Want to hear a great big WTH? Bit of background: My ex is a VERY patient and VERY stable guy. He put up with me for 25 years(!), which, unto itself is undoubtedly grounds for sainthood, LOL! (We also very much had his own life and he ignored a lot of things, which surely helped.) So, anyway, we were getting divorced (my doing) about... 1/2 year after finally officially being dx'd (Amazing to have avoided this for so long, as there was nothing subtle about the "clues". They were big red waving flags). Ok. So after ALL THAT TIME (not that he hadn't made comments a'plenty regarding my behavior all those years) --25 YEARS-- he declares:
"I just can't handle your mood swings anymore."

Isn't that the kookiest thing you ever heard?! I'm sure it was a reaction to my being the one to wrap it up and take off, but still(!) Looking back, I know now that I was hypomanic at the time. Had considered it a lot and was convinced I wasn't though (lack of insight much?!) But here are the facts: I was going out on the town a LOT, virtually every night and partying. Staying up till all hours, then being up and at work a few short hours later. Though I really didn't associate much with people at work, they kept commenting that something was really different about my demeanor. Know what it was? Online, someone I really didn't know (only through buying some things from him off Ebay of all things!) had contacted me, we struck up an email relationship that quickly progressed to phone, then meeting in a city I'd travelled to (not just for that, it was where I wanted to live after divorce). I'd gone positively electric over this, and before, what?, 3 1/2 days? of being together in person, I suggested we move there together(!!!) From first email to getting divorced to living together? 2 1/2 months. And I'd convinced myself I wasn't hypomanic? Lol.

How contrary was this to my usual behavior? In 25 years, I had NEVER cheated (mentally yes, but physically in any way, no)! It was the one diagnostic criteria that never got out of hand. Turned out there was a whole lot I didn't know about this person (really?!), but we do live together to this day, albeit much more tempestuously (he has psych dxs too) -- in very good and not-so good ways --than years previous when I was the only one who was a handful. (My ex ended up with a nice, but very dull woman, in both personality and appearance. I figured after being exhausted by having the whole spice cabinet, a burlap bag of potatoes looked pretty good. Not saying it to be mean. We're all truly and totally amiable. Just that the difference was hugely striking.)

Is BP rough on relationships? Oh yeah. Then there's the kid, other family, people at work (especially bosses)...

(*Oh. I should mention that we had already been talking separation and divorce before all this went down, but it doesn't change a whole lot. Oh. And I'd been very suicidal (totally unrelated to relationship thing, that was a relief for being put off far too long) not long before striking up the other relationship. I saw it as a sign.)