StrongerMan and lad007,

Thank you both for your replies. To clarify: my wife is willing to get help. She has had an appointment at a mental health clinic and told everything mentioned above (I was there with her so I know she didn't leave anything out) to the mental health person (I don't know their actual title but she was definitely not a psychiatrist/chologist. I think she was some sort of nurse). This person took notes and later (after we left) passed it on to the psychiatrist who deemed my wife's condition not serious enough for psychiatric therapy, and instead referred us to a psychologist. Having visited the psychologist, and recounted everything to him, he suggested that she could benefit from 'treatment' which will involve 'talking to someone about her experiences' and not have them think that she's 'mad'. Personally, I think this sounds like we're being palmed off and both of your comments have confirmed to me that I need to demand a second opinion and affirm the seriousness of the situation. Hopefully a psychiatrist will be able to see her and give a diagnosis of something. It's probably worth mentioning that I live in the UK and so will probably have a different referral process to the US.

Thank you both again for your comments - please feel free to follow up if you want.

If anyone else feels like they could give some insight/advice/help etc., or just a general remark, please do add to this thread.