How much family helps/hurts us.

 

   Earlier this year i had the pleasure of a all expense paid trip to a sandy area courtsey of uncle sam. LOL LOL LOL  During that time i was completely faithful, never even looking for trouble. When i came home after the first two weeks of "renunion" my wife dissappeared on me. (she suffers from bad depression)  Being left out in the cold i started looking around (my fault, not a solution to our problems) and had an affair which my wife found out about. This in part led to my getting diagnosed with bipolar.  

    It was just weird to me to know i was good for 5 months with lots of women around but something about my interaction between my wife and i caused me to pursue a dangerous path. Now we are working together for saving the marriage and i am on abilify which has had a great effect on me. It isnt perfect and i miss my manias sometime, however it was abilify and a chance to save a 9 year marriage or no abilify and a divorce.  

    The sideeffects i have are for the most part, benign, however i have noticed one bad one i need to talk to my doctor about on wed.

     Anyway when treating this problem, the therapist should definetly look at family issues also. Or at least for me, it seems that way.

      Bill

It is essential to include the family in the treatment plan if the family is cooperative. You said your wife had depression. Was it because of your affairs or did she have when you married her? If her psychological problems are separate, she would probably need to be treated separately. If her depression is linked to your bipolar problems, then she probably needs to be treated together. My mother, for some reason, developed depression when I went through psychosis. I never realized someone as heartless as her could feel, but apparently she had some feelings. She was treated along with me and it took 2 months for her depression to go away. When she realized ad things had happened because I was bipolar and were not a punishment from God for her, she instantly became better.