Thank you both for your replies. Vickie, I really appreciate your perspective. I'm sure my husband knows there's something wrong with him. When manic though, he's certainly not going to admit that. Another piece of the puzzle became clear after I read something on this website about drug-induced mania. He recently took a long course of prednisone. We both expected it would make him aggressive and irritable, but neither of us expected he would succumb to a full blown manic episode.

Living with his father is exactly the wrong place for him to be if he's going to get any help. His dad is very likely bipolar, and certainly suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. He's very abusive to my husband. His dad's family has mental health issues encompassing child molesters, bipolar, and suicide, within very close degree relatives. His dad does not believe bipolar is an actual disease, and my husband agrees with him because he idolizes his father, and also because he just can't disagree with his father, it's not permissible. Everything that his sister has done due to her bipolar is just because she has "bad character," is "evil," and because their mother didn't raise her right.

Everything is my fault, he's so very combative with me, and picks fights for no good reason. I still have to see him because we have two children together. I usually try to have someone present when he comes to visit, because he doesn't pick any fights if there's someone else here. When I'm alone though, he always tries something, and it's difficult for me to know how best to respond to him. I'm still so emotionally invested in him, I'm hurt and mad. Letting all that go is a whole lot easier when he's not in my face.

Once we get court orders in place for visitation, I'll try to get him to read more on bipolar. All the stress in our lives is probably only going to feed his mania though, I wonder when he'll crash? I'm sure he'll be a lot more receptive once he falls off his all-powerful pedestal.

I'll feel so much better once I have a job. It's SO very difficult right now to find work!! The job market is flooded with qualified applicants for every position, and I've not worked in more than three years! He couldn't have chosen a worse time to fall apart than right now.