How Bipolar Disorder Affects Relationships

The best thing about life is that we are all seeking love from somebody else. However, when you are in love with someone, all their flaws seem to fade in the background until they show up after getting comfortable. An individual with bipolar disorder experiences alternating periods of depression and elation.

If left unchecked, the individual has more chances of experiencing changes in their personality, moods, and it can affect and threaten the consistency of a relationship’s framework. The first course of action when one realizes that their partner has bipolar disorder is to terminate the relationship.
How then does bipolar disorder affect relationships?

Uncertainty

Whenever the partner who has bipolar disorder, he or she can lose their sense of judgment when in the manic phase. Research shows that during this phase, one can become promiscuous, spend money recklessly, engage in risky behavior like excessive intake of alcohol, and abuse of hard drugs. The manic phase also increases their chances of getting into trouble with the law.

After the manic phase, they individual will sink into depression, causing complete withdrawal from reality, everything and everyone around them. This gives the other partner a hard time trying to adjust to the alternating personalities and moods and leaves them feeling helpless since they do not know how to assist their partner. This causes uncertainty in the future of the relationship.

Impulsivity

At the very beginning of the relationship, the person with bipolar disorder can be impulsive, and this can make the individual exhilarating to be around. However, with time, it can make one be a different person from whom people have familiarity. The consequences of being fun to be around during when one is hyper are that the other person in the relationship will not understand the bipolar disorder victim when they are down and sinking into depression.

Psychosis

It becomes a common thing to think that family and friends are out to bring you down, and this can cause withdrawal, alienation, and complete isolation. Most people have distorted views on psychosis and cause them to flee whenever the individual starts experiencing it, which is simply due to lack of understanding.

Most often the other person will not have the understanding of how to treat a person experiencing psychosis, and it leads to unstable relationships.

Bipolar disorder will put a strain on any relationship. When a partner shares that they have bipolar disorder, they have placed a large amount of trust, and they expect to be understood. It is best to know how to handle the disorder before leaving without a word.