The 2nd half of my conversation with "Ruth", whose husband has gone through bouts of Anxiety and depression, which cause work, marital, and life issues. She shares with us their plan as a couple for his treatment, and her own coping strategies on how to still have a great life and marriage, while dealing with this illness. She mentions the book "How to Survive When they're Depressed" by Anne Sheffield, which we both recommend as a way to reset your mind towards other's mental illness. 

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Em interviews "Ruth" who has been married to her husband for 15 years. He has dealt with years of anxiety and depression, and she has learned many ways to make it through the tough times and has some great insights to share with us. 

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Winter is upon us! And for those of us with mental illness, or who have a spouse with anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness, this is a tough time of year. We need to fortify ourselves with every tool in our belt to help us get through this time without becoming depressed ourselves. I share some things that work for me, and I also introduce the new patreon account for the podcast at patreon.com/mentalhealthmarriage. You can also find me and friend me on Facebook by searching for Em Kacey, or e-mail me at [email protected].

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Guest "S" tells of her 24 year marriage to a man only recently diagnosed as both Bipolar 2, and ADHD. She has been through a lot, including infidelity, financial struggle, having a child who is also Bipolar and all the other ups and downs that this illness brings. She has much life experience to share, and also some hard questions she is asking herself. 

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Guest "K" shares how loving someone with Bipolar really opened the gate into his own Spiritual Journey. He has found better lenses and tools to view our experiences and make sense of this life. We talk about the power of myth and the Hero's Journey (Joseph Campbell), and discuss a few authors you may want to look up including Richard Rohr, and "The Queen Who Saved Herself" by Fiona J. Purcell. You can also find information about the mankind project at mkpusa,org 

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When we want to hand our mentally ill spouses over to their Doctors or their Therapists and say "Fix Him/Her", we need to understand one thing: It's a slow process. You can't drop them off at the hospital one night and have them come home in a couple days good as new. It takes a long time, often years, to heal, grow, mature, and improve your relationship. Here are my thoughts and some helpful tools from Stephen Covey's Book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" that you can borrow to make a game plan for improving your self and your relationship, and as a result, CHANGE THE WORLD! :) 

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Meet special guest Michelle: she has been married to her High School sweet heart for over 20 years, has two boys, and yet only in the past 2 years has her husband been diagnosed with Bipolar 2. We discuss how she took a pretty much broken marriage, and turned it around (with lots of help of course) into something stronger than ever. The goal for all of us is to find ways to be SECURE, even if circumstances in our lives are not STABLE. This is possible, and there is always hope and healing to be had. 

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"GET A GENE SITE TEST" and other great advice from the author of the book "Whoops, I Married a Bipolar". Temple shares her story with Em and they discuss deeper things like the spiritual roots of mental illness, and how to heal your own pain and "stay in your lane". Check out more about what Temple has to offer at templesworld.org and enjoy all the great insights this interview has to offer. Or send Em a message at [email protected] 

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Where is the balance between wanting a better life, and appreciating all the good things that you do actually have? This is something I struggle and wrestle with constantly, and maybe it's the pendulum of these two conflicting ideals that ultimately leads to both balance, and growth in our lives. But as with everything else, mental illness makes it just a little more difficult! 

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Dealing with a mental illness for the first time, or over the span of a long relationship can leave it's scars. Sometimes we wonder if our mentally ill spouse is even capable of loving us, or of being in a relationship at all. But re framing the whole idea of what it even means to be "in love" have helped me tremendously to get back those old lovey feelings I used to have when we first started out. We will look into where feelings of love come from, and what unconditional love actually is. Things can and do get better, and you can feel love for your partner again! 

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