I work at home. My wife (who has bipolar) works for the local school district. Several times during the year are difficult for us. It seems, for example, that when we "spring forward" for daylight savings time, we almost invariably spring into mania. We do okay over the summer. When she returns to work in the fall, sometimes we do okay, sometimes not. The Christmas break is also usually a bad time.

I'm just getting around to reading the winter edition of bp Magazine. At first glance, the cover story struck me as odd: "Asking Forgiveness and Making Amends." Hmmm, I wonder whether people diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease are expected to apologize for what their illness has done to them and how it has strained their relationships?

kjenny kelton asks... I have recently entered into a relationship with a man with this illness and know nothing about it. I want to be there for him, but he just says he needs to be on his own. How do I help him?

We devoted an entire part of Bipolar Disorder for Dummies to family and friends – Part V, “Assisting a Friend or Relative with Bipolar Disorder.” This week, I was planning on doing a post about how to get family members more involved, but on second thought, I realized that sometimes people with bipolar want certain friends or family members less involved... and sometimes for good reason.

Syndicated from the Bipolar Blog with a couple minor changes Jill Ravitz recently posted her bipolar story, which caused me to think about my own situation with my wife and our family. Back in 1999 my wife was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. Within about two years, we were discussing divorce.

Syndicated from the Bipolar Blog I grew up in a household with mental illness in a parent. The illness was never fully identified or named, yet it decimated our family life. I was enormously relieved to realize, over time, what was going on in my family when I was growing up. It helped me understand my parent more and to tell my family story in a way that is less judgmental and critical and more compassionate – toward my parent with mental illness and toward me and my siblings and my other parent. As a professional and as someone who lived with this, I feel strongly about the need for honest, open communication in families when a parent is struggling with mental illness.

Syndicated from the Bipolar Blog In a previous post, “Should I Go or Should I Stay?” I discuss the dilemma that many people face when living with someone who has bipolar disorder. Lately, I've been thinking about relationship dynamics and how these dynamics can trigger confrontations. I'm one of those people, for example, who really needs to please others. I'll clean the house, cook dinner, do laundry, plant flowers, and so forth, just to see her happy. (According to the book The Five Love Languages, my "love language" would be "acts of service.")

When I was growing up, I earned a reputation for having a hot head. My dad used to look at me and say I was so angry he could fry an egg on the top of my head. So when bipolar disorder decided to set up shop in my home, we had a formula for disaster – my wife’s mania made her wicked, and my first instinct was to fight back. The result was the equivalent of a tropical storm quickly transforming into a Category 5 hurricane with plenty of energy to keep it raging for weeks on end.

I recently accompanied my wife to an appointment with her therapist, Lucy. It was Cecie's first therapy appointment since being released from the hospital as the result of a serious manic episode.