Yup. The irony was that after 25 years together (5 living together, 20 married) and me being a completely unbearable person...undiagnosed, unmedicated and turning everything upside down on a regular basis, he finally said, "I just can't deal with your mood swings anymore!" after I was diagnosed, medicated and finally stable(!) (Need to note here to anyone... this is a very unusual and bizarre. Do NOT let it in ANY way deter you from seeking help. There is more to the story.... which is the far more relevant part...)

And here that is: I had emotionally left the marriage about 10 years before this happened. Credit where credit is hugely due, honestly, the things that man put up with(!) It was my idea to finally call it quits, and very likely he was just lashing out. I was a very challenging person to live with, especially for someone who was my complete opposite and very very stable! I had to consider, and consider hard, if my rather sudden decision of physical departure was just me being hypomanic again, because it can be hard to recognize, especially when one is pretty new to the diagnosis and not well-versed in recognizing the signs yet. Finally concluded that no, it wasn't. It was just long overdue and it was my massive depressions that delayed me being mentally equipped to act on it. It really was the bipolar though. Because besides the challenges of living with me... In one of my biggest (ok, the biggest!) rash and completely irrational ideas, I landed us in a place where we were both miserable. Um, guess about how many years ago When I realized (and regretted, yet again) what I'd done (why do I keep doing these kinds of things?!), it was major depression time again which kicked off a very unstable decade, filled with massive depressions. So yeah, it was the bipolar alright.

Also important to note: I feel much more confident to handle relationships better now that I know I've got BP and am working on being stable. So it doesn't have to ruin relationships by any means. Knowledge and awareness go a long long way to making them better. Unmedicated and unaware, it definitely makes relationships challenging in its own special ways..., especially for the other person, imo.