Psychosis husband under control.... Yay!

He joked and said I need therapy too. I have lost alot of weight. I get depressed easily.

That's an important key for my son too. He begins to isolate and has no one to talk things over with, so he retreats further from reality.

Thanks for the info. Costello. I know better now. I think the whole episode has brought us closer. There are presently over 50 patients in my husbands unit/ward, it's an all male ward. Most who have been married/ in relationships before are divorced, and others have been abandoned by their girlfriends. My husband is the envy of the other patients. His doctors think this has played a very important role in his recovery! Yay!

Frankly, I and another lady are the only wives that visit. My husband's nurses remind him of this fact all the time. Telling him how lucky he is to have a supportive wife. He seems to trust me a whole lot more.

It's important to listen and try to understand. But sometimes my son really just wants to hear me say, "You're mistaken." At this point he trusts me enough to believe what I say. It took a long time to get that trust though. Paranoid people really don't trust easily.

When hubby was in a state of psychosis, that was the only time he showed paranoia towards me. Normally, I tend to be the one person he seems to trust. But, I know we've only been together 3years so perhaps it's still too early to say. But as always, I remain hopeful it stays that way.
Even now, he only eats hospital food and mine. He didn't eat the food his mum brought him today. I encouraged him to, but he said there are patients in the ward who need it more. (he tends to be generous when his ok) so I that don't if it's paranoia or not.


The only thing I'm sure about with pot is that it makes my son worse when he uses it.

He has promised to quit and I think he means it when he apologizes for using it and says pot for him is a thing of the past. His doctor says it is what is causing his problems. That his paranoia escalates into a state of psychosis. My husband was the one who discussed the possibility of his AED affecting him too. We'll see.

I think I asked you this in that long post that I lost yesterday: You said something about epilepsy and antiseizure medication. Then you said he'd quit his treatment. I wasn't sure if you meant he'd quit his epilepsy medication.

I think he spends more time dealing with the trauma inflicted by the mental health system than he does coping with the original problems.

Ack, yes. I've been obsessing about this for years. Nobody really takes me seriously when I say I was traumatised by the mental health system. I wish there was some way to make it better.

The way he was picked up was a frightening experience for me too. Being in my room and hearing the struggle outside our home and my husband's screams of "kidnappers, kidnappers"..yet I really couldn't do anything about it. And i sat in my room crying. It is an experience I never ever want to go through again. But I can't afford to live with the guilt of it. No, I really cannot afford to.

Yea, people say, "Well, it couldn't be helped. Those things had to happen." Shrug.

It's wrong on at least two grounds: First, a lot of times it can be helped. It isn't always necessary to descend on a confused person and "do something" to "fix" things. Sometimes if you just wait, things change on their own. We're in too much of a rush to intervene IMO. Wait and see is an option we don't exercise often enough.

The hardest bit for me is that I was never confused, self-harming, etc. ...

The hardest bit for me is that I was never confused, self-harming, etc. I was just an identified psychotic who refused to seek treatment and got really belligerent about not needing psychiatry. The first time I was hospitalised, I had a full-time job and was studying for a master's degree part time -- and by all accounts doing well at both.

I really don't understand that. If you're not hurting anyone and you're just going about your business, why not leave you alone? How did you come into contact with mental health services?

I really don't understand that. If you're not hurting anyone and you're just going about your business, why not leave you alone? How did you come into contact with mental health services?

My hubby was that way too whilst working.
He worked as a lawyer in the public sector until August last year. And doing well. Though he was paranoid about his co workers, he didnt act upon his paranoia. The paranoia later got so bad (I think due mainly to work stress and his use of cannabis) and he started fighting colleagues at work. He quit his job when he was invited by the disciplinary committee of his work place.
His condition got worse after he quit.
He became mostly delusional, argumentative, angry, aggressive, violent, etc. He worked there for almost 4 years.
Are you working now? I think work helps to keep the mind busy and delusions at bay. Just my thought from observing my hubby. Do you think that to be true?

I wondered about that too. But he said self-harming, so I guess you could harm others. No?
I think we all have a degree of paranoia, confusion, etc in us. What is considered a problem is when we start to act upon them.

I kept insisting that they should turn off a radio I was hearing in my room, except there was no radio and I didn't have a hallucinogenic infection. Then they said I had to be transferred to psych to be evaluated for psychosis.

Oh, for heaven's sake! What country were you in at the time? It seems like an extreme reaction - especially with no hint of danger to self or others.

I wonder what I would have done in your parents' position. I'd like to think I'd have handled it differently. I probably would have.

I found out later [the case worker] was bad mouthing me to my son, criticizing me. I guess she really strongly disliked me. I'm not sure why she thought talking me down to my son was a good idea. I suspect a lot of people who work in the mental health system have issues of their own.

Hmmm... It's just hit me that my emergency threshhold may be higher than most. Hearing a radio playing when there isn't one doesn't constitute an emergency in my view.

She's an idiot who should have lost her job for that.

I'm a lady -- in my experience, the docs don't usually worry about women harming others until we actively do. I never have; never even thought about it.

Some of the social workers at hubby's hospital can be really rude and nasty. I think it's partly due to the fact that they are underpaid, frustrated and the hospital understaffed. I feel pity for them.

Some of the social workers at hubby's hospital can be really rude and nasty. I think it's partly due to the fact that they are underpaid, frustrated and the hospital understaffed. I feel pity for them.

I wear a huge smile when I visit. And I never forget to thank the hospital staff (nurses, social workers, doctors, etc) for taking care of my hubby. They seem nicer to me than the other visitors! I am usually received warmly.
We are allowed to give the staff tips, so I usually do. That makes them nicer to my hubby too.

There's nothing wrong with smiling and treating people civilly. I don't like the idea of tipping, though. I don't think it's even allowed here. If it were, I'd suspect that those whose families didn't tip would be treated badly in order to drive home the point that they should tip. I don't want to have to pay extra to get courteous service from nurses and social workers.

But, had I known he had psychosis, I wouldn't have waited for it to go on for so long before seeking help.