Just wondering if anyone could give any opinions on whether they think my girlfriend could be bipolar?
Firstly, her family has a history of mental disorder and instability, though all of it undiagnosed. Her mother's actions are almost entirely influenced by her mood for example, obviously mood has an effect on everything/one, but she shows two main moods:
-Aggressive and dictating, she will hunt for arguements with anyone in their family and be completely irrational about it - reacting to a spoon being left on the table like someone has just smashed a window.
-Recessive and passive, she'll keep out of the way of everyone and just be in her room for seemingly hours, when consulted about something that she would normally object to (her younger kids staying up late), she'll just accept it and won't show any confrontation.
My girlfriend's eldest sister of 23 has terrible depression, she'll be operating perfectly normally, then we'll hear her shrieking at ridiculous volumes from her room, it doesn't even sound like crying, it sounds more like someone being totured. She's attempted suicide more than once.
Now, my girfriend shows quite different depression symptoms, but I'm far more exposed to them so see them in more detail:
As an example:
She'll be sitting on my lap while we watch some Family Guy or whatever on the computer, she'll be laughing her head off at it and just generally being joyful. She'll then just slump herself on the desk and tell me to "go away" repeatedly, and upon me trying to comfort her she'll say something like "go away, you don't want me, I'm bad for you", when I respond telling her I do want her, she'll say "I don't want you to love me... I fucking hate everything". When I try to comfort and reassure her, which inevitably involves me disagreeing with her claims, she may start calling me a dick or become pissed off with me in some way.
Three hours later we'll be cuddling up to each other and she'll be telling me how wonderful I am and how lucky she is to have me and we'll just be perfectly normal, joking to each other and being happy like any couple.
Events like these happen at least half of the times I see her, so one or two times a week. I wondered if it was just because she was emotionally unstable and that the ups and downs were only caused when with me because I'm her boyfriend, but I spoke to one of her sisters and she says that her behaviour is often erratic and out of the blue even if I'm not there.
Now, I'm under no illusion that she is completely mentally sound, but given that none of her family have ever gone for diagnosis, despite her and her two elder sisters all admitting even jokily to me that they and their mother (who doesn't admit any of it) are mentally unstable, I've not much idea to the extent or exact medical definitions of their problems.
My girlfriend at least fits many of the traditional bipolar symptoms, bar the 'spending spree' one that I often hear about - she's perfectly reasonable about money. If it's worth mentioning, she also has terrible sleeping patterns, often 4 hours per night or with random long naps in the afternoon.
I appreciate I've only given limited information as would take pages to describe all of her actions, but considering she refuses to see a doctor (she doesn't want any more drugs in her, being type1 diabetic) is there any advice anyone who's experienced things like this at first hand can give to me? We love each other a lot but all of this puts a lot of stress on both me and her, and I'd like to think that's it isn't always necessary.
Firstly, her family has a history of mental disorder and instability, though all of it undiagnosed. Her mother's actions are almost entirely influenced by her mood for example, obviously mood has an effect on everything/one, but she shows two main moods:
-Aggressive and dictating, she will hunt for arguements with anyone in their family and be completely irrational about it - reacting to a spoon being left on the table like someone has just smashed a window.
-Recessive and passive, she'll keep out of the way of everyone and just be in her room for seemingly hours, when consulted about something that she would normally object to (her younger kids staying up late), she'll just accept it and won't show any confrontation.
My girlfriend's eldest sister of 23 has terrible depression, she'll be operating perfectly normally, then we'll hear her shrieking at ridiculous volumes from her room, it doesn't even sound like crying, it sounds more like someone being totured. She's attempted suicide more than once.
Now, my girfriend shows quite different depression symptoms, but I'm far more exposed to them so see them in more detail:
As an example:
She'll be sitting on my lap while we watch some Family Guy or whatever on the computer, she'll be laughing her head off at it and just generally being joyful. She'll then just slump herself on the desk and tell me to "go away" repeatedly, and upon me trying to comfort her she'll say something like "go away, you don't want me, I'm bad for you", when I respond telling her I do want her, she'll say "I don't want you to love me... I fucking hate everything". When I try to comfort and reassure her, which inevitably involves me disagreeing with her claims, she may start calling me a dick or become pissed off with me in some way.
Three hours later we'll be cuddling up to each other and she'll be telling me how wonderful I am and how lucky she is to have me and we'll just be perfectly normal, joking to each other and being happy like any couple.
Events like these happen at least half of the times I see her, so one or two times a week. I wondered if it was just because she was emotionally unstable and that the ups and downs were only caused when with me because I'm her boyfriend, but I spoke to one of her sisters and she says that her behaviour is often erratic and out of the blue even if I'm not there.
Now, I'm under no illusion that she is completely mentally sound, but given that none of her family have ever gone for diagnosis, despite her and her two elder sisters all admitting even jokily to me that they and their mother (who doesn't admit any of it) are mentally unstable, I've not much idea to the extent or exact medical definitions of their problems.
My girlfriend at least fits many of the traditional bipolar symptoms, bar the 'spending spree' one that I often hear about - she's perfectly reasonable about money. If it's worth mentioning, she also has terrible sleeping patterns, often 4 hours per night or with random long naps in the afternoon.
I appreciate I've only given limited information as would take pages to describe all of her actions, but considering she refuses to see a doctor (she doesn't want any more drugs in her, being type1 diabetic) is there any advice anyone who's experienced things like this at first hand can give to me? We love each other a lot but all of this puts a lot of stress on both me and her, and I'd like to think that's it isn't always necessary.