Alcholic and BiPolar...what's our connection?

[MyItalianLove]

So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and I'd like to hear your thoughts if you've got any on the topic...

My best friend's an alcoholic and I have bipolar disorder. We've got very little in common otherwise...9 year age gap, different stages of our lives, different family situations, etc. yet we're still really close. Whenever people ask me why I stay so close to him, even if he brings me down, or frusterates me, I'm not sure what the answer is. I told my therapist that sometimes I think it's because we're both broken and that other people don't get that. Maybe misery really does love company? I know I'll never be fully fixed, and he's in the same boat. His addiction to alcohol and my mental instablity will always be there. Is that what makes us so tied together? I wish I knew because lately the friendship drags me down and is tiresome...yet I can't walk away. Does anyone else know what I mean? Why do you think it's this way?

Thanks everyone

[historyteach]

Don't you feel you deserve better than someone whose ''friendship drags me down and is tiresome?"
Not trying to cause a problem, but, many of us do *not* think we deserve better.
And we do.
Perhaps it's something to think about?

Shalom!

[crzylilmndfreak]

Originally Posted by MyItalianLove

So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and I'd like to hear your thoughts if you've got any on the topic...

My best friend's an alcoholic and I have bipolar disorder. We've got very little in common otherwise...9 year age gap, different stages of our lives, different family situations, etc. yet we're still really close. Whenever people ask me why I stay so close to him, even if he brings me down, or frusterates me, I'm not sure what the answer is. I told my therapist that sometimes I think it's because we're both broken and that other people don't get that. Maybe misery really does love company? I know I'll never be fully fixed, and he's in the same boat. His addiction to alcohol and my mental instablity will always be there. Is that what makes us so tied together? I wish I knew because lately the friendship drags me down and is tiresome...yet I can't walk away. Does anyone else know what I mean? Why do you think it's this way?

Thanks everyone

being an alcoholic, and having bipolar go hand in hand with also being even a little bit OCD, so that is probably why you cant walk away,
i am also a recovering alcoholic, and for 3 yrs was absolutely inseprable with my good "friend' who was also an alcoholic, and had bipolar...
we were completly unhealthy for each other, and my husband put his foot down on my hanging out her, not being contolling really, just looking out for my best interest, and im glad he did, very soon after she moved to another state, and i am so much healthier without her in my life, i have been sober now for 13 months, and i know that if she were still here, i may not have hung onto my sobriety

[UNHAPPY777]

I believe that my husband is also an alcoholic and bipolar..... He acts and responds somewhat "NORMAL" when he isn't drinking but, alcohol triggers it even more. He hasa friend that has been in numerous mental institutions and he refuses to end the friendship. They are toxic for one another. tudy beinga crutch for one another even if they are both dead wrong!