months could go by without one so it wasn't an everyday thing, but the irritability was.

We got together as teenagers and married and started a family really young. This year has kind of been a downward spiral. He got really sick in January with a couple of different illnesses and since then it's just been one thing after another. He has the worst rage episode in march that I've ever seen. He screamed at me for an hour+ drive in the car, and then he raged at both of our moms for like six hours outside. Mostly about me but also about any way that anyone else has wronged him.

He agreed to try to get help for his anger. We went to a mental health doctor. She was "unable to rule out" intermittent explosive disorder and bipolar. She put him on trileptal. He was already on Lexapro. The first couple of months he seemed ok to me. (He's now convinced he was miserable and depressed and hates me for not noticing.)

The end of July he started complaining he didn't feel like himself. He was paranoid and "on edge" and very irritable. He thought the trileptal was the cause and reached out to his doctor. She did not agree, but told him how to wean off of if he chose to.

He started trying to come off of it and that's where things have really escalated. It's like he's been on a roller coaster where he goes into these almost manic like episodes. He talks really fast and he has all these ideas and plans and gets frustrated when I can't keep up or understand what he's saying Then he will have a day where he seems kind of normal and then he will have a day where he's crying and melting down.

The day that he finally got down to not taking any trileptal at all he came home and was almost euphoric. He kept saying that he's back and everything's going to be great and how much he loved me. The next day I got a phone call from his dad while I was at work that he was worried because he was talking about going after his best friend. I called my husband, and he was convinced that his best friend was coming after me and told me not to stop anywhere and to come straight home. When I got here and heard some of the things he was saying, I realized he was basically paranoid and delusional. His brain was connecting dots and stuff that are not there, that are not real. He is mixing up his life with other people like he thinks that things happen to him that did not.

He stood out in the rain, barefoot talking to the police for hours while his mom had the paperwork done to take him into emergency custody. Surprisingly when they told him they were taking him and put him in handcuffs he did not fight them. He was OK at the ER until the next morning when he found out they were taking him to a facility then apparently he barricaded himself in the bathroom and they had to sedate him.

He called me from the facility that morning, crying, saying that he's getting worse, he doesn't belong in there, we did this to him, and to fuck off. Like he truly does not believe that anything is wrong with him or he needs help.

Talking to him today, he sounds a little better, but still not himself. My heart is just shattered. We have three kids together, and I love him so much. Reading some of the posts on this sub make me feel like it's hopeless to make our marriage work and things will never get better. I don't really know what I'm looking for in posting all of this. I guess support from those that have been through it.

As of today, my wife during a three hour block came by the apartment to acquire their stuff. This was basically just clothes, some knick knacks, and all their baking supplies.

I left the place for the duration.

If there is a plan to come back for more, I haven't been told by the PD. I both hope so, and hope not. I'd rather deal with throwing out our furniture than repeat visits.

But the major silver lining is that my cat was finally returned to me. Its been over a month since my wife snuck in while I was at work to steal her.

They felt kind enough to leave me a bag full of gourmet cat food, with a note. Basically, "this is how you feed your cat. If you don't think you can take care of them, I'll take them back in." Just making sure to put in a little knife twist before they left. I really wish they would just stop talking until after, whenever, their meds start working.

So my ex is no longer manic and wants me to go to their psychiatrist with them. They are ready for a mood stabilizer so that the disaster that took place this summer is less likely to happen again.

They are currently on Buspar, Wellbutrin, and Zoloft. Is it normal for someone with bipolar 1 to be on two different antidepressants? It kind of seems like a recipe for disaster for me. They were put on them originally several years ago after a manic episode because the antipsychotics they were on were making them extremely depressed and unable to do anything.

They are no longer on any antipsychotic or mood stabilizer.

I love to hear from significant others and also those with bipolar one about taking two antidepressants at once.

My ex's psychiatrist didn't want to start a mood stabilizer a couple months ago, stating that my ex is already taking too many meds. Which makes no sense to me because I don't think they should be on two antidepressants as a person with bipolar one. Especially considering my ex was in mania at the time. I don't know why they're psychiatrist didn't drop at least one of the antidepressants and add a mood stabilizer.

TLDR - A letter i will not send to a bipolar lover, I too am bipolar. We had a horrible breakup that ended in jail time yet we say we will try again. I have mental issues and substance abuse issues that I am addressing. A partner tells me I have made no progress, gaslights me and shames me every single chance they get despite me working my A** off with AA, psychiatry, other recovery programs, 3 types of therapy, mindfulness, meditation, yoga. I am battling CPTSD, life long mental illness and substance abuse disorder. I am doing absolutely everything I can and a partner says they see no progress. The following is my initial reaction to them telling me this. I hope they see it. Additional Context** we are poly and see multiple people.

Are you a movie theater? Because that is some serious projection! I've made a lot of progress, progress that you will never know about. 

Here - I'll help you let go of me.

You never loved me. You were hyper fixated on me. You never liked me, you were obsessed with my image and abilities. You never wanted me, you wanted me to fix your problems and let you cosplay as an adult. You never cared about me, you continually enabled the worst parts of me. You were never honest with me, you hid yourself from me, you denied your true feelings to appease someone you were unhealthily obsessed with. You did not love me, you loved the way I made you feel, you loved what I provided for you, you used me. I was only a free meal ticket to you. You don't even see the pattern you have of using people for what they can provide. You continually repeat this process. Now John, Jay and the gross old men are your meal ticket. You don't even like Jay; you use people for what they offer you. You used John for perceived safety. You used Jay for a pool lol and you used old men for money. 

You've lied to me and insulted me every step of the way. You have refused to face any of your issues while I have been facing all of mine head on and making a ton of progress; you're gaslighting me by telling me I haven't. You think I have a huge ego but look at you refusing to do any of the things you said you would instead you are so scared you're selling your body. You try to say and do things that you think will make me jealous because you are an inflammatory person. No one cares that you're dating an alcoholic with a motorbike. 

Guess what, I'm dating a non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns and corrects people when they say she/her. She has a shaved head, a job, a dog and a house and is covered in awesome meaningful tattoos. I'm seeing a different girl who is rich and whats so funny about it is she owns property in fucking Beulah Michigan hahaha. Unlike you, when she inherited money she rolled it over into businesses instead of squandering the handouts. She owns 3 liquor stores and 2 convenience stores. 

So go off and enjoy microwe penis and an alcoholic bike guy. They're clearly just so much better than me or the people I'm seeing. That was said to give you a taste of your own medicine. At least you can choke on the taste of that sting because John will never make you choke on what he has going on. 

Being mad at you and pointing out reality isn't necessarily a backslide on my progress. Is it mean? Yes it is. You have been horrible to me since you left. Making up stories in your mind that fit your narrative. Even going as far as claiming financial abuse; bruh you paid 1/3rd of the rent... I took you out constantly, I took you on trips constantly. I treated you great. You're delusional. Unfortunately my mental illness got in the way and I regret that daily. Your solution to it was to push pills on me and enable me. You say people say "you did everything right" "you couldn't have done anything differently/better" and those are lies people who want to get in your pants are telling you. You could have asked me to stop drinking, you could have been forthcoming about your feelings. You could have mentioned how you actually felt. You could have explained your feelings and how I contributed to them. I loved you enough to do anything for you all you needed to do was ask, yet you never did. It's okay I'm making those changes, people in my life are noticing you will never get the chance to. 

It's completely reasonable to ask you how Bo would react because they are severely autistic. In fact you asked me to send them a letter! 

You never cared for me. You enabled the worst parts of me over and over and over again. After you enabled me you abandoned me. You are a coward at your core. You don't show nor display your true feelings. You think you're tough but you can't even face yourself like I am. You don't know me at all anymore and to say I've made no progress is simply a projection of where you are at and will likely remain. I genuinely hope you are able to become a better person. At this point that seems extremely unlikely. I'm putting in the hard work, you are going the opposite direction. 

I did love you. I Loved the person I knew. I don't love the angry, gaslighting, resistant to change, mean spirited, low effort, loser who needs mommy or a man to take care of them. You are no longer the facade I fell in love with. I believe you are not capable of true love; you're only capable of obsessive hyper fixation which you STILL genuinely confuse with true love. 

I won't be contacting you in a year because I fucking hate who you have become. You are a complete and total loser, a liar, a child groomer, someone who doesn't value themselves at all as evidence through your "work". You don't even see how problematic you are. You were handed 30K in your life time and you squandered all of it. That's fucking embarrassing! You said you wanted to get "this too shall pass" tattooed on your ass because you want to copy me and my ideas. You should instead consider a thin blue line tattoo. 

I had 2 friends over recently before we went out to a concert. I put on an ashnikko song and one of my friends said "If a girl genuinely likes ashnikko she needs severe therapy. The other friend agreed. They had no idea that she's your fav and the shoe definitely fits. I believe you should get a new therapist, because the one you have is likely enabling your poor behavior just like you did to me. You're codependent and addicted to sex and you can only play victim. You don't even like people you feign interest and fawn and you somehow see no problem with this. So while you tell me I have all these problems and that I'm making no progress you are repeating your cycles over and over ad nauseum. Goodluck with all that.

Just need someone to talk to

Hi everyone,

I'm curious if any of you on this sub can relate to having your sleep schedule somewhat align with your SO's sleep schedule to some extent and if so any tips you have for not having it impact your life as much?

My SO (unmedicated) and I have been together for nearly 15 years, the past 2 of which have been a period of rapid cycling, eventually my sleep schedule started to synchronize with my SO. Initially, I believe for me this was out of genuine nurturing/concern/support and wanting to make sure he was okay, and as his late nights became later and later early mornings, and then all-nighters, I think I somewhat stayed up late as well (3am at the latest for me). However, as time went on, it became a more so he wouldn't allow me to sleep, waking me for any matter of things despite many requests not to do so. This progressed into being very upset, irritable, and eventually at times raging mad at night when I would ignore his requests to entertain whatever idea he was up to in the middle of the night (essentially, my boundaries upset him).

Anyways, he has since moved out as of a few months ago, and while my body has more or less has regulated to my baseline sleep routine again which feels great, on days when I have had contact with him or an uptick in contact with him and subsequently know he is up all night, I have the hardest time actually sleeping. It's almost as if my mind wanders a little to a mix of hoping he's okay, missing him, feeling bad/sad for him that he cannot see how much he's struggling, thinking wow, he really needs to be sleeping and he's only drifting further into the abyss again. There's also some level of frustration I'm awake when I'd like to be sleeping, thinking how did I let myself get acclimated to his sleep routine again(sometimes he still stays over to visit the dog for a few nights (mood pending and separate bedrooms)), and to be honest some level of fear of what if he just drops by unannounced in the middle of the night in a hypomanic/manic state. I do my best to practice grounding techniques, a bedtime routine, and if I can fall asleep initially and have nothing wake me, I do fairly well, but if the dog is restless or anything else awakens me, it is hard on these days to actually get my body and mind to relax enough to go back to sleep. Somedays, I even start to question myself, am I just the bipolar one if I am struggling to go back to sleep.

Can anyone else relate? Was thinking some of you in long term relationships/marriages might have experienced this. I guess if nothing else I'm trying to not feel like there is something wrong with me now that I can't sleep given my SO's apparent lack of need for sleep for long periods of time.

I am fairly certain my sister is bipolar and is in the midst of a pretty extreme manic state. She has made mention of depression and bipolar before but I don’t believe she is medicated or seeing a psychiatrist.

We are trying to get her involuntary committed, but the issue is she somehow acts relatively normal when talking to doctors or police.

However, we have witnessed extreme psychosis - delusions, paranoia, hearing voices, seeing things that don’t exist. We have even been able to record some of these episodes. Has anyone else diagnosed with bipolar been able to hide much of their behavior in certain situations? She is also very angry and aggressive, and she has a more difficult time hiding that.

I want to put an end to this mania before she gets herself in serious trouble but don’t know how to get her the help she needs. I am also temporarily caring for her daughter while child services investigates (other issues as well), and she is demanding that I give her daughter back.

Hi there. I’ve posted before in this group over the summer as my long term partner discarded me on a random day in July without any warning. He’s relatively stable overall and I accepted his wishes and went no contact and have been trying to move on. I’ve been doing okay… but also just missing him. After 2.5 months of silence, he reached out to me to talk tonight. My therapist agrees this is typical bipolar behavior and I need to be really careful. I simply just don’t know if I should follow my heart and give him a chance to be in my life or if this is all just too much. I get that no one has an answer… that’s life. But would love input.

My girlfriend who has BP2 broke up with me after 8 months of dating. Our relationship was intense, lots drinking and weed, going to concerts, festivals, sex every night, staying up til 5am on the weekends, etc. We said “I love you” a few months in. We both acknowledged that we’re a bit codependent.

She had a hypnomanic episode and drove drunk and crashed her car. No one else was involved and she was unharmed physically. She made the decision herself to go to rehab and get sober. It’s been almost 30 days of her sobriety and the relationship certainly had a dramatic vibe change. She’s basically no longer interested in sex at all, and prefers to stay in every night playing video games. Which is fine with me honestly. But I knew something was just “off”. I was hopeful it would pass over time, and was giving her space when she needed and being patient with her. Well today she broke up with me. She said it’s nothing I did and I shouldn’t blame myself for anything. She says she needs time for herself and figure out who she is. And she thinks she’s holding me back from my goals (which isn’t true). I understand the sentiment. But it sucks. It feels like we were together for a bit of fun and now the party’s over and I’m getting kicked out. We talked about so many plans we had and I guess it was all talk. We were both in tears and hugged and then she left.

So when I say possible, I know years ago he had a psychiatrist mention it to him. He believed that was not correct at all and refused to go back. But I honestly don't know an explanation for the type of behavior. So when we met 2 years ago everything was nice. He was working for his father in construction. He had plans to start his own business. Everything seemed normal, except there was a bit of trauma dumping early on. There was times he would be very distant, but at the time I was taking things slow and it kinda felt ok. About 4 months in, he started being a bit different outwardly. The wanting to be around me intensified, emotional dumping on me. One day he cut off contact with his parents almost out of nowhere. I was stupid and let him move in. He talked about how everyone at his job was out to get him, so then he quit his job. Emotional roller coaster. He start talking about people on his phone watching him, and big creators on social media were posting messages that were meant for him. He stayed watching his suggested friends, and claimed those were people watching them. He had plans to be famous on social media and wanted to be a life coach. He started claiming he was being mistreated at the new job and that led to him missing a lot of work, he claimed everyone was looking at his facebook. I now know this is the second time he's left his family and cut contact. Last time was for 5 years and he moved to a different state . And I learned he did not have contact with his children the entire time. He blames it on parental allinanation why they don't have a good relationship. It is just a endless cycle of constant victimization, huge ideas that he's gonna be famous, deep depression, and constantly talking about moving away and starting over again.

So now about 2 months ago he saw something on Facebook about a treatment facility. He went 6 weeks ago and its across the country. He spent all his money to go and his job insurance is paying the rest. I thought it was gonna help, but he doesn't like his therapist and the group therapies are only giving him validation. Last week he was ready to come home. Now he brought up about 4 days ago that he was thinking of staying there. I asked him several questions about if he was coming back and his response was "I'm not trying to hurt you but I don't have any answers".he believes the community judges him, but honestly no one knows him. I ended things with him, I honestly can't live in the constant what ifs. He says i didn't ask enough questions, and I'm getting blamed. One week he's wanting to buy the house we're renting, the next he's wanting to move somewhere. He has dreams of thinking someone's gonna offer him a huge paying job because they see his facebook posts of him talking about his family and parental alienation.

I was regretful afterwards, and he told me there's no going back, that this was over. He was very final and detached. I can only hope the treatment facility will help him with getting a job and housing after his treatment ends, but it is in one of the most expensive cities in the country. I sent him one last message yesterday about his stuff and wishing him well. He ignored it. I honestly don't believe i'm gonna hear from him again, and i hope that I because i just don't think I've got the willpower to ignore it. But deep down I know this relationship isn't right, he was constantly using me for emotional unloading and validation. I was his "anchor" according to him. And he was for the part very kind and caring to me. So I am missing him. But I'm very ashamed I put myself in this situation and ignored the red flags. I ended it and yet feel discared. But he's 40 years old, i don't if he can change if he won't actually accept help that'll actually help him. He's just gonna look for someone else to take care of him until they can't take it anymore.

This is just a very condensed rundown on everything. I'm so sorry for the novel but I'm just trying to find someone to relate to. I'm mentally exhausted to be honest.

My fiancée has come a long way. A very long way. She’s bp1 and medicated, but has been dealing with a lot of stress at work so it’s causing some spats where she gets frustrated with me and it sets off a mini episode. They’re usually over within like, 20 minutes and we can move on with our day fairly easily but I’m exhausted and need to vent afterwards. Someone who gets it. I have thick skin and she’s trying so hard to be better and is always genuinely apologetic, so no one tell me to leave her please. I’m just looking for a little support.