Hi,

I've been with my husband for over 4 years now. We have a 1-year old and another baby on the way. During most of the time we've been together he's always been quite hyper; talking really fast, difficulty concentrating on just one subject, erratic thought pattern etc, but it was never something that was a problem.
Earlier this year both his dad (whom he hadn't seen for 20 years) and one of his best mates date within a few weeks of each other.
Shortly after that he started getting really agitated really quickly, had trouble sleeping, got extremely paranoid. He started drinking more than usual to deal with it until he realised it wasn't helping at all and he sought help from his GP. He was given beta blockers to deal with anxiety and fight or flight symptoms, then after a couple of weeks they changed his medication to fluoxetine to deal with depression.
By this point he was openly declaring he wanted to kill himself, that he was going to leave me and our son, that he didn't love us anymore, he was sick of the way his life was going.
His behaviour got noticeably better within 2-3 weeks, he was a lot more relaxed, started enjoying time with our son,and took over the household duties when I went back to work in August after my maternity leave.
However, since then, it seems he has gone completely the opposite way. He was off sick for a while until he was made redundant, with quite a nice payout. He now has crazy ideas about investing the money in second hand cars (he doesn't actually know anything about cars...), then changes his mind the next and thinks of another idea he can sink a whole load of money into. He won't take any criticism and blows up at anyone who might suggest his ideas may not be as great as he thinks they are, he is absolutely convinced that everything he is doing is right and everyone else is wrong. He can't concentrate on anything for longer than 5 minutes, a conversation with him at the moment is exhausting to say the least as it seems his mind is racing at 100mph, he's looking for ways to spend money; expensive cameras, motorbikes, sport cars,... And I mean, not in a way that someone who is going to treat themselves is going to do, he genuinely seems to think he has an unlimited amount of money at his disposal and he doesn't really.

I know he has displayed this type of behaviour before, each time after a traumatic experience (war when he was in the forces, the death of his mother). Last time he ended up fleeing the country after racking up 60K worth of debt ( yes, he is still paying that off...). He then crashed, was brought back to the UK and dealt with anxiety and extreme paranoia, however, he was never treated medically for this.

His father, his uncles and his grandfather all had bipolar disorder.

We just had an argument and it ended with him saying he felt like he was losing his mind and he needed to go for a walk. He also said that he is going back to see the doctor on Monday because he feels something is seriously wrong. I am glad he finally realised that, however, I am worried that when he does go to see his doctor they will just up his dose of anti depressants and not look any further into it.

I have suffered from depression myself in the past and it is clear to me that what he has is way more than normal depression.
I suppose the question I'm asking, is how to best deal with this?
The medication is only partly working and I'm finding it very hard to deal with everything that is going on. I want to help him, but I genuinely don't know what the next step is. He has sought medical advice, but it is not helping him...

Thanks