Bipolar disorder in relationships can often be a common but difficult thing to manage. During the manic highs typically found in bipolar disorder, your partner (because of the increased energetic state) may have an increased sexual desire that manifests as engagement with pornography or masturbation, as well as extramarital affairs. This propensity for unprotected sex or more risky behaviors not only affects the partner, but it can also juxtapose with their depressive lows where they don’t want to partake in any sex at all. In effect, it is not only the person who goes through the ups and downs of the extreme mood swings present in bipolar disorder but also their partner.
If you have children, then the difficulties found in the relationship can be compounded because children can often find the erratic behavior of someone with bipolar disorder to be scary. It is most often the case that children who are looking for stability from their parents won’t find it if their mom or dad is going through a bipolar manic or depressive episode.
Understanding Bipolar Disorder
You might be wondering a big question: What is bipolar disorder? It is a mental health condition characterized by a person’s shifts in activity levels, concentration, moods, and energy. It can be difficult to perform everyday tasks because of these constant shifts in state.
The shift between the highs and lows is expansive, and while the highs (up periods) are categorized by an increase in energy, emotions of joy, or irritability, the lows (down periods) are classified by a decrease in energy, feelings of hopelessness, sadness, or indifference. Hypomanic episodes are the periods in between categorized by less severe symptoms. Overall, there are three types of bipolar disorder that all involve mood changes and changes in energy or activity levels. The three types of bipolar disorder are:
- Bipolar 1 Disorder: This is marked by a manic episode that lasts for a minimum of 7 days (for all or a majority of the day) and is also identified through depressive episodes that usually last for a minimum of 2 weeks. A mix of both is a possibility, and if you are alternating between a mix of depressive symptoms and manic symptoms, then you would most likely be exhibiting signs of what is known as “rapid cycling.” The defining characteristic of Rapid Cycling would be four or more episodes of depression or mania within a one-year period.
- Bipolar 2 Disorder: With hypomanic episodes that are less severe than they are in bipolar 1 disorder (where they’re full-blown manic episodes), bipolar 2 disorder is characterized by a pattern of depressive episodes and mild hypomanic episodes.
- Cyclothymic Disorder: Unlike what is seen with bipolar 1 and bipolar 2, cyclothymic disorder never reaches the intensity or long-lasting duration needed for recurrent depressive symptoms to be classified as legitimate hypomanic or depressive episodes.
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The Impact of Bipolar Disorder on Relationships
When it comes to building trust with bipolar disorder in relationships, it is helpful to keep in mind that bipolar disorder can affect how your partner feels, reacts, and acts. When treated properly, the mood swings and extreme states of bipolar disorder in a relationship can be managed, but when not attended to, the episodes can significantly affect the success of a relationship.
The three most common episodes found in bipolar disorder that can affect the communication and trust of a relationship are:
- Manic Episodes: Besides an increase in irritability, a person going through a manic episode may disagree more often with their partner and may engage in more risky behavior like extramarital affairs, shopping sprees, or excessive drinking.
- Depressive Episodes: Hopelessness and pessimism can fill up a person during depressive episodes, so make sure to offer support and listen to them more often. A person in a depressive episode is more often likely to communicate less, which makes listening to them with empathy even more important and effective.
- Mixed Episodes: Sometimes, these periods can be the most challenging because both symptoms of hypomania and depression can be exhibited at the same exact time. Often confusing for a part dealing with bipolar disorder in a relationship, having patience and empathy is key. The storm will pass, and the episode won’t last, as long as one is aware, patient, and helping to support their partner in maintaining their coping mechanisms, medications, and counseling therapy sessions (including cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT) with consistency.
Strategies for Managing Bipolar Disorder in Relationships
Aside from exercising empathy and patience, there are some more tools that can be utilized as a strategy for dealing with bipolar disorder in relationships alongside open communication:
- Know the Triggers: By staying informed about what triggers your partner, you know what worsens the symptoms found in manic and depressive episodes while staying abstract of means and ways to avoid them. Stress from work and a lack of sleep are two common triggers.
- Inquiring About Behaviors: By knowing your partner’s behaviors during their high and low episodes, you can better identify their manic and depressive periods.
- Treatment Support: Consistency is key in managing bipolar disorder in relationships, and by ensuring that your partner maintains their bipolar disorder treatment schedule, including counseling, activity routines, and medications, you help them to progress in their growth and development.
- Support Plans: Having contingencies in place allows you to plan activities around contacts like a therapist or trusted relatives so that when an adjustment to a routine is needed to cope with an episode, it can be more easily managed. This allows your partner with bipolar disorder in the relationship to be better able to cope on a day-to-day basis.
- Self-care: Having a hobby, talking with friends and family, seeing a therapist, staying consistent with medications, and regular exercise all allow a partner with bipolar disorder to be in a better position, day to day, to manage their symptoms or episodes.
- Open Communication: The manic and depressive states of bipolar disorder in a relationship can be difficult to manage for both parties. By being open to communication, both people ensure that their emotions are heard without judgment or stigma.
Supporting a Partner with Bipolar Disorder
Having empathy for a partner who’s exhibiting symptoms of a manic high or depressive low is the first step in supporting a partner with this condition. Bipolar disorder in relationships, although difficult to manage, is not impossible to spot. By being prepared for episodes with a game plan and tools, one can manage manic highs, propensity for risky behavior, or depressive lows. Outlining the most common states with your partner in advance lets you both know what to do when episodes appear and likewise, when your partner has a period of no symptoms, it means you’ll be aware enough to enjoy those moments in between episodes that are stress-free.
Empathy takes patience, but if you can spot mood swings in advance, be aware enough to emotionally and pragmatically prepare for them, remain consistent with any medications, counseling, or physical activities that help, and work through issues together with communication, then bipolar disorder in relationships is just another aspect of human nature to be managed just like anything else.
Coping Mechanisms for Both Partners
Bipolar disorder in relationships is a difficult thing to manage, but couples counseling can help. It is easier to be upset over your partner’s actions during a bipolar up or down episode, but ultimately, it is forgiveness that allows you to cope and persevere with the relationship. Counseling can help a couple to understand that their partner did not mean to be hurtful to them but that it was the illness known as bipolar disorder that was doing the damage. Forgiveness is the fastest way to enter into a more positive state of mind, and ensuring that your partner maintains treatment is paramount to consistent progress. Doing things together with forgiveness not only allows both partners in the relationship to engage in more fulfilling activities, but it also allows for an unfettered path forward toward growth.
Professional Help and Therapy Options
Couples therapy can be beneficial for those who have bipolar disorder in relationships. Not only does it allow for resolution to problems couples have been arguing about over and over with no resolution in sight, but it also allows for breakthrough revelations to be made. Couples therapy, whether individually administered or undertaken together, can help with a lack of sexual chemistry or infidelity.
Support groups for bipolar disorder can also be helpful, and some of the most prominent groups are NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), DBSA (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance), MHA (Mental Health America), and IBPF (International Bipolar Foundation).
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How Moment of Clarity Can Help
With the right treatment in place, those with bipolar disorder can live just as normally as anyone else. Here at Moment of Clarity, we are dedicated to helping individuals with bipolar disorder. Our team of mental health professionals is committed to ensuring our patients get the quality care and support they need.
At Moment of Clarity, our team of qualified treatment and mental health professionals have proven experience treating bipolar disorder. It is important that bipolar disorder is treated through quality care and a well-rounded treatment experience. We offer all our patients personalized bipolar disorder treatment at our Orange County mental health treatment center. We’re also proud to offer various outpatient mental health treatment options, including an intensive outpatient program (IOP) and a partial hospitalization program (PHP).
Our team can answer any questions you may have about bipolar disorder. If you or a loved one is suffering from a mental health disorder, there is hope. At Moment of Clarity, we are here to help you achieve better mental health. Call 949-625-0564 to learn about our treatment solutions.
