Spouse Responding Well To Meds

In order to give others hope I wanted to share my story, the upshot of which is that Delusional Disorder is very amiable to treatment if the sufferer is prepared to take their medication.

You can read my other posts about my wife to see some of the symptoms that I have been dealing with for the last 7 or 8 years. My wife was classic DDJ and paranoid. Although my last post was in 2014, in 2015 things really went down hill in a major way.

By the end of the year my wife was in hospital (for 5 weeks) and had a court order baring her from our home or contact with our kids. While in hospital they tried everything to get her better, and finally risperidone worked and her delusions lifted in the space of a few days.

Since then she has moved back into our home and reconnected with the kids. She is a brand new person and is definitely back to the woman I originally fell in love with and married. She is very remorseful about all the harm she has caused, but she is not letting it get her down and is powering ahead with life.

She has been great now for over 6 months and I haven't seen any signs of delusions or unusual behavior. We are fortunate that we can afford the injectable version of Risperidone (its not covered by our insurance), so I can administer it and I don't need to rely on her taking her meds, which I know is a huge win for the prospects of continued success with her treatment. (I know 6 months is not a long time and I am not declaring victory by any means and will always be on guard, but so far so good )

Good luck to everyone out there and know that this condition is treatable.

AM

I'm glad she is doing well. It is nice to hear other about her recovery. I'm sure you've been very supportive. With proper treatment, love, and support, recovery is possible.

Congrats! The prognosis for this illness is so bleak, it's great to hear that you're having success.

I hope you don't mind me asking you some questions.

What eventually landed your wife in the hospital? Was it a psychotic episode?

What other drugs has the hospital tried? How were you able to regain enough trust from her to allow you to be in charge of administering the drug?

Do you see the psychiatrist with her? What about a therapist?

DDJ ended my marriage more than a year ago. Recently, my ex-wife went through some stuff that didn't make sense to her. After taking to me for a few days, she's open to seeing a psychiatrist.

Any advice from you is much appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi,

To answer your questions:

What landed my wife in hospital: Her delusions became much worse and I knew I needed to do something drastic. I initially just went to the police and said I think my wife is going to be a danger to the kids. The immediately send a mental health elevator and they convinced her to go to hospital. However she was released after a few hours as they said that while she was delusional she wasn't a danger. She tried to run away with the kids a few days later and the police managed to stop her (very dramatic!). At that point they put her under a supervision order (myself and some others to be the supervisors). About a month later she was very delusional and I tried to stop her waking up one of the kids (to look for microphones in her bedroom!!) and she attacked me. That was great in retrospect as now there was evidence that she might be a danger. I immediately called the police (who were very familiar with our house at this point) and they removed her from the house. She was brought to hospital for a couple of days but she refused meds and they released her. In that few days a court put a baring order on her and she was not allowed see the kids. About a week later (she was living in a hotel at this point) she checked herself into a mental health facility and ended up in there for about 5 weeks (she tried to leave a day after checking in, but they felt her condition was too bad so they forced her to stay - best thing that happened to my family).

What order drugs did we try? Abilify was the only other dug we tried. It has no effect at all. Risperdal worked immediately.

How did she trust me to administer? Once on risperdal her delusions lifted and she became very aware of how ill she was. She was very sorry for all the trouble she caused and is very complient in allowing me to administer the drug.

Did we see a psychiatrist together? Yes. I suggested that we needed to see a therapist as "marriage counseling", but it was just a ploy to get her to see a professional. The counseller we saw was very good and picked up on her mental health condition within 2 sessions. He convinced her she was suffering from anxiety and maybe depression and got her to see a psychiatrist. Although he prescribed Abilify to her she never took it. All this was before she ended up in hospital and although the docs didn't manage to cure her until the court order on the kids came down, it was very helpful for me to have them as a support network. It was also useful with getting the court order sorted as they were able to give evidence of her mental health issues.

Hope all is well with your wife! If you have other questions please just let me know.

Kind regards.

-- Fri May 05, 2017 5:53 pm --

Hi,

To answer your questions:

What landed my wife in hospital: Her delusions became much worse and I knew I needed to do something drastic. I initially just went to the police and said I think my wife is going to be a danger to the kids. The immediately send a mental health elevator and they convinced her to go to hospital. However she was released after a few hours as they said that while she was delusional she wasn't a danger. She tried to run away with the kids a few days later and the police managed to stop her (very dramatic!). At that point they put her under a supervision order (myself and some others to be the supervisors). About a month later she was very delusional and I tried to stop her waking up one of the kids (to look for microphones in her bedroom!!) and she attacked me. That was great in retrospect as now there was evidence that she might be a danger. I immediately called the police (who were very familiar with our house at this point) and they removed her from the house. She was brought to hospital for a couple of days but she refused meds and they released her. In that few days a court put a baring order on her and she was not allowed see the kids. About a week later (she was living in a hotel at this point) she checked herself into a mental health facility and ended up in there for about 5 weeks (she tried to leave a day after checking in, but they felt her condition was too bad so they forced her to stay - best thing that happened to my family).

What order drugs did we try? Abilify was the only other dug we tried. It has no effect at all. Risperdal worked immediately.

How did she trust me to administer? Once on risperdal her delusions lifted and she became very aware of how ill she was. She was very sorry for all the trouble she caused and is very complient in allowing me to administer the drug.

Did we see a psychiatrist together? Yes. I suggested that we needed to see a therapist as "marriage counseling", but it was just a ploy to get her to see a professional. The counseller we saw was very good and picked up on her mental health condition within 2 sessions. He convinced her she was suffering from anxiety and maybe depression and got her to see a psychiatrist. Although he prescribed Abilify to her she never took it. All this was before she ended up in hospital and although the docs didn't manage to cure her until the court order on the kids came down, it was very helpful for me to have them as a support network. It was also useful with getting the court order sorted as they were able to give evidence of her mental health issues.

Hope all is well with your wife! If you have other questions please just let me know.

Kind regards.

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. It's amazing how similar our experiences have been, except I'm one step behind you. My ex-wife just got out of the psych hospital.