Your children are both old enough to know about your having bipolar disorder. Chances are they already know something is amiss, why keep pretending? It might be best if you explain it to them separately in an age-appropriate way; you'll want to make the explanation a little more simple for the 8 year old than you would for the 14 year old.

But they deserve to know.....I can tell you from experience that one of the worst things one can do to their kids is treat them like mushrooms (keeping them in the dark and feeding them bull$#!+). They'll figure it out on their own one day, and then they'll demand to know why they weren't told.

My kids are all grown, and I wasn't diagnosed until after they were all on their own. However, my grandsons (ages 9 and 7) needed to know, and when I went to the hospital on Halloween my daughter told them what was wrong with Grandma. I always take them trick-or-treating, and they needed to know why I couldn't this year. Those boys don't treat me any differently than they did before, except my older grandson likes to trade hospital stories with me now (he broke his arm last year and had to have surgery). I have a feeling your kids will feel better knowing the truth.