Hi Diann,

I'm bipolar, and while I never really associated my sex drive with that, there does seem to be a consensus that mania escalates the sex drive and often leads to some promiscuous misadventures. But wherever his sex drive comes from, at least from my own experience and other anecdotal accounts I know, the meds will all but erase it within a year or so. I'm not trying to make a joke so much as point out something that is a real issue for bp sufferers. There are many many unpleasant features to most meds. All of them cause a patient to reconsider their neccessity. And no side effect is more compelling to a man than the loss of sexual desire and function. Even if I could have tolerated the other side effects, that one alone is enough for me to never touch them again. It's something that is going to weigh heavily in the lifelong process of recovery your husband faces, and in what it means for you to endure in a healthy way for yourself.

So I guess I'm not really offering suggestions as much as I am acknowledging the reality of the issue. tc.