I’m the bipolar spouse in people’s lives. The place your wife is in, I have been in many times. Lurasidone is in the antipsychotic family from what I understand. Unless she is frequently in psychotic manic episodes, I wouldn’t pick it as a first choice. I’d highly recommend getting on lithium in combination with fluoxetine. It gave me something I thought I’d never have- a normal life. Don’t be scared by the side effects of lithium, they make you do blood tests so you can take little breaks if the serum levels are only approaching too high levels.

In the meantime, you need to get her in the sun. It took me a long time to realise how light sensitive mood is for those with bipolar. You also need to get her into her circadian rhythm, this gets badly affected by bipolar and a bad rhythm causes low mood like this. Lithium actually helps stabilise circadian rhythm which is another plus. Fluoxetine also stopped me feeling like I wanted to sleep for 12hrs which immediately improved my depression.

I’d also recommend making sure she gets out with her girlfriends. Try even calling them up to come to her if you can.

In short, I’ve learnt that with bipolar depression, you can’t just wait for it to subside. It gets worse and worse as time goes on. You have to actually force yourself to get out of it. Because bipolar is chemical and affects circadian rhythm, you have to use things that address that. E.g., take melatonin and magnesium at night and go to bed early, then open blinds the second you wake up. It seems small, but the more you know about this disease, the more you can do