Help !
I'm looking for feedback. My husband was diagnosed a year ago with bipolar disorder. In my mind, he's treated me very poorly for all 3 years we've been married. I will describe it briefly below. Is this bpd or abuse ? And should I be scared for my life ? I never feel safe:
Little things will make him blow up. Like if I "said" that I was going to the grocery store about 3 pm, but I end up going at 4 pm. Or if I buy a brand of something at the store that he doesn't really like. Blowing up, or "raging-out" as I call it, means that I get called stupid, lazy, a B**ch, a C**t, a Piece of Sh**.
If I argue with him about it, he gets in my face, and can say things like "Fu** you and Die, B**ch, or "get out of my house", or "you and your son are both losers", etc. I've learned to NEVER to let BIG things occur. Big things would be trying to keep something from him to surprise him, not lavishing attention on him when he comes home, not making foods the way that he prefers them, not doing something that I committed to do (like paying a bill) the next second, even if it's not due for 4 weeks.
Here's the worst thing that has happened in the last 6 months:
We went on a weekend vacation. We went out for the day, in a new city. We were supposed to take a drive, but he decided to go downtown and walk around where an evening event was going to take place. It was really hot. I stopped in a place to go to the bathroom. When I came out, he was even further down the path away from the car. I caught up with him. He mentioned he had to use the bathroom. I told him we could go back where I had been. He said no, he had spied a porta potty up ahead. He seemed to make light of it. We went a ways further, and I saw a street vendor's booth with my husbands favorite kind of art. Trying to be nice, I said "hey, we should look over there". My husband blew up at me, saying I was totally insensitive to his needs. He pointed out the porta-potties up ahead. I told him I'd wait for him there where we were, in the shade. When he came back, he snapped at me and started walking off. He told me how mean I was. I caught up to him, tryed to be nice, but told him that I wasn't being insensitive. It escalated into a HUGE fight. He started calling me names and I walked off. He beat me back to the car and wouldn't let me in. When I finally got in, I said I wanted to go home (we still had 2 more days of our vacation). He called me names over and over and over again. I tried to stay calm, and not call him names, I simply stated over and over "I Hate what you did". When we got back to the hotel, he started calling me an "IT" and asking strangers what they thought of "IT" and wasn't I gross. I ran to the room and locked the door so I could pack. He started beating on the door. I opened it. He put his fist in my face, and I told him to make sure it was a good one, because it would be the last time he got close enough to hit me. We got in the car and went home. I wanted to leave but I was drained of energy. When I got home, I went to the grocery store. I bought the wrong kind of cheese. He called me a C**nt, and I threw the cheese at him. He ended up shoving me onto the driveway and I fell pretty hard.


Are you safe? How could anyone still be wondering this when already they've been physically assaulted? No, you are not safe. It also doesn't matter what you want to call this kind of behavior, "abuse", or something else--or what triggered it, "illness", or something else. You also mentioned you have a child. Get out now for both of your sakes. Call a Women's Shelter and ask for their help in doing it, asap. Don't make excuses or delude yourself that you or your child are safe around this person for another day.