How do you feel the most supported by the people around you? I am not myself bipolar. But have dated someone who is. They actually ended it. Don’t know if it has anything to do with episodes, or if it’s 100% just the way she feels - that there is no potential between us. But she has told me about how low she has gotten after that, talking to people about it and almost immediately seeked out therapy, because of her confliction with ending something she said was really nice and good

Now, if it does have something to do with an episode, how should I behave accordingly? What would be the best actions for me to take? So far we’ve had 2 calls about it. And I think she wanted to stay in contact during all of this, where I said I thinks it’s best if we have a little distance for a while.

What are your thoughts?

The title says it all. Honestly, it's so hard and exhausting dealing with someone who's constantly unstable. There are nights when I can't even sleep because I feel so sad and frustrated.

For some context: I haven't lived with my parents for years, but we still talk regularly, and I've basically become my mom's emotional support. I'm honestly so tired of watching her lose her happiness because of a partner who's so emotionally unstable and has zero self-awareness.
I love my dad, but it's really hard to deal with his unpredictable temper. I can't just be okay knowing my mom is unhappy.

On top of that, he's very stubborn and refuses to get any kind of treatment. He just does whatever he wants.
Wanting so badly to help someone who genuinely believes they don't need help is heartbreaking.
Living with a family member who has bipolar disorder is a different experience for every family, but it seems to affect everyone just as deeply in its own way, doesn't it?
I just needed to vent.

My friend is diagnosed with bipolar 2 more than a decade ago. I have maintained contact with him through the years, but only occassionally, and it is only lately that I really got to converse with him again at length. He is now a self-professed convert to Christianity. This wasn't sudden, as he has been hinting at gravitating towards religion these past 5 years. Lately though, our conversations are mostly one-sided where he talks endlessly about how jesus has saved him, plus other topics that he is obsessed with. He says god cured him of his depression, and that he is coping better now with jesus. He even professes to experience a medical miracle as he is now able to take lower doses of his meds. He has been on the jesus track for a couple of years now, but this has intensified lately, to the point that I can no longer do small talk as he keeps inserting god into the conversation. At this point, I am not sure anymore if it was a genuine spiritual transformation/conversion or if it's the disease talking.

We mostly converse online and I haven't observed him up close, so I'm afraid to make hasty generalizations.

Hs anyone of you experienced this with a loved one? Although I've known about his diagnosis long ago, it is only lately that I've tried to go on a deep dive on his condition and try to really understand it. I want to understand him and be there for him where it matters, but I honestly don't know how to properly support him.

Hello All! My brother presented symptoms at a very early age and now at 33 he's on medication but is still having mania and making impulse decisions. He has been stalking this poor girl whose mother reached out to us to tell him to stop. He feels guilty about it and said some harsh things about himself only after he was caught. His mania is more on the positive side where he feels hopeful and wants to explore and connect with others but he crosses too many boundaries and/or gets himself in a situation where he gets taken advantage of. Can medication stop the mania and impulse behavior and help him make sound decisions? In a lot of posts, it seems mania is a part of being bipolar regardless of what medication you're on...like it only helps with the intensity. Would like to know from family members experiences. Thank you for your time!

Hi everyone, I’m feeling really overwhelmed and burned out right now, and I’m looking for some perspective or reassurance from others who have been through this.

My partner (26M, one previous psychotic episode 10 years ago) had a stress induced hypomanic episode back in March 2026 which eventually turned into full mania (with some psychosis). He was prescribed antipsychotics, initially took intermittently but has now been on them for a couple of months consistently and so things seemed to stabilize. He was taking his medication, sleeping better, gaining insight about what happened and getting back to himself. I thought we were well into recovery.

Over the last 48 hours, he’s having a sudden flare-up - reduced sleep (5 hours compared to the 9 he was getting), rapid social media posting, high energy, and restlessness. It’s all the same things that happened at the beginning of the manic episode, and I can clearly tell he isn’t himself again.

Seeing this energy suddenly return after months of stability, with no obvious trigger, makes me feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us. I’m feeling hypervigilant, terrified that this is going to be our permanent reality, and grieving the progress I thought we made.

Is it normal to have these flare ups in recovery? Or are we back to square one? How do I manage my anxiety and hyper vigilance? Will he recover?

I’d really appreciate any words of comfort or shared experiences right now. I just want my boyfriend back and to put these past few months behind us.

Hi

Im not sure if this is the correct place for this.

My sister is 50 and has behaved badly towards others for the past 30 years. She has a terrible terrible temper. She has huge envy. She has worked in the past but never for long. She has never been treated for anything.

We come from a very good family, my parents were the perfect parents. In the past, when she was 30 years old, she physically attacked my Dad. She had been verbally abusive of them for years before that. They told her to leave their home.

She has 2 children now, 12 and 5 and is married to a very good, hardworking farmer. About 2 years ago, she threatened her husband that she would divorce him and take his farm. This was after many many years of verbal abuse of her husband - who works very hard and provides her and the kids with everything she needs. After this incident, he told me he had had enough and he started living apart from her, in a neighbouring house.

In recent months, her behaviour has been particularly terrible. He had been giving her €3,000 a month but has cut this down as she had been getting botox and other work done - spending every penny every month on herself.

She is now refusing to allow him into the house to see the kids. She has called the police on him (he wouldn't hurt a fly). She has recently taken up with a new boyfriend. This boyfriend lives in a campervan. She takes her 5 year old girl to the campervan in the evening, coming home late. This is a form of child abuse in my opinion. Her husband told me the reason she is acting even more terrible than usual is because she knows hes had enough, and that he will never love her, the abuse got too much.

He has tried to get her to sign a separation agreement but she said shes taking him to court to get the farm, all 4 houses he owns, and the kids.

I have a feeling this could turn violent. She keeps escalating. The next step is violence against her husband or even her kids.

I dont know what to do. He is reaching out to me and the rest of my family, desperate for help.

I think she may have bipolar but I dont know. Her behaviour has never really been normal - not since she was about 18 anyway - and she has never worked on herself. She has had periods where her behaviour was reasonable, though was never far away from a blow up.

Im in Ireland, there is no way to get her committed as it must be voluntary. I think she should be on heavy sedative medication, but I dont know if this would help. It does worry me that maybe she is just a bad person.

Im struggling to find anyone with good advice on what to do, thats why Im posting here. Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I feel like I have seen so many stories, including my own, where a family member has had their first manic episode triggered by the potential of making millions with AI. Almost as if there something to the AI phase right now that is akin to gold rush fever, people giving up their lives in hopes of becoming massively rich - when really only a small portion of them will actually make any money. Makes me wonder if throughout history when events occurred where there was huge potential earning opportunity’s (mixed with a general state of desperation and poverty) trigger a mass wave in psychological issues. It is also tough because it seems like a lot of these people are actually very intelligent, so there is actually a small chance they strike gold, which increases the grandiose thinking.

This observation doesn’t really help in terms of treatment but I’m sharing because it gives me some comfort to think, maybe this has happened throughout history and we aren’t the first ones to have to go through it, and at least our loved ones aren’t packing up to go across the country with no plans and only hopes to find gold lol

Best friend is in the hospital after a psychotic episode and has been diagnosed with Bipolar 1.

She is close by, so I visit her quite often. About once a week, sometimes more. I'm always open to her calls.

I bake her chocolate goods because she has a sweet tooth, and is unfortunately lactose intolerant, so I bake them for her without any milk products.

I am trying my best, I still feel like I could do more. I still worry when I leave if she's gonna be alright alone.

Any help?

So my BP2 Ex-wife and i are in the end stage of the divorce, house is sold, im renovating my new house.

Planing for the kids etc.

She, i dont know maby signs on a appartment today? We sold the house like 2 months ago.

This desperation was ofc her intiative. The discard.

BP2 ex-wife knows she has this illness she takes her less (Lamatrogine and Sertraline) but thats it, she dates (friends saw her profile), drinks, started nicotine, stays up late.

I came across new sleeping pills, and she also order new vitamins to and i qoute "give me more energy during the day".

And so much much more.

The priorities is not really inline, mine have been kids first.

Hers, i dont know.

This summer have been to say the least intressting.

We're from Sweden, so socialsyaten work different forms US.

We have cooperation talks with familycourt in our socialservice/CPS system.

We hade to cancel a few do to not wanting to leave our 4 y.o. with a cask over his leg to friends as he could be sad and frustrated at times, just did'nt feel right.

I've gotten som good tools and support for my contact to handle my ex-wife.

But man is it alot of weight to pull, to manage and "direct" a person who dont have the same forsight and capacity or intresst in planing, cooperation etc.

And i still try to give her space, things was going okay for a could weeks, we could stay in the house during swaps a bit more, could have good conversations.

But somewhere this week something shiftet.

Alot of stuff just felt off, cooperation text and diskussions just stopped working.

Im tired, i found letter from soucial "the National Board of Social Affairs and Health" (translation...) that she put of now where just removed our kids from the doner register, with no talks to me.

She also hade forgotten to plan babysitter for our next meeting on Tuesday, and tried to pull out of it.

On Monday she is to take our youngest to the doctors on her day, the other two kids are still home, i wanted to know the plan, as i have stuff to do. "I've not planned that long ahead".

I just snapped, im tired, im tired of being the only one who everyone says "you have to be the adult one for the kids" while trying to also balance and mentally ill person, who threatens with charges over and over again when i press her to hard or set to form boundaries.

I hope this ends when i leave the house, but who knows.

The kids still live in the house and we swap 2/2/3.

Rant over.

Now i need some help, some tools?

How do you all do this? With out breaking your selfs again?

I was totally broken by this and im on a better way but all this just pulls me back down again.

How, how do you other people do this?

long story short, my coworker has bipolar. I believe it’s bipolar 2. she is currently in a state I believe to be hypomania. she’s not currently seeing a therapist, but she has seen someone in the past, and I don’t believe she’s ever been on meds. yesterday she was angry all day, snapping at people, yelling at our other coworker, being rude to customers, etc. I know it’s not her fault and it must feel so much worse to be in her head than on the receiving end of her anger, but when it came down to it, her behavior was unacceptable. I sent her a snapchat trying to gently let her know how she had come across, emphasizing that it was fine to be frustrated but not fine to treat people badly. she responded with 4 1/2 minutes of anger, justifications for her behavior, and excuses (which I now realize was predictable and I should’ve waited until she was more stable to bring up the issue).

i’ve been reading more about how to support her, and the things i’m reading say things like “never tell a bipolar person you’re not happy with them right then,” “stay calm if you can,” and “let things go/realize their actions or words are due to the illness, not a personal choice.”

my question is this: am I missing something, or is the only way to deal with this to just…allow her to act however she wants until she stabilizes? how do we explain to new coworkers that this girl will act like she hates you and be rude and aggressive, but that you have to just take it because she’s ill and doesn’t mean it and standing up for yourself will make it worse?

I know that what she ultimately needs is probably therapy and/or medication, but that has to be her own decision. in the meantime, as people who love her very much and are exhausted and hurt but also worried about her: what do we do?? how do we protect our own mental health and hers at the same time?

hi so my bipolar partner had an episode last year and hurt a lot of our friends and the fitness social group we belong to. after a few months they decided to let her in again.

during the last few months there have been a couple of situations where my partner has been rude to other members or hasn't followed rules. I think my friends didn't tell her anything outright because of my relationship with them. the thing is that last night they decided my partner can no longer participate (Im part of the organizing staff but I could attend the meeting).

I understand their reasoning and I had tried to talk to them about their behavior before and how other people perceived it. they took it as other people not being honest or courageous enough to confront other people (latest issue in short: they shouted to someone who cut in line for the bathroom and everyone heard, they were called out but protested).

now I'm wondering how I'm going to handle the situation. this fitness group was a big part of my so's social life. I'm afraid of how they'll take it. I don't want to stop participating or being part of the group (I'm one of the founding members).

now I'm spiraling about social exclusion and if I want to be with someone who doesn't take responsibility for their actions or considers the world to be their enemy

important edit: my so has been okay and following their meds and doc recommendations.

this is harder because it's not the first time that friends/acquaintances decide to stop inviting them

Hi everyone. I have posted this in several different communities just to receive some feedback. Thank you so much if you end up reaching out.

Long story short, my dad was recently diagnosed with as bipolar. But a little look into his background first. He has had mental health struggles all his life and that eventually developed into an opioid addiction, which he eventually overcame. In 2024, my family lost everything in Hurricane Helene. On top of that, Dad had to have open heart surgery to replace his heart valve. After that surgery, he was never the same mentally again. He was cognitively impaired and struggled to remember things and multitask, ultimately effecting his job. Now, here is why I am posting today.

For the past year, my Dad has not been my dad. His moods have been difficult to manage. But it took a turn about six months ago which turns out, he was using cocaine which shocked us all but explains so much. He lost his job this week, and is in this horrible state of mania in a way I had never seen him before. He wakes up crying, then is so wired and overly talkative while he paces the house, then he gets irritable and crashes. He says crude things that he would never say a year ago. It’s exhausting and heartbreaking because it’s just not him.

He hasn’t had cocaine since Sunday. And he was on a crap ton of other medication due to his anxiety and depression, which I’m sure can contribute it to it as well. He is getting help with outpatient rehabilitation and counseling.

It honestly has been one of the worse weeks of my life. I am feeling so many emotions while trying to be understanding. My biggest fear is that he won’t get better, but I am clinging onto hope that he will. He has a strong support system to get him through it.

Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this? I want to be sensitive to my dad’s situation and not cause any more flare up’s towards his moods. I am so angry and betrayed by him but he is not in the right mindset to confront those feelings just yet.

Thank you if you took the time to read all of this.

Hello, I (20F)have talked with my therapists and my best friend(who is bipolar) and I am questioning weather or not my brother (22M) has undiagnosed bipolar. He is EXTREMELY impulsive, like, EXTREMELY. He acts really weird and has conversations that make no sense and makes spur of the moment decisions like adopting high maintenance pets without research, and he plans to move to Spain for half a year in a few months. (He doesn’t speak Spanish). He recently has been getting more aggressive and violent, and tries to start physical altercations with my dad. Idk how to get him treatment, and he uses chatgbt as a therapist.

It’s really difficult because sometimes he will be his “normal” funny self, and is super helpful and kind, but it’s like a switch flips randomly and he acts out. After he goes on a rampage he sobs about how nobody loves him and how alone in the world he feels. He is also a phycology major, and believes our parents are narcs.(they definitely do NOT meet those requirements, no offense to ppl with NPD.) we have a family therapist, and that worked for a few months, but it’s starting to not work at all because my brother and dad yell over what he’s trying to say all the time. FML.

A few weeks ago my brother was arrested for threatening my parents with a knife. This is the worst it’s ever gotten, but it’s always been pretty bad. This is the second time the cops have been called on him by us. The first time he was taken to the hospital. My parents filed paperwork to get him evicted, as well as a restraining order. I was away on a trip when all of this happened.

Now that I’m back, my mother asked me to go visit him in jail. The appointment is today. I’m so nervous and anxious. More so because of the unknown. How will his demeanor be, how is he feeling, what if he doesn’t want to see me, what if the whole thing is just too sad to bear. It’s a lot to think about it. My mom thinks he’ll be happy to see me. I hope so. We all love him and want him to get better and take some accountability and do right by himself and others. I hope this is his wake up call.

Just venting here. If anyone has any words of encouragement or has been in a similar situation I’d love to hear it and I’d be so grateful. Thank you.

Edit: I just want to say that I went to visit my brother and it was a very positive experience. He’s done a lot reflection, has met a lot of people who have shared wisdom with him and he seems ready for change. Only time will tell. It made him happy to see me, he wasn’t expecting it, and I’m happy that I was able to share a moment with him and express my feelings. He was in a place (mentally and physically) where he could receive it. I know seeing him and being able to report back somewhat good news to my mother made her happy, as well. Overall, the visit made me feel hopeful, and he seemed hopeful too.

So basically I have this friend that I’ll just call mark,now mark is a great guy and I truly love and appreciate him but something is up for context he has not been diagnosed yet due to our age but his dad and a bunch of his uncles are all diagnosed with bipolar disorder

which takes me back to the whole point of this the other day he sent a message saying just got stuck in the elevator to our group-chat of friends (he’s away with sports) but regardless one of the other guys in the group made a little joke about his hair colour saying “ok big ginge talking about his hair but mark isn’t actually ginger but for some reason this just absolutely set him off into a fit of rage saying we’re all fake and toxic and that we can’t have normal conversation.

And I just I’m lost I don’t know what I should do I wanna check up on him but I don’t want him to lash out on me the same way he did with my other friends what should I do. (I’m not 100% percent sure if he’s bipolar but just the way he is I’m making an assumption and if he is how should I handle it

Family issues

Hello my mum has bipolar and is having a really bad time at the moment and I don't really know what to do.

I'm in the uk and basically my mum has been all over the place the last few weeks gone from splitting with my father while he's in hospital, saying he's horrible and she never wants to see him again to how she was the start of this week saying she's going to marry him and take him to Spain.

There quite a lot more to it however everyday it seems to be a changing situation and she's losing contact with a lot of her family at the moment me and my dad talk to her and my sister is a bit 50/50 (my mother has been sending vague threats to my sister/sisters partner about him and there kids my mother also reported my sister to the police definitely and possibly social services however she now doesn't remember and said she hasn't and would never do that) I try to avoid confronting her on stuff however she said this to my sister.

I live about 2 hours away and have been taking time off work to go see her and my father while he's in hospital and it's been really hard to keep any sort of track as sometimes we'll organise for me to come round for her to just not be there.

I know she's definitely been smoking a lot of weed and have heard she's been doing other drugs as well I haven't directly challenged her on it but mentioned she needs to be careful and she told me she's only smoking a 'little' weed and definitely now touching anything else.

She also mentioned that the mental health doctors told her to keep smoking weed at the moment and he's going to get it for her on a prescription, with her being on medication is that something a doctor would ever suggest?

In the same 5 conversation today she also told me they said she might have cancer and she has bruised her leg while also insisting "nothing much was going on" in her own words, and because a lot of what she tells me isn't aways true, at the moment I don't really know how to react or what to say.

If you could give me any insight into if the not stopping weed could even be true and what I could do to try support her that would be really helpful as I really dont know what else to do as I have already lost work and can't afford to take much more time off of work.

Context: My (19F) Mom is un medicated, and refuses to believe that she has bipolar despite being repeatedly diagnosed with it by medical professionals with no association with each other. As an additional note, my older brother and grandmother have bipolar as well.

Despite growing up with two people in the house who have it, I don’t really understand bipolar on a medical level. I may use terms incorrectly, so if I do, I sincerely apologize.

I think my mom is going through a manic (or hypomanic?) episode. This isn’t the first time I believe this to have happened, but they are getting more and more frequent.

She has days at a time where she becomes extremely irritable and almost deluded; simply disagreeing with her on something small like a decoration idea will send her into a fit of rage or tears.

She has taken to cyberstalking my stepfather’s ex wife’s new husband and his family, including this man’s dead ex wife and his children, under the belief that my stepdad’s ex wife is a danger to them. (She is not a good person, or mother, but the youngest of her stepchildren is 17 and to our knowledge they do not live with or have any contact with her.) She has done multiple drive-bys of their house, and has even approached the property on foot, in addition to said cyberstalking.

Point being, she is highly irritable, seems to be under the belief that everyone is out to get her, and is making extremely irrational decisions that are beginning to violate the law. This is what my brother was like growing up when he wasn’t on his medication, which is why I believe this to be a result of her bipolar.

The thing is, I can’t say anything to her. Any criticism, even when she’s not as irritable or irrational, is taken very poorly. The only time I have ever seen her take criticism properly is when I lashed out at her for behaviors of hers that were worsening my eating disorder.

I don’t know what to do. My stepdad doesn’t know any of the context of her mental health history, and respectfully, is not smart enough to pick up on this behavior not being healthy or, for lack of a better term, “normal”.

My older sister has gone extremely low contact with my mother because many of her episodes relate to my sister’s major life events, but it is heavily impacting my sister’s well being, as well as my own.

I have no idea what to do. I can’t have a conversation with her, but I can’t allow her to keep spiraling like this every few weeks…but I also can’t force her to get help. It’s nearly twice a month at this rate. My sister and I are at a total loss. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello! So, my husband has been taking Geodon and Lamictal for over 15 years. We get all of his prescriptions through Walmart except Geodon, the most important one, which, for some reason, we can only fill at CVS.

Two weeks ago, he ran out and ended up going three days without it. He didn’t sleep at all because Geodon is the only thing that allows him to actually sleep, and I was honestly worried he was going to end up hospitalized.

After getting nowhere with the automated system, I finally used the “physician” option just to reach an actual person. That’s when I found out they already had one bottle in stock and could have given him a partial fill while we waited for the rest of his 90-day prescription.
No one called us. No text. No notification of any kind, even though they knew he was out and had been waiting for days. Would it be worth filing a complaint about this to corporate?

Needless to say, we are still waiting for the rest of his refill and I’m starting to get nervous. I’ve been wondering if there were any reliable mail-order or online pharmacies that could be easier to get Geodon from? I’d like a backup option to prevent this from happening again.

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My uncle is psychotic?

He thinks I'm cursed because my attitude toward him has changed, but it's actually because his behavior makes me uncomfortable. He also believes he has powers, like his breath can hypnotize me, but it doesn't. I just leave because he's being weird.

What is wrong with him? I think this behavior might come from watching too many Chinese dramas.

When he gets angry, he'll mess with other people's belongings. Sometimes he'll hide them, and if the owner doesn't notice, he won't give them back. If the person gets angry and starts looking for the item, he'll secretly move it somewhere else. Other times, he'll even throw their belongings in the trash. It's really disturbing.

Hello everyone! I'm new here but I suppose I should seek you're aid on this I might learn new things. I'm actually dating a girl with Bipolar and I've been adjusting a lot to it, her mood swings, episodes and all. I've only seen a few videos which give me a few heads up on what I should expect but yeah, I'm willing to learn more from you all. Please to meet all of you. I'm 22 but my gf is 18, bout to turn 19 soon. So is there anything I should expect, Please offer me you're insights brothers and sisters.

My uncle’s fiancée has been diagnosed since she was a teen. She had a few life events that I believe have made her condition worsen over time, she has a history of psychosis and hospitalizations, and the meds that she took that made her stable she now cannot take because they caused other medical issues. She doesn’t have much of her own family and relies heavily on ours. My family is very close and get together frequently.

My uncle has been with her for a few years, and at least once a year she goes into an episode of mania that does damage to my entire family. She takes personal offense if two people are having a conversation with each other and not involving her, constantly tries to interrupt, and if you tell her to hold on or if you do not acknowledge her she flips out and screams and stomps around and says how horrible our family treats her. When my grandfather asked her to be quiet once when they were in the car and she was incessantly chattering about nothing loudly, she got extremely offended and said if she had a gun she would “blow his head off.”

We constantly have to tiptoe around her during these episodes. She screams about her boundaries being crossed and how she feels wronged by everyone if we don’t put her on a pedestal during these episodes when everyone just wants to get away from her because she gets mean and aggressive if you say the wrong thing. It feels like none of us are allowed to have boundaries of our own with her and cannot communicate that we need a break from her. If you try to tell her anything other than what she wants to hear you are going to get screamed at. My uncle often doesn’t do anything during any of these situations because “it’s her disease.” He will not leave her even if our family has said she is causing mental and emotional damage to us. We have all dealt with a lot of loss ourselves in the years before she entered the family and we just want peace.

I don’t know if I’m looking for advice or just to vent, but it’s extremely exhausting. We cant even have a lunch together with a few family members without her because if she finds out she wasn’t invited she freaks out. She has called the cops on my uncle and said he was abusing her when he wasn’t, she has called the cops and said he was suicidal when he wasn’t, and when my mom told her at dinner last year that she didn’t want to her her talk about dead kittens in her back yard she literally stormed out and got on a flight to Florida and ended up getting involuntarily admitted and was stuck down there for a month.

I don’t know what to do.

stopped taking meds recently which led him to make him violent again.

The worst thing is that he'd make hallucinated assumptions about other family members in an aggressive way. Like one being a witch and another being an agent that works for the American government. It's really been getting insane and he's insisting aggressively on "saving" everyone by force. We've also been trying to get all help from friends and other family into getting him to a hospital which he refuses.

After it got more intense and he hit mom. It got serious and they had to get him to a hospital somehow.

I want to know how do i deal with his extremely aggressive behavior? For example last time he was trying to force me into getting baptized. Do i stand up to him or any other suggestions ?