Hi everyone, I have a friend who is suspected to have BPD, but something else seems to be going on and I wanted to ask this community if it sounds like bipolar disorder.

I have known this friend for about 5-6 years now, and over that time I have recognized a pattern of long cycles that she engages in. She has micro-cycles that might last an hour or so, where she will become irrationally angry, pop off, leave, and return quickly as if nothing has happened - this I believe is the BPD, but then there are these cycles....cycles of behavior that seem to last for some months at a time.

This is what I mean: Typically she's clear, funny, successful, fit, meal preps, goes to the gym 2x a day, very structured. This is the state she was in when I met her. But then, something will happen and she will become depressed, overeat and complain about weight gain, go on these intense binge-spending episodes then complain about money problems, she will start businesses and insist the business she's starting is going to get her out of the mess she's in. She will be hyper-focused on the business, and I can't seem to hold a normal conversation with her when she's like this. The last time she did this it was a plant business, her studio apt was FILLED with plants, there was nowhere to walk. Every waking moment was about where to obtain these plants and that she needed them all NOW. It seemed like a trance-like state. She did this for about 1-2 months until something I did upset her, and she threw all of the plants out and moved to a different state.

The moving to different states is ALWAYS accompanied by extreme hypersexuality and sleeping with men who are 20 years older than her. It doesn't seem to matter who the men are, male orbiters, her boss, married men, random dudes from social media. It looks like she is on drugs, but she isn't.

When she moved to a different state and dismantled her marvelous plant-selling idea.. it was because she was hearing voices, I think? I had went to her house to take her dog for a walk, and while I was gone I get a call from her. She asks where I am, I say "I am down the street at the beach with the dog." She rages at me, tells me there's no way I am there, that she can hear me (There was a petcam in the apt), she says she hears my voice, she hears water running. Asks what b*tch I'm f*cking in her house. I left and hadn't spoken to her since. A week or two later my friends told me she trashed everything and moved states. I was so freaked out I just like cold-turkey quit talking to her.

During these episodes she seems to lose grasp on reality. For instance, if you're interacting with her you may be mistaken for someone from her past who has harmed her, or has intents to harm her. Once she thought I was the man who stabbed her when she was younger, and threatened to call the cops on me. She will snap out of these "trances" randomly, and I think most people wouldn't believe me if I told them any of this because she otherwise seems functional to the outside world. It was like the closer I got to her, I became the target.

When she's not in these "depressive" cycles she's incredibly fun to be around, but I've known her for long enough now that it's impossible to discount the other cycle as just someone having a bad day or going through something. The cycles always play out the same. They always have the binge-eating, binge-spending, business idea, then effing random older men. There's 0 capacity to have a serious conversation about what's going on, and if you try you'd be blocked.

Another weird thing she does that seems different than normal lying, is she will tell stories about herself, without telling you it's her she's talking about. Example: She went months telling me that she had a coworker who was sleeping with the boss. But when she moved away, the entire office said it was her that was sleeping with the boss and how they all knew it was her.

The reason I am posting this is because she has tried to get back in contact with me. It sucks because I care about her, but I know I can't be around this. It's like watching someone's house burn down and you know they're inside but you can't do anything at all about it. I at least wanted to encourage her to seek some help, because there's no way any of this is normal. Does it sound at all like bipolar disorder? I don't think I can save her, and not interested in playing hero to someone, but I at least want to say "Hey I think you might have xyz, can you talk to a professional about this?"

She's told me she knows something isn't right with her, but it's almost like she goes in and out of different universes, and when she's submerged in one she doesn't realize that she is...But yet she recognizes the trail of destruction behind her.