Tips for dating someone bipolar

Unfortunately, it’s a waste of your energy when they’re deep in depression, and actually leads to disconnection and distance.

This way of attempting to help can easily lead to arguments because your partner is unable to agree or see your efforts as helpful.

It’s painful to watch someone you care about suffer and not be able to help them.

It can be bewildering to listen to the person you admire and value most talk about themselves with extreme negativity, and in a way that doesn’t at all align with how you see them.

You can even learn how to get your needs met, even if you can’t imagine how someone who is depressed could meet your needs when they’re working so hard just to be OK themselves. In relationships, we must continually assess whether we should meet the needs of our partners, our own needs, or the needs of the relationship.

But when our partner has an illness that doesn’t go away for long periods of time, we have to learn how to balance taking care of ourselves while still being supportive to our partners. When you ignore your needs, they don’t go away; they only become greater over time.

If you put yourself aside for long enough, you will end up feeling lonely and resentful.

Remind your partner that you care for them even when they're feeling at their worst.

Be curious about what your partner is feeling, wanting, and needing.

To begin creating more balance in your relationship, you must acknowledge that you have needs and at least some of them must be met.