Archive for October, 2009

  • Supporter’s Vow: I Won’t Let You Fall Apart
    When my wife and I married, we offered the typical vows to one another with full respect for each other and for the vows themselves. We understood that there weren’t just filler words that were included in the ceremony simply to let our voices be heard. We took them seriously on that day, and continue to take them just as seriously today. When taking those vows,...
    by Rich Wallace at October 30th, 2009 at 10:10 am
  • The Things We Don’t Talk About
    Bipolar disorder is not an elegant topic in any sense of the definition of the disorder. Some would say the symptoms themselves sometimes offer a positive feeling to a sufferer when the euphoric highs come into play, others on the supporting side would say that there are some upsides for them as well when the cycle is in the right area of the spectrum. Finding such positive...
    by Rich Wallace at October 29th, 2009 at 06:10 am
  • How To Identify Triggers
    Managing a bipolar relationship without having a deep understanding of our loved ones triggers can put a serious strain on the relationship for both sufferers and supporters alike. For those that are newly involved in a bipolar relationship, or just looking for related information, we’ll touch on what a “trigger” is and how it relates to the bipolar...
    by Rich Wallace at October 28th, 2009 at 06:10 am
  • Distracting Episodes With Routine
    Bipolar disorder plays its most destructive games with our loved ones when they are not preoccupied. Time itself, can be a painful enemy to the bipolar mind when there is too much time to think or dwell on potentially negative thoughts, it is during this time that the illness sees an opportunity to remind us that it is still with us. One of the key points I offered in...
    by Rich Wallace at October 27th, 2009 at 10:10 am
  • Reader Question: Looking Through Patient Eyes
    I had recently received some emails from readers asking what it’s like to be on the other side of bipolar disorder, as a supporter and how I seem to make it “look easy” as far as how my wife and I manage some of our challenges. An earlier post concerning abandonment anxiety seemed to spark an interest in several people as I have received a number of...
    by Rich Wallace at October 23rd, 2009 at 03:10 pm
  • Bipolar Support: Respecting Personal History
    One of the key factors to keep in mind when supporting a loved one that suffers from bipolar disorder is to truly monitor their actions and reactions that may be related to their own personal history. Obviously, we may never know another individual’s true history, therefore, when a trigger fires, it may introduce some newly surfaced challenges that have not been...
    by Rich Wallace at October 20th, 2009 at 10:10 am
  • Why Do Those With Bipolar Disorder Turn on Their Loved Ones?
    I awoke to some new emails lately and one in particular caught my eye… “My wife was diagnosed as bipolar earlier this year and I don’t know what to do when she seems to turn on me and wants nothing to do with me. Why does she do that?” Well, the first observation that comes to mind is that since this is a fairly new diagnosis, the reader either...
    by Rich Wallace at October 17th, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • Bipolar With a Side of Abandonment Anxiety
    Along with the challenges that bipolar disorder brings to our marriage, my wife was recently diagnosed with abandonment anxiety as well. Reflecting over the years of our relationship, it makes sense now as the signs and numerous red flags were right in front of our faces, but we never really paid much attention until recently. Without going into great detail of my wife’s...
    by Rich Wallace at October 16th, 2009 at 11:10 am
  • Happiness In Disguise
    One of the most common, but highly ignored symptom of bipolar disorder is hypomania. In relation to a typical bipolar driven cycle, hypomania sits directly mania within the bipolar spectrum and can be very dangerous for a bipolar sufferer as at this point, any number of triggers may fire off into a full-blown manic episode. What is hypomania? In a nut shell, hypomania...
    by Rich Wallace at October 15th, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • Rapid Cycling: The Land of Confusion
    My wife was diagnosed as being afflicted with Bipolar Disorder Type II with Ultra Rapid Cycling a number of years ago. Based on my own research of the different types of bipolar disorder and the most common symptoms, it became more and more visible that we were not dealing with the ordinary disorder that most of the articles and blogs touch on. Typical sufferers of bipolar...
    by Rich Wallace at October 12th, 2009 at 08:10 am
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