Wife just diagnosed

Hi guys so I have been married to my wife for 12 years, we have had a great marriage last week everyday when i was at work she called the cops thinking someone was coming to kill her out then on Sunday she told me she was going to the store and we found her hours later waiting for Justin Bieber and Ryan philipe at the radio station.

We got her to come home and she got worse we thought it was her thyroid because she has graves disease, but those test came back fine.

She had paranoia, and delusions, she is convinced the radio is talking to her, she talks back to it constantly she will take pieces of what she hears and piece it together for example the gas station commercial said you can win 1000 dollar gift card, her reality it said for her to go there to get her 1000 dollars from Donald Trump.

She is also convinced Trump is trying to kill her, and that she is going to get 500 million dollars. She thinks she is a famous actress and won 7 grammys as well.

She is convinced in her mind these things are happening I have never seen any signs other than staying online too long compulsing over it she is 37 yrs old

She is in a psych hospital now diagnosed with schizophrenia here are my questions.

How long do these episodes in general last?
Will she ever be the same?
Will she remember this ?
Will this happen again?

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Sorry to hear that this has happened to your family. I am glad to hear that your wife is in the hospital though. With treatment (meds and therapy) she will hopefully improve enough to regain her functioning. Each personā€™s sz is different so itā€™s hard to say if she will be the same as she was before. If she is compliant with medication thereā€™s a good chance that the paranoia, feelings of grandiosity and delusional thinking will improve significantly. There are other symptoms of sz that are less responsive to treatment though (apathy, lack of emotion, lack if motivation) that may or may not begin to surface after they get the strange thinking under control. I have 2 family members with this illness who have completely different symptoms. Both have paranoia but only one experienced hallucinations. One experienced the loss of functioning and the other functions normally. One is medication compliant while the other will not consider it. I do hope that your wifes condition improves significantly. Please let us know how itā€™s going and get help for yourself as wellā€¦the stress of this is very taxing.

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Thank you for replying this has been the most stressful event to ever happen to me to not be able to reach her, get through to her, or help her itā€™s an awful feeling.

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Many of us were caught by surprise when our loved ones became ill.

If this was her first episode with psychosis, and they can get her on anti-psychotic meds, there is a really good chance it wonā€™t happen again.

Itā€™s a 25% chance - in this business, that is a statistic that is real.

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Life will never be the same. Iā€™m sorry to say it. I went through what you are similar paranoia, hallucinations and such just three short LONG years ago with my husband. We have been now married 33 years, had just celebrated out 30th wedding anniversary, one of our five daughters had just gotten married and the other four were happily living with their significant others in their own homes. We were just becoming into our own relaxation after raising the five girls. I came home for lunch one day and my husband was home from work (VERY unusual for him) and telling me that he needed to call our oldest and tell her to clean her house because ā€œsomeoneā€ was accusing him of sexually assaulting her and DHHS was going to be coming to her houseā€¦then it was someone at work had told him that he was being hunted by the policeā€¦and on and onā€¦Long story short, he tried to kill himself TWICE during the nightā€¦I found him the first time, watched him like a hawk (planning on taking him to his doctors as soon as they opened because of cost and because he seemed okay, had tried do himself in with car exhaust) while I was watching him, he was smoking almost continuously and I was keeping track of how long he was in the garage smoking and coming back inā€¦never in my life did I think he would try and do it again and drink a quart of weed killer but he did. After everythingā€¦a good 2 weeks to get a handle on whatever was going on, he was diagnosed with SZ. He does go to work, thank God, but he is not the man I married, the man he was. He doesnā€™t/canā€™t(?) do the things he used to around the house. He isnā€™t the man who would cuddle, go for a drive to get an ice cream or just sit and have a conversation with me.

I donā€™t want to say your situation will be the same, I"m not trying to pop any bubbles, but I want you to be realistic ā€¦something that has hit me full in the face. it i hard as hellā€¦Thank goodness he will take him medicationsā€¦though I donā€™t give him the option either. Sometimes I see him peek out and take full joy when that happens. But his personality has changed, his behaviors have changed and his memory has changed. He will argue about stupid stuff, he will claim that Iā€™m doing things or have done things that really havenā€™t happened and tells our daughters that stuff. I pray that you and she will be very blessed if she returns to her ā€œoldā€ self.

will she remember??? Good questionā€¦my husband had two episodes in his early 20ā€™s that his family told me (NOR did he) about until this all happened in which he was also paranoid, in fact, he was actually placed in the mental hospital for a time. When I asked him why he never told me he informed me that his brother was lying, that the things that I was told never happened and he didnā€™t understand why his brother would say that. Then he said, ā€œwell I signed papers to go into the hospital so Pat (his brother) wouldnā€™t get mad at me.ā€ Iā€™m not really sure what he remembers or doesnā€™t remember. he to this day claims that he isnā€™t sick, that nothing happened even this last time and that it is MY fault that he spent time in the hospital and then the mental hospital, that I was just ā€˜over reactingā€™ to the situation (whatever one that he thinks wasā€¦no clue on this to this day) and that everything since then is my fault.

As to happening againā€¦well from my experience yesā€¦the severity will depend on how cognizant you are of her behaviors, her warning signs and such. I was able to stop my husband from a major issue by keeping in contact with his boss who told me things were off at work (he was arguing with his boss which is NOT in his norm as well as other things) and when he got home I saw other thingsā€¦called the doctor and was able to get his meds increased, not without a lot of issues but at least I was able to keep him out of the hospital this time around. Likely, yes it will happen again, Iā€™m sorry.

Just remember we are here, you have support and thank God this group has been hereā€¦things will be hard, things will never be the same, but the love I have for my husband will never changeā€¦ I married him 33 years ago for better or worseā€¦we always think worse is going to be a physical illness such as cancer, or Alzheimerā€™s or diabetesā€¦but never one that we will have no clue what will happen, in what time period it will happen or WHEN ā€¦we just have to be continually prepared. No manuals on this illness/disease, just time, love and experience. Hang in thereā€¦we have all been in your shoes at one point or another so donā€™t be afraid to askā€¦yell, scream or cryā€¦weā€™ve all done that too and still do! ((((HUGS)))

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