Can you pinpoint any reason other than being manic that you might have lost your ability to control your excesses? Are you under more stress than previously, or maybe worried about something?

Have you always drank a lot? Are you drinking to self-medicate maybe? I read years ago that people with mood disorder [particularly bipolar] use alcohol and drugs to self-medicate, and that if a person has a drinking problem, chances are they have a mood disorder. How true this is I can't say. Just something to ask yourself if the alcohol is supplementing your meds to keep your mood stable.

I'm online a good part of the day unless I have something else going on. My excuse is that I need intellectual stimulation and the internet is my own personal library. I watch a lot of stuff on youtube, check this forum and Facebook and various other sites. I wish I could get off it, but I'm not working due to health issues so I other than housework and cooking, I don't have a lot of other stuff going on, and this keeps me entertained. It's a problem but I don't know what to do about...it's the new normal.

Since you both work, why don't you hire a housekeeping service to come in and clean once a week. If they clean the bathrooms, vacuum, dust and do anything else that needs your problem will be solved. Same with the yard--hire a yard maintenance company to maintain it. My neighbor did that one summer as they aren't good about keeping their place up. You might as well spend the money to make your life better, and a clean house and yard will lessen your stress and guilt.

Set yourself up a budget. I'm an accountant so we live on a budget, and it's very helpful. I use Excel and list my known expenses, and then lump oddball stuff under miscellaneous. I have a budget column, an actual column and then the difference in the next column is the variance so I can compare how closely I stuck to my budget. I adjust it as need be. The thing that I find helpful is I can look at it mid-month and see what bills haven't been paid, and where I stand financially--my husband gets paid once a month. You could easily go through your bank statement and categorize your debit or credit charges to give yourself an idea of what you're spending on various categories like dining out and alcohol.

With your meds, if you don't think they're doing the job, admit it to yourself and decide what direction you want to take. With alternative treatment why not go talk to a naturopath about their success rate? My naturopath told me he became one as both his parents were Pdocs who shared a building with a naturopath they got to know, and wanted him to meet this person as his mother said 'his patients get well!!' That's the thing you need to understand about using orothomolecular medicine is that by giving the body what it needs to function, you start to feel normal as in happy without being crazy wound up out of control or in the pit of despair.

Check out this web site and the links about orothomolecular medicine.

Welcome To Orthomolecular.org

Do you need a therapist? The reason I ask is because I think it's a misconception to assume that just because we have this illness we automatically need to go talk to someone every week or month to guide us. When I was diagnosed I was very leery about going into therapy as it was back when recovered memories of sexual abuse was the thing, and I knew I hadn't been molested and didn't want my Pdoc trying to convince me I had been. I did see a different therapist about a few things, and found it helpful, but it didn't have to do with having bipolar per se. And I would see him when I had something I wanted to talk to him about, not every week like clockwork.

My sister who has depression got so attached to her therapist that the woman convinced her to cut off all contact with her parents. She contacts my mother if she needs something, but that's it.

The therapist needs clients, and the way to keep them is to make them emotionally dependent on the therapist so they come in every week. If a person needs to counsel about a specific thing, that's one thing, but I see people going into counseling and going every week for 20 years, and they're less secure and more unhappy at the end of it than when they began.