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.
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.
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.
The partner with the condition may have feelings of guilt, shame, and fear because of the impact of a mood episode on the relationship. Meanwhile, the spouse's partner may experience a range of emotions, including anxiety, resentment, loneliness, or feeling stuck.
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.
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).
Having a relationship when you live with bipolar disorder is difficult. But it's not impossible. It takes work on the part of both partners to make sure the marriage survives. The first step is to get diagnosed and treated for your condition.
During manic episodes, people with bipolar disorder may experience a heightened sense of sexuality. It's only when this is paired with other symptoms of bipolar mania—including risk-taking, impulsivity, and poor judgment—that it can shift into problematic hypersexuality.
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.
Of course, there are many reasons for infidelity within a marriage or committed relationship, and it's important to remember that having bipolar disorder does not mean you can't be faithful to a romantic partner.
Ups and downs are normal in any healthy relationship, but a mental illness like bipolar disorder can incorporate unique challenges that can be difficult to manage. When you're dating someone with a mental illness, the relationship can feel like an emotional roller coaster.
Many people with bipolar disorder have loving, committed intimate relationships. The symptoms that often come with the condition — such as episodes of mania or depression — can put a strain on those relationships.
Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, yoga, and guided imagery can be very effective at reducing stress and keeping you on an even keel. A daily relaxation practice can improve your mood and keep depression at bay. Make leisure time a priority.
Extreme moods and energy levels of bipolar can translate into hypersexuality or disinterest. Although challenging at times, it's absolutely possible to have a fulfilling sex life as a person with bipolar disorder. You just have to be mindful of the complications and look out for the pitfalls.
If the person with bipolar disorder experiences major depressive symptoms, they may be less communicative during a period of depression. They may become tearful or feel hopeless and pessimistic. Having low self-esteem may reduce a person's sex drive, or they may feel less affectionate.
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.
Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic-depressive illness, is a serious medical condition. Someone with bipolar disorder has extreme episodes of mania, or being very "up" or energetic and active, and episodes of depression, or being very "down" and sad.