Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner (The New Harbinger Loving Someone Series) Paperback – January 2, 2012

My husband was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and this is by far the best book for spouses/significant others that I have read. It's good to read a few books for the person with bipolar disorder (I highly recommend Welcome to the Jungle) but this book gets me. It has been an emotional experience reading this book as I recognized how many of the symptoms and behaviors my husband was showing and even the ones I was experiencing. I had to put it down a few times because it was all too much. That being said, I appreciate the breadth and depth of knowledge in this book. Detailed plans for working with your partner to come up with a strategy to stay well and sample scripts for everything including how to deal with unsupportive family and friends (which thankfully we don't have). And always the reminder that I have to take care of myself first and that deciding to leave is okay. Honestly that was reassuring: hearing that yes this is a terrible situation and leaving because a partner with bipolar disorder is unwilling to get help is okay. That's why I have the courage to stick it out for a while (but not indefinitely). I have yet to sit down with my husband to work on the exercises in this book but as this book was just recommended by his bipolar outpatient program I'm hopeful that he'll read it and then we can get started. I found doing some of the exercises on my own was really helpful in sorting out some of my emotions and I did try a few of the techniques in communicating with my husband.Tl;Dr: if you only read one book on bipolar disorder as family or friend of someone with bipolar disorder, make it this one. And then follow up with Welcome to the Jungle because it will make you laugh which you desperately need.

This book has been very helpful with making me understand my bipolar wife and how to desclate situations when your partner is in an episode. It requires both of your work to totally work and make sure it’s when you BOTH are in a good head space … especially whomever is diagnosed bipolar. Great book to help learn how to not let bipolar control your life or relationship!

I am father with a bipolar adult son. This book helped me to understand bipolar conditions, behaviours, causes and how to help my son to understand his condition. I am in the middle of this process. It gave me some hope and understanding better how to improve my son's conditions and quality of life. My son is unable to fully accept his Bipolar II condition diagnostic, quite well explained by the authors on this book. However is getting better to understand that he may do something to control his quality of life.I have followed my son's psychotherapy sessions for years, with several psychologists, and no one in the US helped me to understand his condition and recommend me to help me and my son with a book like this along psychotherapy sessions. It seems that psychology treatments for patients is misguided and biased on a" one to one sessions" and the individual , and should include at least 20 % of sessions to compare advances and setbacks with parents.I bough this book and gave copies for all family members and we are going from desperation, to understanding and managing behaviours for us, among us and my son, to improve our quality of life. I congratulate the authors and strongly recommend it to any family with members with bipolarity conditions.

It uh, doesn't sugarcoat anything. A useful book that actually prepares you for the worst cases. I guess my wife isn't that bad!

This book is written like no other self help book I have ever read (and I have read a lot :)The mystery of the bipolar illness almost ruined a loving marriage / family.....this book was recommended to me by an angel in my bipolar support group, and it saved our life together as a family. The ups and downs of this illness no longer wreak havoc with our relationships because we understand them from the point of view of the patient AND the family members. It is written with a sensitive approach that eliminates the GUILT that comes along with this illness.....I HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo

This book not only explains BPD but provides true holistic steps for a partner or family member to understand the needs of an individual with BPD. The book outlines ways to create a holistic treatment plan and work towards a healthy relationship. I am absolutely impressed with this book.

first off what made me rate this a 3 out of 5 stars is i have no idea how many people actually have a 'what works list' like they speak so highly of over and over and over in this. the idea seems kind of corny to me. not to be harsh to the writers but i have a partner with both bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia and i don't see myself or him coming up with a list of things that helped him through a mood swing. we'd just remember what helped. there's probably going to be a lot of times once we're living together where i just give him space or he'll cling to me a lot and I'll either deal with it or tell him i need alone time to write. then again I've never witnessed him not stable so maybe that's why i feel the book had a few good points about the symptoms and how hard it is on couples and families but didn't like everything about it. it felt like it took too long to finish and near the end i couldn't wait to be done with it. i did like the idea of interviewing the person with bipolar disorder. i did that with him but couldn't come up with a lot of questions. what i did ask made me receive quite a surprising answer i had no idea I'd ever hear from him, such a gentle lamb of a man that he is.I'd still recommend this book. maybe me and him aren't the type to have the whole list and talk about the illnesses all the time is all.