Anyone the spouse/partner of a person with some form of mental illness?

Question

What difficulties do you find in your relationship due to your partner's illness? My husband has depression, has begun taking an antidepressant (finally) and I feel like it's taking a big toll on our relationship. What about you?

Answer 1

my wife has been diagnosed with depression and put on 100 mg of Zoloft. Things have been rather rocky for the last few months around here. I believe she hasn't been making some decisions as rationally as she used to, and our ability to communicate is slipping. we are encountering quiet a few problems lately . I do think some of them are due to her depression but not all of them

Answer 2

Well actually my girlfriend has very strong depression and is taking medication for it. She had made several attemts to kill herself and cut constantly. Kind of cute the way she cut my name into her arm... But anyways!! She had that for a long time until she was brought to a mental hospital (only for 5 days) and put on a strong medication. Now she's alot calmer and seemingly happier. But she's changed for the worse too... Now she doesn't pay any attention to me at all and it could be because she no longer needs me to comfort her. She also has this thing (which I dont know what it is) That makes her very forgetful. One time she said she was sick and so she couldn't talk on the phone that day. She insisted we talk tomorrow because she was too tired. She promised anyway to call me the next day to make up for it. So the next day rolls around and I still didn't get that call. I finally call her and her mom answers the phone. I ask where my girlfriend was, and she told me that she was out with her friends. How do you like that? She's so sick she can't talk to me, but she's not too sick to hang out with her friends... Well needless to say, I got mad at her and sent her an email. I didn't cuss or anything. Just enough to get the point across that I was angry. She sent me a responce to that letter. You know what it said? It said that She is too forgetful and I deserve better. She told me she dicided to break up with me and told me to find a girl that would treat me right. When I read this, I pretty much had a panic attack. I was crying or something and don't really want to think about it. I called her as soon as I read it and told her that she was making a mistake. She said she was really sorry and she accepted me back without an arguement. I asked her why she thought that breaking up with me was the answer and she said, she wasn't thinking. She didn't really realize that breaking up could change both of our lives so much.

Well, we've been together ever since, but there's an important lesson in all of this. Things like this happen all the time im my relationship with my girlfriend. Her mental illness that causes her to forget things all the time makes being with her very hard at times. But there's something else that I fogot to mention, I LOVE HER. I love my girlfriend with all of my heart. I could never leave her. And I especially cannot make her a victim of something she can't control. We always find a way to work things out because we put our love above everything else. I feel for you and wish the best of luck for you and your relationship.





I hope this helps. Believe me, I know it's hard. Here to help, E.J.

Answer 3

all the external things can help with the depression and make it worsen he needs to tell the doc and get the lexapro raised up...

Answer 4

One time my ex told me I was crazy and I told him yeah well if I'm crazy he was insane. He NEVER told me that again and notice I said ex.

Answer 5

Why is it taking a toll ? Isn't he better ?

Answer 6

if you are married then you are prolly both suffering from mental illness.