Late Bi-Polar diagnosis

My wife was diagnosed as being bi-polar 18 years ago at the age of 45. Her interest in sex sky-rocketed and although I do not think she has been unfaithful she has certainly shown more than one would expect in public and became extremely flirtatious. She says that exhibitionism and flirting help her 'manage' her needs. For a few years now she has gone shopping at various centres *mod edit*, wearing nothing underneath her coat. I mean absolutely nothing. She comes home and tells me about the people she saw looking at her and how sure she was that some of them knew she was naked. I do wonder about it as I have offered to go with her, out of curiosity more than anything, but she always refuses on the grounds that she would no longer be in control. She only goes out during the day and never at night. I guess others have rather more worrying experiences when their partners develop this.

Just a modly note that this has been moved to the Significant Others forum, as it seems to be pretty closely tied in to your wife's Bipolar diagnosis. I think the responses here will be more relevant than a forum dedicated to general sexual addiction problems.

I don't pretend to be an expert on Bipolar (although I'm told I might even have a touch of that myself by someone affected by it) but her refusal on 'control' grounds for you to accompany her sounds almost to me as if that might be tied in with hypomania or manic episode. From my understanding of the symptoms. I've known some folks with Bipolar that have talked about going through periods of being hypersexual.

Sounds as if some therapy wouldn't be a bad idea, she's playing with fire it seems to me. Perhaps also a review of her medications.

Her interest in sex is certainly enhanced when she comes back from these trips. She probably is hypersexual in general and this is why she does it to start with. She has not shown any signs of being interested in sex with anyone else and I have not found any evidence of it but that is no guarantee of course.