I'm sorry to hear that your relationship with your girlfriend ended because of a severe bout of mania. Unfortunately episodes certainly can and do take their toll on relationships, whether or not we want them to - from both the person experiencing the mania and the partner as well.

Firstly.

For the record.

I wanted to say I am not a "sufferer" of Bipolar.

I've never considered myself a victim of my diagnosis.

I'm a proactive go getter.

This means that if I've made bad choices when I've been either manic or depressed, when I'm more stable I reflect on these choices and make sure I have some strategies in place for the next time I have episodes.

Does this mean I face consequences?

Sure. Often. Very often.

But I won't allow myself to ever be a sufferer by denying what I have done on my part. This is not a disease. This is a diagnosis.

"Lies".

Well this is not really the word that you would want to be using when discussing symptoms of mania.

The correct medical terminology is "Psychosis". Thank you.

So back to your question.

Would we recognise our Psychosis?

Well, no.

Psychosis is very real to the person experiencing it. And it doesn't matter what anybody says to dispute the facts, if we are psychotic, we are psychotic and will 100% believe what our mind tells us to be true. This can have a sudden onset. Or a gradual onset developing over a few weeks. It can last a few hours. It can last a few weeks.

Please do not think for one second that the intention is to "lie".

This is misleading for our diagnosis.

Well your ex is entitled to her opinion of you, merely because she is your ex. If she is your ex, please remember that she shouldn't play much of a role in your life right now.

You are not portraying her in a very positive light. Which is why I think that personally for your own mental health and for you to move forward from a relationship that didn't really seem to work out, you best move on and forget about her, because clearly, very unfortunately, you have been hurt. And I'm sorry that this happened.

I know you are broken to pieces, and this is a very unfortunate part of this relationship.

Lastly, I really wanted to recommend this for you.

There is an awesome forum -

Partners and Caregivers (for BP).

I'd highly suggest that you ask this there.

It's better that you actually get the perspective from first hand suffers just like you in what was a very turmulous relationship that had really bad consequences for you and has left you feeling confused and hurt.

I'm quite sure that if I were you, honestly? I'd have the same feelings as you do.

I think that this is because unless you "walk in our shoes" / our headspace and so on and so forth, it can be very distressing to observe somebody that you care about during an episode of Bipolar and can cause a great deal of stress and concern, as you had, with your ex girlfriend.

Best wishes to you moving forward. May you find some peace in future relationships.