Bipolar Support Group

it does affect my relastionship.

bp affects my life too. it ruined my first relationship because of my emotional abusiveness. i was with a girl i really loved and i treated her like crap. everyone else says i was a perfect girlfriend, but they didnt have to deal with me like she did. i felt like i owned her not like she was my equal and i lost her. luckily... i have a new boyfriend and he deals with me easily. he is used to my moods swings but since i am for the most part doing good, he chooses to stick around. he says he always wants to be with me and says my bp is not a factor in our relationship. due to my bp i am not working at the moment. i am in school full time and i am working to get myself together. ive been stable for a month and i feel better than i have in years. this is the best ive ever felt besides my few hypomanic occasions. you are right meds are the best thing, along with therapy and support i live a normal life. i may have bp but i refuse to let it run me anymore.

It's affected my whole life since I was 13. I'm now 42. I became an alcoholic who drank in the morning and all day, I didn't get drunk until the night once my children went to sleep. I was only diagnosed with PTSD for years. Needless to say the meds didn't work because they weren't for Bipolar. My youngest son was diagnosed with ultrapid cycling Bipolar when he was 8. SO in the process of helping him get stable I realized I had the same symptoms. Than I started being medicated correctly. Every since than I've been getting better and better. My husband gets frustrated sometimes but he has tremendous compassion for me and my boys (my oldest son was diagnosed when he was 13). It's definitely been a roller coaster ride but I've learned so much about life. It's hard being bipolar but it's not impossible to live with.

I try not to look at bipolar as being the absolute cause of events in my life, but I willingly admit that everything, past, present, and future, have been affected by bipolar disorder. I refuse to give BP full credit because that would give this disease power to lord over me, and I'm not one to make excuses (even when they're good ones ).

i never really questioned it really till i met my husband, i always only thought it influenced me before I was diagnosed and found lithium. So its really only since I had my son and really started looking at myself i guess.

I just really want to hear more about it and what is bipolar and what is me!!!! I understand that it affects your moods and that i have a mild form of it. As my husband calls me mad, I know in my heart I am not but a small part of me really questions it and says am I....

but hearing your experiences and feeling on this subject will help understand

I'm an ultradian rapid cycler and have been unstable for the past 1.5 years. Only now am I starting to get my rapid cycling under control. In addition to bipolar, I also have PTSD which I was only diagnosed with in January. I look at bipolar and PTSD as being a challenge, but challenges that will not defeat me. The most effective way I've found to deal with my bipolar is to take things day by day. If I can't do that, I take them hour by hour and if that isn't possible, minute by minute.

i am stable: but since my husband started calling me mad, i have really started to look at my self and BP.

I know really that its his problem and that he thinks by saying this he can win the fight, how there is always a but if I involved. I just want to be able to know more and what people experience... So posting will help me fill that whole...

To be honest Bipolar has not greatly effected my life. Well maybe those who I have had disputes with may think differently.

Has made it miserable at times though. But I would not change being me (well would like a younger body though).

While I know that some may well not agree with me here. But my Bipolar Disorder is a big part of what I am. I am just off saying it is me. Therefore if I think it is me, my existance hinges on it. Meaning take away my Bipolar Disorder and there is no one there. That means I am nothing.

Have had now two manias and one severe depression when this had occured. Came close to going into a catonic state.

Have a VERY good friend has assisted me a lot. I no longer write long hystercial messages to people who upset me. That was a good day I must say.

JennyWren

i find that extreme tiredness will either make me very irritable, totally sex mad or intolerant usually directed at my husband, he just winds me up and then wonders why I am mad at him...

i agree with you, what you say jennywren but since i met my husband and when we argue he calls me mad, it made me focus on my state mind i guess, and thats why i have asked everyone do you think bp makes your moods more intense than someone with out it or does it just make you feel depressed and have a mania eps for 6 months in the year? I just dont know!!! if you can read about what happens to others i think it is easier for you to understand yourself

Post edited by: laughalot, at: 03/06/2009 18:19

Bp makes our moods more intense than your average person. It also makes us depressed and manic. The only time I'm mellow is if I'm sedated by my meds. I realize that when I fight with my husband I get crazy because I know myself. I've learned to listen to him when he's trying to explain what I'm doing. I don't always realize what I'm doing. I need him to watch out for me because he has all his faculties and I don't. I've learned to accept it. It's just the way it is. I love him for watching out for me and loving me unconditionally.