DH has bipolar

[dairylea4brains]

My DH is manic depressive and has very bad depression. He is on SSRI's and on top of that type 1 diabetes so he has irritability when hypo. Mixture can be explosive to say the least. He used to verbally attack me and be nasty and completely horrid to me. To the point where i would hide things from him cos i was scared of his reaction. Lately though he seems to be making a concerted effort after having a small breakdown in Sept. Recently my ex has decided he wants contact of our son (DH step son) and he has handled the whole situation remarkably...but we want another child and i am scared he will be so nasty to me when i am pregnant that i will lose the baby, he can make me sob like nothing else i have experienced. I have just come off beta blockers for high blood pressure due to the strains of helping and supporting him.

is a new baby wise????? i am ready but dont know bout DH, he is doing better and its eems wrong to think he shouldnt have his own child cos he has depression. This was discussed way before the contact thing started.

Bumping for you

Has he been on the ADs long enough for them to have started working?

If you are still so frightened, then I think it would be wise to wait till you are both feeling less fragile until you TTC. Especially as things were bad as recently as September. I wouldn't worry about being shouted at/insulted making you have a miscarriage though.

Is he on a mood stabiliser (lithium, sodium valproate, carbamazepine etc) too? SSRIs are sometimes thought to be responsible for the 'manic switch', maybe it would be wise to wait for his mood to stabilise. Mania or hypomania can cause irritability and aggression, as can depression of course.

Another thing to bear in mind is that manic depression is sometimes hereditary, it runs in my family for example with about one or two in every generation, usually appearing in adolescence - not that it is necessarily a bad thing but it's something to think about.

Hi dairylea, sorry just found your thread. My DH has schizophrenia and bi-polar. Horrific doesn't begin to describe how it USED to be. After he was hospitalised over xmas 2003, DH was started on Quetiapine, and I must say, it's the best medication he's ever been on. (12 years before that on all sorts of injections, pills and what not. Injection even caused him to put on 6 stone in weight)
Quetiapine has totally levelled out the extreme moods, which made him verge from suicidal to "invincible/invisible". Our DD was born in June 06 after many years of trying, but couldn't have happened at a better time, as DH was stable.
Only one small blip last year before xmas (why is it always xmas??)and was given extra medication. I did worry it would pass on to DD, but it certainly didn't stop me. She has been a very calming and grounding thing for DH. Speak to CPN or any professionals your DH sees.
One last thing, my DH's manic depression is part of who he is, and he says if he could bottle the feeling when hyper, we'd all want it!!