The only reason my family knows is because I couldn't hide the hospitalizations. If I could have I would never have said anything. We tend to just ignore it if possible. I do talk about it with my sister in law but only because she has bipolar also.

I live with my mom, and she is supportive, but she also thinks that my illness is the devil inserting himself in my head (especially over the summer when I believed someone was implanting thoughts in my head - SATAN!!). She believes that if I just accept Jesus into my heart all will be well. However, she doesn't usually push this idea on me.
Otherwise she just makes sure I'm stable and I lie to keep the peace.

My husband is the only one directly involved. He struggles with it, especially depressed episodes. When I am depressed he just tells me that I'm not trying hard enough to get out if it, and that when he was depressed he had the willpower to overcome. Doesn't matter that I go to work every day and keep things relatively clean despite the crushing fatigue. He also tends to overreact. The last time I was depressed he spent the whole weekend threatening to call the cops and have me committed. I believe his exact words were "you're going to the hospital and you're staying there until you're fixed!" I told him unfortunately he can't keep me there for the ret of my life.

Hubby is not a bad guy, don't get me wrong. He just doesn't understand. And he's scared - his dad has bipolar and he held my husband hostage at gunpoint once trying to get the cops to kill him. He also spends most of his days in delusions, most recently saying that the pope personally contacted him and is hiring him to enact changes is the Catholic Church. So I can understand why my husband Overreacts. I just wish he didn't blame me when I'm doing everything I can to pull out of the episodes.