Why Do You Stay in Your Bipolar Relationship?
Husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends of partners with bipolar disorder are the overlooked and underserved mental illness support network of the Bipolar treatment world. Why do you stay in your bipolar relationship?
First, we are never secure about our own emotional needs. Are they more or less important the needs of our mentally ill spouse? If we choose to take care of our own needs first, we often suffer, then punish ourselves with guilt, then get angry toward our sick partner that he or she has caused us such misery.
But if we choose to put our partner s emotional, physical and mental health needs ahead of ours after all, he s the sick one our quality of life diminishes.
...community, including from your local church, synagogue, temple or other place of worship. *Take time out for spirituality. You might attend services just to experience human contact and community. People are generally nicer at Christmas. *Do all the things you ...
Second, husbands and wives are alone in coping with our spouses Bipolar Disorder (also known as Manic Depression). Besides managing doctor visits, medications, decisions on whether to hospitalize or not, well partners must fight for our relationships. The line between partner and caregiver is thin and often non-existent. It can make for a lonely and often devastating life.
You cannot share your feelings with your partner; he s the sick one and the cause of your distress! Your parents are empty nesters; you can t burden them with your problems. Your siblings have their own families to worry about. Unless mental illness runs in your friends families, they
...blood tests and small intestine biopsies. However, the number of people who report a response to a gluten-free diet is much higher. Stool antibody test results would support this and the concept of a spectrum of gluten sensitivity that is ...
The pressure on us from friends, family and professionals is unrelenting. Those who ask, Why do you stay in your relationship? are not supportive. And neither are the ones that imply that it s your duty to stay married to your bipolar husband or wife. Bipolar disorder runs roughshod over relationships. The divorce rate is three times higher in these marriages than in the general population.
In my personal story, when I did find a spousal support group, there was one man (divorced) and 16 women. A third of the women s
...as they are expected to do the same. The sharing should help a bipolar patient cope with the problem because you are expected to understand the symptoms better from another bipolar patient's perspective. * People will have the chance to ...
The last third were widows their bipolar husbands had committed suicide. (The suicide rate for bipolar disorder is 12 times higher than the normal population.) Everyone in the support group thought I was in denial for having a goal to stay married.
Why do you stay in your bipolar relationship?
Elizabeth Atlas is the author of Married To Mania, a book that helps spouses and
...had relatives who also acquired the disorder. However, belonging to a bloodline, wherein a Bipolar Disorder afflicted person also belongs, increases one s chances of also obtaining the disease. The Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation states that a person s ...