CTHOMAS...thank u so much for sharing! I am so hoping to learn from theses forums. I read the NIMH, etc sites, and the text books, but I NEED to understand this one from the 'inside' looking out - if we're going to make it. I am not a novice in the arena (health professional - with experience with this and many other disorders/sufferings) but I'm always on the outside looking in. My oldest son was dx as such a few years back and is essentially in trouble and mia... so I never got to understand it all from the inside outward...from the victims perspective. I love him with all my heart, and now find I love a partner very much with the same suffering...what's a girl to do? : ) I know I need to be calm, informed, and dedicated...but where does he end and I begin? I feel he has the illness, but I do not want to let his illness have me? Make any sense? Please encourage your spouse and others like him to talk here to people like me? I need the support right now. And you, too, please share me.