My husband tends to do the same thing to me, but it has gotten better over the years. Just looking back through your last month or so of posts, it looks like you and your family have been through a lot lately. It's sort of a double-edged sword: our families are often taught to watch for certain warning signs of an impending episode, but that often breeds hypervigilance, which can really be a problem for us. We are allowed a normal range of emotions and moods, and even the occasional bad day like everyone else. It's when those bad days become numerous and consecutive and our moods cross the line into the extremes that emotion becomes illness.

Somehow you need to sit down with your family and develop some concrete parameters. Is there a certain number of hours of sleep that is significant? For example, if you have two or more nights with less than 4-5 hours of sleep...that might be a warning sign. Or do you tend to drink or smoke when not feeling well? If you have a glass of wine with dinner, that might not be a big deal. But if you're having two or three glasses of wine, for three nights straight, that might be of concern. Sometimes having something quantifiable and less subjective can help everyone understand when they need to be concerned.

Also remember that sometimes a lack of insight is part of the illness. I can certainly tell when I'm depressed, but when I'm starting to get manic, I feel great! Having someone tell me I'm getting sick when I feel like I'm on top of the world seems ridiculous to me then. But, you know, they may be right. But I can't see it. So, on some level, we need to be able to trust our loved ones to watch out for us, but it is also helpful if they can come to us and say, "hey, you've only slept 5 hours in the last two days..." - that kind of a fact cannot be disputed, but we need to be open to hearing it. Everyone's parameters are different, and it's something that needs to be written down and discussed when you're feeling well for it to be useful.

Above all, this isn't an exact science. It's full of grey areas and subjectivity. But the more we can define our patterns, the easier it will be for our families to help us stay well and for everyone to feel more at ease with our normal moods.