Reddit reviews The Bipolar Workbook, Second Edition: Tools for Controlling Your Mood Swings

If you want to hear a more anecdotal story about a life of a successful bipolar person with her fair share of psychosis and depression, I read this super quickly and I had been having a hard time reading: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

This book is about a journey through anxiety. The author is young and she was actually inspired by the author of the book above. First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety

If you want to read stories about great leaders who suffered through mental illness, including bipolar, along with the argument that those experiences made them the dynamic people they were with special abilities to be empathetic and reach people in ways others couldn’t, A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness.

I bought this Bipolar Workbook but haven’t had the discipline to do it yet.

I don't know about her particular meds but a lot of these do have side effects that kind of have to be balanced out along with the helpful effects. I've noticed impairment in my mental facilities since I've gotten on meds and in times that are UP there is a good improvement in that, being sharper, but it has the downside of removing my concentration. Simple things like daydreaming to full on forgetting we are talking WHILE we are talking. But the latter is on an extreme end. I first started noticing the concentration when I was meditating. I had worked myself up to about 20 minutes but at times couldn't do 2 minutes because of it. Reading books at times being multiple a month to not being able to get through a page in several minutes from trailing off, having to read, re-read, re-read again.

I don't think, at least in my case, that it's all meds that are doing the degrading stuff, the concentration or any fear type stuff. Mostly because some things would happen before meds. The reading type things I experience in my UP/DOWN cycles were there before meds and having a diagnosis sort of made me link it up. (BP isn't just ups and downs.)

But on to changing stuff. For the better! CBT! Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is great. This is the one I have. It can do all kinds of things like help you recognize when you're starting to go into a down/up swing. Reminding you to do the things that HELP you when you're changing cycles to minimize the damage so to speak. For the fear it could help to step through it logically to see that there is either nothing to fear or confirm that the fear is warranted. For example today, I have a fear of making phone calls sometimes. It doesn't always creep up but sometimes it does. This was a particularly sensitive situation that needed to be talked about and working everything out in my head, it had to be done no matter what outcome so "Lets get it over with so I won't worry about it anymore." is the way I changed my thoughts to do it.

The Bipolar Workbook:

https://www.amazon.ca/Bipolar-Workbook-Second-Controlling-Swings/dp/1462520235

There were others that I'll try to look up for you but that was the best, hands down. All the others, I had to sort of pick and choose what to work on.

Having bipolar disorder is not an excuse to act like a shitty human being. I have bipolar 2 and wouldn't dream of having an affair. I just don't have it in me.

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I will say that bipolar, if left untreated, does often have the ability to make those affected have higher libidos, especially type 1, during manic phases. Does this mean your wife should go out and bang another dude? No. She can masturbate.

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Bipolar is never an excuse to cheat on your partner. Ever. My ex husband had type 1 and used it as a general excuse to get away with just about anything, from drugs to hurting me to cheating on me. Looking back, he was just an all around shitty person.

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You're in a difficult situation with your wife right now. How long has she been on medication and what kind is she on? Note, a bipolar person usually requires both an antidepressant AND a mood stabilizer. Sometimes an antipsychotic. She also needs to be in serious counseling on her own for her own issues.

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It sounds like she has been in an upswing (manic) phase for a while now. I can offer you some resources for her to use:

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https://www.amazon.com/Bipolar-Workbook-Second-Controlling-Swings/dp/1462520235

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https://www.amazon.com/Disordered-Mind-Unusual-Brains-Ourselves/dp/0374287864/ref=sr_1_14?keywords=bipolar+1+workbook&qid=1557264525&s=books&sr=1-14