Hello.

This is my first post here.

I'm very concerned about my girlfriend. Some background: She is a very intelligent, sweet, kind woman who has ADHD and has been seeing a psychiatrist for Adderall 30mg XR and a CBT specialist for depression, anxiety, and enmeshment issues. She is unemployed and socially isolated. I am her only point of contact. Recently, she suddenly quit therapy claiming she was happy and didn't need it anymore. She had been improving, but I was surprised she suddenly quit with her talking about it beforehand.

Details are given below (sorry for it being long). Thank you in advance for reading.

Over the past year or so, she has had perhaps three fainting experiences, usually coinciding with having an alcoholic drink without having eaten for the entire day. Recently, she has come to describe these episodes as transformative near-death experiences.

She has also had an interest in things like Astrology and The Michael Teachings. She found this stuff fascinating, studied it in depth and believed much of it. I didn't think much of it one way or another.

Around the time of the most recent fainting episode (about when she quit CBT), she claimed to have experienced a spiritual awakening, that she is in communication with her spirit, and that she has psychic/intuitive powers (she has always been highly perceptive, empathic, and intuitive). She asks her spirit questions and the spirit communicates with her, answering her questions, and can move her head to nod for yes or no questions, etc. The spirit also directs her head toward certain colors. She sometimes hears high pitched tones. People with ADHD can hyperfocus, and my girlfriend has devoted a tremendous amount of energy to understanding how to better communicate with her spirit (via experimentation and internet research), how to better interpret the responses she receives from her spirit. She finds it all simply amazing (in a good way).

She has always had a hard time making decisions, so she consults her spirit for many small decisions. If you ask, she says that her spirit is at least in part just her subconscious mind, but that there are other aspects to it to be understood in term of faith. She is lonely and has animated, lengthy discussions with her spirit, which bring her an almost giddy delight. At times, she has a strange smile and stares off in some direction (perhaps at the suggestion of the spirit). She sometimes greets me when I come home with a big hello in a tone of voice which is strangely chipper.

She has become highly sensitive to colors, and, after extensive internet research, has changed many of the lightbulbs in the apartment since the old bulbs suddenly bothered her. Recently, she has become very nervous before bed, says that she hopes she's OK, and feels better when I there with her as she falls asleep.

When I show concern about all these changes, she becomes defensive and claims it makes her feel uncomfortable and ill at-ease. She then needs time to center. When there is tension between us, she'll stay in the bedroom or bathroom for hours asking not to be interrupted and that she's doing something very important.

She eats very little, maybe one meal a day (we had this in the past because of Adderall). As for family history, her mother had two psychotic episodes in her life.

Her spiritual awakening has generated some concern on my part, and she does not like that at all. I told her that I'm skeptical, but not dismissive of claims of psychic powers. She says that she is also a skeptic, but that there's no denying what she's experienced. When I suggest that we talk to the psychiatrist about this, she refuses.

I don't know what I should do here. I'm tempted to call her psychiatrist without my girlfriend's knowledge, but I'm not sure if that's the appropriate thing to do.

Are there guidelines for when that's the right thing to do? She does not appear to be suicidal or in major distress. However, her behavior has definitely changed over the past few weeks. I'd really like for her to visit her psychiatrist, but obviously, I can't force her.

Thank you.

rhz