DID Spouses

Sidran institute has list of trauma programs by state

Latest update:

Went to the psychiatrist today and my wife has finally agreed to bump up the dosage of the seroquel from 25mg to 300mg at night and then take 2x25mg throughout the day.

She's been taking 100mg at night the past couple of days now and I see a slight improvement already.

I'm glad she is improving

survivordid wrote:the doctors were all telling me she has a Bipolar Disorder but from what I was reading and experienced during her crisis was that it seemed more like DID/DDNOS.

Lately however her symptoms seemed more like Bipolar Disorder to me and now the Psychiatrist is saying it's DID/DDNOS. I am beginning to think that she may have both.

Her sister has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder but we can both see symptoms of DID/DDNOS with her too.

While it's true that DID/DDNOS is often misdiagnosed as Bipolar Disorder, it's certainly possible, though probably rare, for someone to have both. BD tends to run in families, and I don't know if one of her parents had an untreated mood disorder, but I could see that causing the kind of trauma that could lead to a dissociative disorder. Those kids would then have the double-whammy of dissociation from their unstable caregiver(s), plus the genetic predisposition for bipolar disorder (which can be set off or worsened by environmental factors).

survivordid wrote:Latest update:

Went to the psychiatrist today and my wife has finally agreed to bump up the dosage of the seroquel from 25mg to 300mg at night and then take 2x25mg throughout the day.

She's been taking 100mg at night the past couple of days now and I see a slight improvement already.

I'm really glad that things are getting a little better!

Thanks that helps

Latest update: my wife seems a lot better, I can actually have a meaningful conversation with her and don't have to repeat myself 2-3 times for a reply.

I still find her frequently talking to herself pacing about the room, she has assured me she is talking to herself about the past and isn't hearing voices or anything I should be concerned about.

Is this typical and what should I expect going forward, will this behaviour decrease over time?

Also she is still smoking weed much to my annoyance, I think it's partly to blame for worsening her illness. Should I discourage her from smoking or leave it alone for now?

survivordid wrote:Also she is still smoking weed much to my annoyance, I think it's partly to blame for worsening her illness. Should I discourage her from smoking or leave it alone for now?

The two are linked but the cause-and-effect relationship may not be what you think. She is self-medicating, which is very common when anyone is in any kind of mental health crisis. Weed (marijuana) may be a better choice than alcohol, all things considered; weed disrupts sleep less.

Weed is an effective dissociative and she may be using it to keep from hearing the voices, which to you may seem like a good thing. And in the short term it may be a good thing, but in the long term getting well involves actively listening to the voices and accepting, eventually even embracing, those other parts of self.

The thing is she has admitted that the weed makes her feel worse and she has noticed it but yet she'll still go to it first rather then the Seroquel. We stopped drinking years ago when we realised the problems it was causing.

Her moods/switching is much less frequent thanks to the seroquel but she is still very volatile. One minute she would be fine with me and the next extremely agitated with no way to use logic or reason with her.

We have appointments with the Drs and Physiologist in 2 weeks and she is pushing back and I suspect she is lying to me that she is taking her medication consistently. She just wants to leave the house and for us to sell up and leave as quickly as possible. We've been constantly moving since we've been together.

Frankly I've had enough, I can't take this walking on egg shells around my own house and doing all of the cooking, cleaning, chores all while trying to unsuccessfully hold together a job with no friends or family and no prospects that anything is ever going to get better - it's been 3 terrible years of this and everything seems as though its getting worse not better.

Get help and support for you. Online forums are good but with big decisions and life changes get some one on one help.

LadySlippers wrote:Get help and support for you. Online forums are good but with big decisions and life changes get some one on one help.

Ditto!