What Happens When One Spouse is Psychotic?

There’s been a long article making the rounds of social media the past couple of days.

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward

It’s an interesting look into how relationship dynamics change and the roles can reverse when one partner has a psychotic episode. Especially the struggles to regain the trust of each other after dealing with that episode and the appropriate treatment.

Beyond that, the one thing I took away was the concept of sitting down and agreeing to a treatment plan when the sufferer is lucid. In their case, that leads to many arguments, but those arguments are worth having.

Last night, I decided to approach my wife about the subject. Now, it’s been a long time since I’ve had any issues with depression, let alone fugue states, so long that my wife wasn’t around to see them. (My first wife was, and if you read what I said above about the struggles of living a trusting relationship again, that may help explain why I have a second wife too. It’s not the whole story, but it played a not-insignificant role.) Anyway, the question I had for my wife was, do you know what it looks like when you need to overrule me and get help, and what should that help look like?

The conversation wasn’t fun or easy to have. Still, I’m glad we had it. Hopefully, it will never come to that, but there is some reassurance in knowing that we are on the same page regarding what to look for, what to do, and when to do it.

Do you have a similar plan of action?