My spouse of 11 years was diagnosed with BP about 6 years ago.  It's been rough.  Her main symptom is anger with a lot of rage and irritablity thrown in.  When she is down, she does not want to do anything and just goes to bed and sleeps.  When she is manic, she yells, rants and becomes out of control.  She also has asthma and has had to take steroids twice in the last year.  The first time we had no idea what the side effects would be and were totally unprepared for the huge manic swing.  The last time was 3 weeks ago.  Her doc doubled her seroquel, but that was still not enough to avoid the side effects.  The biggest trigger is my 17 year old son that lives with us.  She cannot stop criticizing everything he does not does not do and gets very irritated with me when I do not agree with her.  She also displays a lot of paranoia and says that she is alone because I have an alliance with my kids against her.  I have two older children and they avoid coming home because of her attitude.  I dream of a day that we can all have fun together, laugh and enjoy being a family with little stress and drama.  If anyone has any comments or suggestions I'd love to hear from you.  I feel like a lost soul most of the time.  Thanks.