Chip Chick
A 26-year-old woman is currently married to her husband, who is 39, and together they have a child who is a little over 1-year-old.
She and her husband met while they were in college, and they didn’t go on too many dates before things cooled off.
They ended up reconnecting years after college, and then they got tied the knot. In those years that they were not together, though, her husband experienced something at work that was so distressing that he ended up developing a very severe paranoid disorder.
Although her husband was never handed a concrete answer for this, he has been diagnosed with many things, including delusional disorder, schizophrenia, and depression with psychotic episodes.
Her husband has bounced in and out of receiving treatment as the years went on, but he frequently has breakdowns when he goes off the medication that he has been prescribed.
“He thinks he doesn’t need them, and he doesn’t like being on them since they are strong,” she explained.
“His breakdowns involve him quitting his job, hallucinating and slurring his words, and not being able to walk. I have to help with simple tasks like putting on socks, doing all the chores, using the same utensils as him for fear they are “poisoned,” eating the same bites of food as him, using the same products as him, etc. it is exhausting.”
“The last time it happened, I was pregnant, and it was very difficult. He has breakdowns maybe 1-1.5 years apart. Each time I think things are resolved and then they fall apart.”
A month ago, her husband got really bad again, but this time he was so nasty to her that she put her foot down.
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