Nobody Understands This: The Hidden Reality of Bipolar Relationship
If you've ever loved someone with bipolar disorder, you've probably heard the same advice over and over: "Just move on." "Quit looking back." "Get over it." The problem is, those words usually come from people who have never lived through the chaos, trauma, grief, hope, and heartbreak that bipolar disorder can bring into a relationship.
In this episode of The Other Side of Bipolar, I talk about the profound loneliness that caregivers and partners experience. Why is it so hard to find someone who truly understands? Why do so many therapists struggle to grasp the unique emotional roller coaster of loving someone with bipolar disorder? And why do well-meaning friends often make you feel even more isolated?
If you've ever felt like you're carrying this burden alone, this episode is for you. Sometimes the greatest comfort isn't being given advice—it's finally hearing someone say, "I understand, because I've been there."
Keywords: bipolar disorder, bipolar relationships, bipolar spouse, caregiver support, loving someone with bipolar disorder, bipolar marriage, bipolar recovery, mental illness relationships, caregiver trauma, emotional abuse, bipolar podcast, bipolar education, mental health podcast, The Other Side of Bipolar.
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Hi everybody, this is me again.
I wanted to talk today about
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something really dear to my
heart, and that is the fact that
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nobody understands where we're
coming from and nobody
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understands what we've been
through.
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You.
If you have not lived with or
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experienced life with a bipolar
person, you have no idea what
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we're going through.
Family doesn't understand it.
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I don't even think most
therapists understand it.
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I didn't understand it until I
got out of it to be honest with
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you.
I thought it was just.
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I didn't know what the hell it
was to be honest with you.
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Again, I've said this before.
I was told they were.
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My spouse was manic depressive,
but that's just not true.
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Manic depressive was what it was
called 30 years ago.
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Bipolar 1 was psychosis, but how
much all of us desperately need
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validation when you've been gas
lit and manipulated and then you
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and I both know they don't
necessarily mean it.
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They mean it at the time because
of the disease, but the sweet
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person does not mean it.
And that's what's so hard for
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anybody to understand.
I guarantee if you're listening
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to me right now, you know what
I'm talking about because we're
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the only ones that understand
it.
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How many times my wife was sweet
and nice and awesome and then
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when something came up that she
may have been guilty of, I don't
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know, she couldn't.
She couldn't be accountable.
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She would gaslight the shit out
of me.
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She would go to her friends and
recruit them to make me
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absolutely know that my reality
was not true when the reality
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was it was true that my reality
had been, how can I put it?
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My reality had been warped is a
good word.
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I mean, when when you look at
somebody and know that they're
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cheating, know that they're
emotionally cheating, know for a
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fact, and then you're proven
wrong by her friends.
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You just shake your head and you
go, what the what the hell did I
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just go through?
And then you go to another day
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and you forget about it, but
your body doesn't and your mind
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doesn't.
And then once you get out, or if
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you try to talk to a friend,
which I did, they don't
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understand.
And God forbid if you leave the
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relationship and you tell
somebody you know two or three
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months later that you're still
crying every day, or one year
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later or two years later still
crying every day.
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They go, what the Hell's wrong
with you?
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My God, move on.
Get over it.
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You know, man up or woman up.
They don't understand.
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That's one of the most crippling
things for me at least, is my
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son has been an absolute
incredible person with me, but I
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can't talk to him anymore.
I've been gone a year and almost
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two months.
I can't talk to him.
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I can't even tell him about how
I'm feeling anymore.
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Not because he's incredibly
loving and sweet and kind to me.
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It's because I know he doesn't
understand it.
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I mean, it's a breakup to
everybody else in the world for
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you and me, it's it's
catastrophic is a word I use
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that really is good for that.
I'm sorry.
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I'm talking in a down voice.
I'm actually at his house right
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now and I don't want anybody
else listening to what I'm
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saying.
But it's it for me, and I just
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want to validate your feelings
that if you went off on them
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when they ever got angry and
with them, all of us do.
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But the gas lighting for me, I'd
never lived through that before
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with a relationship.
I mean, I'm not going to say how
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old I am, but believe me, I've
been through a few
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relationships.
Nobody's gas let the crap out of
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me like this deal.
I didn't even really understood
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what gaslighting was.
Manipulation, you know, the
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absolute lack of accountability
when it's staring you in the
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face when things would happen.
And I tried to explain to her
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what's going on and they don't
get it.
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They don't understand it.
It's so then they turned around,
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gaslight you, and all of a
sudden you're going.
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Am I the one with bipolar?
Do I have these problems?
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What the Hell's going on?
I used to be normal.
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Have I all of a sudden gone off
the deep end?
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It's just so hard.
I'm sorry.
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It's just so hard because nobody
gets it.
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And I wish we could talk about
it.
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You know, I've often wondered if
I shouldn't, I shouldn't have
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some kind of program to talk to
people actually one-on-one.
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I guess I could if you're
interested, I'd be more than
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glad to talk to people
one-on-one.
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I'm not, you know, I've had
other people tell me I should
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try to monetize this stuff.
I'm, I'm not, I'm doing this
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from my own therapy.
And I have heard from people on
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this platform that that helps
them because we all need this
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validation.
And where the hell does a
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validation come from?
If you can't talk to your
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friends, you can't talk to your
family, or you can just mention
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they had a mental illness and
then they go, well, you need to
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go ahead and get over it.
You know, don't look back, just
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look forward.
What the am I supposed to do
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about that?
What am I supposed to do about a
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woman that was the most
incredibly living woman I've
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ever met who the next day could
burn me down and literally walk
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away?
How do you explain that to
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anybody?
How do you explain that as
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you're sitting here a year later
and you're having a great day
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and somebody comes, something
comes up on the TV or a memory
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hits you and you instantly start
crying?
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That's called trauma.
That's called PTSD or CPTSD now.
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It's continual, whatever it is,
PTSD, I don't know all these
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freaking terms.
All I know is I've been through
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it because I've literally been
sitting here on numerous
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occasions sitting around and
boom, I just start crying.
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Thank God I'm alone.
I can't do it in public.
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I just can't.
It's too embarrassing.
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So if you're, if you can relate
to this, if I'm helping you, I
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really appreciate it.
I, I appreciate knowing that
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you're, I'm helping other people
because I've read so much and
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but nobody talks about it.
Hang your head up high.
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Understand what we're going
through is not normal.
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Nobody gets it and they won't
unless you talk to another
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person that's lived with
somebody bipolar.
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And how the hell do you know?
Nobody wants to admit it.
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Do I want to admit the fact that
after my wife moved in with me
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that it was pure and mitigated
chaos within three or four
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months, which instantly traps
you into the trauma bond, which
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they say a trauma bond is the
liken to be being addicted to
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heroin.
God, all this shit.
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I wish I didn't know.
And I guarantee you wish you
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didn't know, but hold your head
up high.
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It does get better.
You're validated.
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I'm sorry.
I'm not the one with bipolar.
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And how do you feel sorry for
somebody that tortures you?
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Where the hell?
Where the Hell's that?
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In the history books, the
psychology books?
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I just can't read that crap.
I feel so sorry for her and I
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feel so guilty.
And at the same time, she
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tortured me.
Those things don't coexist, but
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they do.
With this, I love everybody.
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You take care.
I hope I help somebody.
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Bye.