I was the happiest girl in the world when I married my childhood sweetheart.  He was the kindest, most creative, most athletic boy all during our school years.  All my dreams came true when we began a family together and had two beautiful children.  Life should have been perfect. 

But something changed.  My hero began having extreme mood changes, and he lashed out at me when he felt depressed.  The cycles between his low points grew shorter; soon his moods would swing from high to low several times within days.  I researched mental illnesses at that time and suggested he see a psychiatrist, but he had other ideas. 

He had two affairs -- which upset him even more than they upset me.  The heartbreak occurred when, during a manic high, he decided to divorce me and marry another woman, leaving the kids and me to make it on our own.  He married the other woman and together they moved from state to state for five years.  Rarely could he even find the strength to contact our two children, who are now young adults.  He has not been able to hold down a job for over a year. 

I'm so thankful that he hasn't committed suicide, and I'm also thankful that his parents took him and his current wife into their home and convinced him to see a psychiatrist.  Two weeks ago, he kept that appointment and was diagnosed and put on medications for bipolar disorder.  I hope the medications will help him to achieve some balance in his life.