When I started this blog, it was primarily to give an insight and hopefully some advice to people who love someone with Bipolar, in my ‘about me’ post I explained a little bit about my background and what led me to the life I have now.

I have written about how important it is to understand your partners needs and illness but it is also important for your partner to understand yours.

I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression when I was 23, I had to go on medication which made me feel like a failure, I felt like I wasn’t good enough to fix it myself, and I felt defeated, but at that point it was life or death, there was no choice.

When I decided to reach out to people that I thought might be able to help, I wasn’t expecting it to change my life completely, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to meet my wife on an app for people that were suicidal, had mental health issues and in the closet! But sometimes life works out that way, it allowed us to be completely honest with each other when we met because we were both struggling and hurting in some way, and we knew that neither of us was being judged by the other.

Over the last 3 years I have been able to come off of medication, we have a house, a dog, we are very soon about to start a family, and every bit of it is because of my wife.

She understands everything that I need, she is my doctor when I’m ill, my therapist when I’m overthinking everything, My best friend that knows me better than anyone.

Our relationship is very two sided. We lean on each other and push each other to be the best we can be. My wife is the one with bipolar but I am the one with depression. We support each other and neither of us is made to feel like someone’s mental illness is ‘worse’ than the other’s or that someone needs to be ‘looked after’ more.

neither illness defines us, they are just apart of our lives, albeit a big part but it’s not the whole story and it doesn’t consume our relationship.

make sure you look after yourself and make sure your partner supports you just as you support them. Everything is better when you have your best friend by your side.

team work makes the dream work!