Hey, how’s that going?
I know a lot of people are probably wondering and I genuinely appreciate and am touched by everyone’s concern. I was planning on starting an update thread soon.
The short answer, for now: she has been asymptomatic since February. This is exactly what happened the year before, she seemed fine from February through November then it came back with a vengeance. From what I have read online this is often how Delusional Disorder starts, there are a few isolated episodes then it becomes a more or less full time thing.
The good news is that she is seeing a psychiatrist. The bad news is that she went to him not for the delusions but for her ADHD symptoms. She is now taking a Ritalin-type drug for her ADHD, she claims it helps her. I honestly don’t notice much of a difference but then her ADHD symptoms never bothered me all that much.
She still has zero insight into her delusional episodes. She generally refuses to discuss them if I bring it up. The way she remembers it I got angry with her because she “started to do more things for herself” and that I couldn’t handle her ADHD symptoms (again, this hadn’t really been a problem for the previous 15 years, it was the delusions and associated behavior that bothered me).
If/when they start up again I hope to get her to talk to her psychiatrist about her “stress”. If necessary I will call him first to tell him what is going on, I suspect she hasn’t told him the whole story. She never told me his name and didn’t tell me she was going to see him for weeks, I have since been able to find out his name so I can contact him as soon as it starts up again.
My red flag story is about a guy I dated in college. We had gone out casually a few times and we had plans to go out to a big event with a group of mutual friends. He had been extremely nice and sweet and fun to hang around with. About a week before the event, his friends started advising me that when he drank he turned into a “total octopus.” I sort of blew this off because I did like the guy and he hadn’t seemed at all pushy before. Well, it turns out his friends knew of what they spoke. I’m not sure if it was the second or the third drink, but it was “Hello, human cephalopod, hail Emperor Octavus VIII, paging the NY Times, I’ve found Client #8.” I’ve never seen someone’s personality change quite that much from drinking.
Thanks for the update, Laughing Lagomorph. I’m really glad you posted, I was actually thinking of you a few weeks back in talking to a friend who lives with her brother, who’s a paranoid schizophrenic.
Anyway, sending you my very best thoughts, as I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to live with a delusional partner, or to have to watch them going through these changes.