Mental health problems can leave intimacy in the dust, and that’s exactly what happened to my wife and I for nearly a decade. My recovery from a bi-polar manic episode left me with a chronic depression where I lost all interest in anything that once brought me joy.

In part one of this two part series, I look at how my wife helped me work through some of the most difficult times in my life and how my focus in life had at times, left me with more problems than solutions. From early career decisions to personal goals, bi-polar disordered thinking caused a series of life choices leading to my ultimate depression in my mid forties.

Beginning with a focus, we worked ourselves back from the brink and now have a very happy married life and intimacy has returned. For myself, that means that I’ve rediscovered some of the drive that made my life worthy of pursuit in my earlier years, something I had lost through this long and sometimes dark journey.

As with all things in my life there is no single thing that I can look to and say “that was what helped”, but clearly, my support structures were key. Along with mental focus, these support systems have brought me to where I am today. A happy, well, and thriving man in a healthy marriage and family.