Me and my wife couldn't marry till 2015 when gay marriage became legal. But we have been together for 10 years prior to our marriage. Around 5 years into our relationship (we already knew we wanted to get married if they ever made it legal that was) I started showing symptoms of my first manic episode and at that point, after some time of her putting up with my *****, she told me to go see a doctor or a therapist or she was leaving. Well I saw a therapist at the college I was attending at the time and she suggested I see a pdoc because she thought I showed classic signs of bipolar. Long story short, I was diagnosed with bipolar I.

It took a long time to find the right meds but now that she knew my behavior was due to my diagnosis she was willing to stand by my side as long as I was working at becoming stable. She didn't bring up breaking up until later when I took myself off of my meds without telling her and I started up the same pattern of behavior.

Now that we're married, and I'm stable, we've had our ups and down but we're doing good. She says as long as I'm working on myself she is willing to stand by my side.

I hope your relationship will be a lot better now that you are finally open with your wife. I know you said that you were doing therapy for couples counseling, but maybe you can do individual counseling as well.

When I was doing it at the beginning of my diagnosis (I'm currently not in therapy) it really helped me out talking with someone who knew all about it. Plus, it gave me so great tools to help deal with episodes and daily stress. I was lucky to find a therapist who was willing to combine my self therapy with marriage counseling, maybe you can do that if you're willing to bring your wife to your therapy. Just a suggestion. If not, try to get counseling for both you and your marriage.

Best wishes!