I'm sorry, Redleg. Bipolar is a really tough thing to deal with. My brother is bipolar too. Honestly, your wife's story reminds me of my brother before he got straightened out, only he swapped the credit cards for alcohol. However, I cannot say absolutely for certain what has gotten him on the straight path. This is mainly because I stopped living with him when I reached about 13, because my parents were divorced, and I lived with my dad while he was with my mother. Plus, we got along really poorly for a while, because he tended to vent his anger and frustration at smaller objects than himself, me being one of the primary targets.

However, I know for him, a few things helped. First, he stopped drinking truckloads of mountain dew(he used to just carry 2 liters around with him). Apparently large amounts of caffeine will render the meds inefficient. He also stopped hanging around with some of his friends who were poor influences on him, and he drastically cut his alcohol intake(though he by no means cut it completely). However, he'd also had years of counseling, so its quite possible that many of these things were simply results of the the counseling, and not actual behavioral causes themselves. A little after that, he managed to get a steady job doing what he love doing; fixing cars. I think that's what really has helped him out the most, being able to occupy his time with something productive that he loves doing. Does your wife have a job, Redleg?