My wife of 26 years

I have been married for 26 years. I am so in love with my wife after all these years. She is still everything to me. I never really knew she was bi-polar. Still not diagnosed. We have had a solid relationship since married, most of the time. My daughter was born in 93, my wife was 24. Things were great we had been married for 5 years already. when my daughter was just over a year old we took a trip to England. A mutual friend of ours lives there. was a great trip, we had a blast. After we came home my wife started acting a little different. Said she wanted to move to England. I thought it was strange, but I never realized she would actually pack a bag and buy a ticket and go. I found myself alone with my daughter and in disbelief. I pleaded with her on the phone to come home. After about two months she finally came home. My daughter and I met her at the airport. After she came home everything was good for a another 4 years. My son was born about a year after she came back in October of 95. In 97 my wife met a guy online. I found out about it and confronted her. She then moved out. Left my kids and I moved in with this guy for over six months. I was in the middle of getting a divorce in which she signed over the kids and everything. I was over everything ready to move on and I got a call one day. She wanted to go to lunch. We went to lunch and she couldn't even talk. She was crying so hard. Telling me how she ruined her whole life. The kids were still pretty young, I thought it might be best if we could work it out, especially for the kids sake. So, I took her back as hard as it was. We worked through it and were happy again for another several years. Most of the time she is my best friend. We do everything together. We take a lot of trips. We go to Spring Training every year. We are almost the same person. Its almost sickening. about 2 years ago she started taking antidepressants. Her behavior has seemed to worsen. I have noticed she has been spending money like crazy. I am talking online shopping sprees in excess of 10,000 dollars. She bought a new wedding ring set for about 25,000 dollars. A month after buying her ring set she started having and affair with a guy at work who is 17 years younger than her. I found she is downloading **** on her phone. it's like I don't even know her anymore. I talked to our doctor and explained everything. He said she needs a mood stabilizer. She will look at me and smile and tell me how much she loves me and then tell me how she needs to be on her own. She is all over the place with her emotions. It scares me. I think I have her talked into seeing our doctor and then getting some counseling. Her sister is bipolar and has been in and out of the hospital. I am afraid my wife is heading down that path. I can't bring myself to leave her. If she needs help I feel I need to be here for her.

I am so sorry you have had a difficult road. Your wife is very fortunate to have such a loyal and caring husband. I admire the fact that you love her enough to help her work through her issues. I think it's great that she is willing to seek some help, it could be life changing for her. Try to remain patient, I know this is a long difficult road. You have lots of support and encouragement here. HUGS!

~Ducktapetherapy77