Hi everyone, I have bipolar disorder. Lately I've been having some difficulty with what I call bipolar attacks, especially concerning my girlfriend. I was diagnosed in 1996, so I've had bipolar for 20 years. I respond well to treatment and overall I do well.

However with my girlfriend of 6 months now, we have been attacking each other. She has no mental illness but she stated that she has always been hot-tempered. I noticed over the course of our relationship she has a tendency to start fights or at the very least antagonize me.

When she does this, I ignore it at first but then I worsen over a couple of days, when I'm alone, and then I get angry and attack her with words - really cutting words. All we fight with is words since she lives in Ukraine and I in the USA. But here is the odd thing - most of my attacks against her, I don't remember or only vaguely remember. Sort of like a psychotic break.

Now in my opinion my attacks are mainly triggered by hers, but she has greater control over her attacks and remembers everything. What I'm trying to discover is if people with bipolar disorder can verbally or in writing attack those around them and not recall it, and is it possible that bipolar people have triggers that cause these attacks.

If so, I would sure love to learn from everyone here who has bipolar or a family member that does, because I dearly love my girlfriend. Even though she hurts me from time to time, I think I hurt her worse.
Well that's about it. If I didn't explain this well, please tell me and please ask questions. Thank you.