You can absolutely have a healthy, happy relationship with a partner who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The condition may bring both positive and challenging aspects to the relationship, but you can take steps to support your partner and to help them manage their symptoms.
Being in a Relationship with Someone Who Is Bipolar
Those with bipolar disorder may also engage in risky behaviors such as unprotected sex or extramarital affairs while manic. During episodes of depression, your partner may avoid sexual contact altogether.
Bipolar disorder and marriage can be toxic to a relationship. That's when a relationship fails or is failing. It can trigger negative reactions that could lead to self-harm, self-loathing or worse. Relationship issues need to be watched and positively regulated from our youth onward.
All relationships require empathy, communication, and emotional awareness. These qualities help a person be a supportive partner to someone with bipolar disorder. People with well-managed bipolar disorder can build healthy, long term relationships.
A bipolar person may avoid relationships because they don't feel good enough for other people. Sometimes these feelings come on quickly and cause those with mental health conditions to push away others in existing relationships. This can lead to social isolation.
Bipolar disorder can also affect your sexuality and sexual activity. During a manic episode, you may experience hypersexuality, or an increase in sexual activity. It may place you at an increased risk for actions that may have negative effects, such as contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
People with bipolar disorder may experience libido changes, impulsive sexual behaviors, and other intimacy challenges.
Bipolar Disorder and Marriage
But when one partner has bipolar disorder, simple stressors can reach epic proportions. That may be why as many as 90% of marriages involving someone with bipolar disorder reportedly fail.
When Is It Time to Walk Away? In some cases, the decision to leave is obvious. If physical abuse is present to any degree, and especially if the individual fears for their own life or well-being or that of their children, it's important to leave as soon as possible. Safety is the number one priority.
Mental health experts have found that some key features of bipolar disorder and narcissism overlap. These include setting high, sometimes unattainable, goals and being very impulsive. As a result, people with bipolar disorder often also have narcissistic personality disorder.
Bipolar may worsen with age or over time if this condition is left untreated. As time goes on, a person may experience episodes that are more severe and more frequent than when symptoms first appeared.
You can be treated against your will for 3 months. After 3 months, staff can only treat you without your consent if a 'second opinion approved doctor' (SOAD) approves the treatment. If you are unhappy about your treatment, you should talk to your responsible clinician.
A consistent routine allows for better mood management. People with bipolar disorder may benefit from establishing a daily routine for sleep, diet and exercise. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The focus is identifying unhealthy, negative beliefs and behaviors and replacing them with healthy, positive ones.
Breakups can be brutal—and can easily trigger bipolar symptoms. The end of a relationship often ushers in dark feelings like abandonment, guilt, and rejection. Even if the relationship was toxic and getting out was the right decision, there may be a sense of failure or self-blame.
In the United States and Canada, at least 40 percent of all marriages fail. But the statistics for marriages involving a person who has bipolar disorder are especially sobering—an estimated 90 percent of these end in divorce, according to the article “Managing Bipolar Disorder” in Psychology Today.
There are a number of possible reasons why someone with bipolar would push others away. This tends to happen during depressive episodes, but it can happen when they're manic or symptom-free, as well. It can be painful when you're shut out, but it's not your fault.
During manic episodes
A manic episode can cause a person with bipolar disorder to experience hypersexuality. They may feel as if their sex drive is always very high, which can create difficulties. People experiencing hypersexuality may never feel satisfied with sex.
Does bipolar hypersexuality last forever? Bipolar disorder is a lifelong condition. 9 However, that does not necessarily mean bipolar hypersexuality will last forever. People with bipolar disorder experience episodes of depression, mania, and even phases without depression or mania.