Sounds like he's been attempting a "slow suicide" for years.
My wife says he suffered some serious trauma years ago. She won't tell me what it is but it is sexual. That, especially to someone who already has Bi Polar tendencies is devastating. I have a feeling it happened when he was in the Navy. I saw those things, "Greasings" and other sexual based hazing. Commands covered it up, and made it worse. The crew members who did that should be lined up on the deck and dropped into the open sea to die slowly. Bring back the gang plank.
He would have been in a bit before me. At the time, post vietnam, the navy was a drug infested mess, drugs and alcohol.
