u/Baphlingmet

Hey y'all, so you might remember me from this thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/SchizoFamilies/comments/1t3x7os/honeybunches_in_the_hospital_for_first_time_since/

My wife came home escorted by her dad last night. I greeted her with flowers and some jewelry. She was so happy. We got onto the subway and she started telling me some of the wild stories, how she got to spend some time researching my own mental health issues (bipolar disorder), and how they're now suspecting that she's schizoaffective and not regular schizophrenia. We went over her new cocktail and all that. We get home, she takes her early evening meds, and then I say "are you up for maybe a quick bite to eat?" and she says sure.

We go out for dumplings at a nice traditional Chinese hole-in-the-wall spot near our house that recently opened up, and she begins to look more and more sullen as we eat. By the time we're paying the check, her eyes are darting around nervously. (To quote Scooby Doo: Ruh roh.) We're walking back home and she keeps stopping and looking at me cautiously. I keep gently reminding her we're going home, to the kitties, and everything will be safe. Nobody can hurt her there. She keeps being hesitant, but finally get her back home. Well she gets in there and she just goes OFF on me, hooting and hollering about how everything's out of place and things are dusty and I should've gone grocery shopping before she got home, talking about what a horrible, irresponsible husband I am yadda yadda yadda....

I finally get her to take some Xanax and put her to bed. She sleeps the whole night through. The next morning she's back to her old self, a chipper little goofball as ever. Still saying a few weird grandiose things like "we are gonna make SOOOO much money in the next few years, I just feel it!" but I'm accepting she's still on her way. I head off to work to teach my sole Friday 10am-12pm class on campus. I get home and LORD HAVE MERCY for like 3 hours I get screamed at about every single thing under the sun and I finally have to leave the house and go for a walk. I come back home and she's taking a nap. After her nap, she seems back to herself and we make dinner together. We watch Frasier and have a good laugh. But then she snaps at me over not doing the dishes right and packs her bags, storms out to her parents' house across town, and uhhh... now I have the house to myself for the night. She says she'll see me tomorrow but she needs to be with "people like my parents, who understand that good housekeeping means good fortunes which means good money and ENTREPENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY CAN'T WAIT FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!"

Sigh. I mean, she's not in round-the-clock psychosis, she's sleeping now, and she's taking her meds, and the thing is she's conscious that she's still in recovery (when she stops wigging out, she profusely apologizes to me immediately.... like I just got a text message saying "I'm sorry for that. Let met stay the night with Mom and Dad and cool down. I'll be over later in the afternoon tomorrow. Remember, I love you even though I'm still sick right now")

But this is STILL bad for my mental health, you know? The walking on eggshells, I can't take it cuz I grew up in a home with a father who had Bipolar-I and NPD which was exacerbated by alcoholism and cocaine use, so I'm a bit... jittery about such things.

She was in the hospital for 16 days, compliant with meds whole time. She is currently compliant with meds. How much more time until she's back to normal? I don't like this whole living-in-an-emotional-minefield situation.

Wellllll it finally happened. Wifey seems to have misunderstood or taken the wrong way something her therapist said a few days ago- I think the therapist said something along the lines of "you can't rely on just medication" or "too high of medication dosage can be bad" and she took it as "go off your meds."

I didn't know she had gone off her meds, but we ended up on holiday visiting her family in another city and she started acting funny the first day of holiday... I initially chalked it up to her natural eccentric nature and her recent bad insomnia... Day 3 came along and after 3 days no sleep she was bolting out into traffic, hootin' and hollerin' about Japanese robots and how "they" are trying to kill her and she was getting chased by her dead mother... And I asked her if she took her medicine and she said she stopped taking them several days ago because "[Therapist's name] said I should stop taking them! He said medicine isn't how you should manage my disease... also, the pills have poison in them, the Illuminati poisoned my pills because I'm pregnant with your child and they don't want our child to be born because our child will bring peace between our two countries" (I'm American she's Chinese.... no she is not actually pregnant)

She finally had a moment of slight clarity where she said "I think they've made me go crazy again... I think THEY injected something in my brain and they've made me go into another episode, I need to get to the psych ward"

So that's just what we did. She's now in the hospital in the city we were vacationing in and I have to go back to work tomorrow, but thankfully her dad can stay a few more days and she has 2 sets of aunts and uncles and a few cousins that can visit her and bring her home when she's discharged.

I knew what I was signing up for when I got married to her, but it's still no fun. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers y'all