Physician husband making suicidal comments, not sure what to do.
48m, hypertension, non smoker, 6’1”, 190lbs.
Husband is making suicidal comments “jokingly” after three weeks of terrible luck, and I’m not sure how I can help him. He’s a diagnostic imaging specialist.
We were involved in terrible car accident recently which we were found not to be at fault for, and it has had him hardly eating or sleeping up until last week, worried about getting sued and losing everything after he first worried about the other driver and passenger (we recently learned they were okay and he then moved on to worrying about our assets, etc.).
We took a trip to visit family to get his mind settled, I’ve had all our friends call him or come over and visit, and it helped a lot, but then today the potential of a malpractice suit has crossed his lap, and he is absolutely losing it. Devastated doesn’t even touch what he is feeling. I have no more cards up my sleeve, not for this.
We have a young child, and he hasn’t been in his right mind since the car accident, but now he’s making numerous comments about being worth more dead than alive, and I know he means it. He was raised in poverty and the thought of starting over (again) is just not an option it’s beginning to look like for him.
I really have no idea how to help him outside of what is in my control, so I’m hoping another physician can provide me with resources someone like you would actually utilize. He’s incredibly brilliant, kind, caring, and loving in nature, but I really think he’s seriously considering the alternative to starting over.
He’s had to restart his life after a company went under, a previous divorce, and now with this all piled on, I just don’t think kisses and cuddles, or any of his love languages are going to help reel him back to reality. I tell him every single day how much I love him, and reassure him that living a minimalistic lifestyle would suit us great, money means nothing. It’s just the work he’s poured into achieving our lifestyle, and I can’t help him work through that loss other than standing by his side and loving him. I’m very worried.
He went from pursuing multiple incredible hobbies every second he has to spare, to pacing and staring at walls, paranoid to a level not even myself with GAD has experienced. He is just completely checked out of this world. I don’t know what I can do for him, or what resources someone like himself would even consider utilizing. Please shoot me any resources or advice. It’s all so sensitive so I have to be very careful about what moves I make.