My husband woke up.

This is called a psychic break...
He didn't 'wake up'...he broke down....
It's sad that you think he would like to be talked about this way.

reply to post by nivekronnoco


Star.
Agreed. That is what I'm trying to get through in my last two posts on the previous page. I hope she sees them.

reply to post by stellawayten


Hey Stella, I work in the medical field, and have seen, and heard a lot of similar stories. I do believe that a lot of people with mental challenges are over medicated, yet in a lot of cases medication is necessary. After reading about the longer version of your trip. I do believe your husband had a psychotic break. That does not mean that he hasn't had a spiritual awakening, or that everything happening to him has to be all bad. He got overwhelmed. By what? If I had that answer I would be exceptionally in the know on a cosmic level. I think overreacting would be a mistake as much as underreacting. You are going to have to feel this one out, and go with your instincts as they seem pretty intact to me. Don't put yourself, or family in harms way, but also don't alienate your husband. It can be a delicate balancing act. When someone is in a manic phase their mind is going 300 times faster than yours so reasonong is usually futile, until they calm down.

I don't know what the specifics of your dynamics with your husband is, but he is REALLY going to have to trust you. You need to have a long, long talk with him about learning to regulate himself both with meds, and cognitive self discipline. The better he gets at the latter the less he will have need of the former. He is going to have to trust you, and listen when you say, "Honey, you need to stop. Slow down, and listen to me. Your behavior is becoming...." As was mentioned earlier self awareness is the first step to all this. For instance I am ADD. Yet I do a very complex, and fast paced demanding job that requires a lot of attention to details. I have to make myself focus, and I have learned lots of really good strategies over the years, but I could not have started learning them had I not stopped, and said to myself "I have a problem." In ways my ADD has worked to my advantage. I can brainstorm on an idea like no body's business, but then to implement the ideas, I have to focus, and be tedious, and detail oriented. Even though I don't like it, it has to be done.

A behavioral specialist would be someone good to talk to. Learn cognitive strategies for dealing with the whirlwind of thoughts, and emotions. Use the meds to help, but not as a primary strategy. Learn to tell your own mind to cool it for a bit.

Also reassure him that he is not crazy, wierd, strange, or inferior in any way. He has a mental challenge, and overcoming it can make him an even better person than he was before. Embrace the good, and weed out the bad. Unfortunately he now has an official diagnosis, and their will be a social stigma about it in many peoples minds. It isn't fair, but that is the way it is. Luckily I had friends who are in mental health willing to help me without officially diagnosing me. Also I did a lot of research, and helped myself mostly with a whole lot of support from my wife..

I would reinforce the importance of him trusting you as his anchor, and sounding board for the stuff going through his mind because as you have experienced most LEOs are really bad at dealing with people in a mental health crisis. I would be lost without my wife. At times I cook up some really hair brained projects that I just have to start right now. Usually 10, or 15 at a time, and she stops me from going to the hardware store or harbor freight, and spending a mint on stuff I'll never have time to finish. Yes I get mad, and upset at the time, but later I see that she was thinking straight, and I was thinking faster than reality could catch up. But I MAKE myself listen, and give her sway in my decisions. She really appreciates all the cool projects I do accomplish, and I have great ideas. I just need help making them a reality, and not biting off more than can be chewed.

Your husband may have great spiritual insight now, but he needs a guide, and anchor to keep him equally in reality, and not out engaging in risky behavior on a manic whim. But he absolutely must trust you, and have faith in you that you aren't just trying to be a wet blanket or stop his spiritual growth. He is in danger of becoming so heavenly minded he is no earthly good. Yet well balanced he can have not just a good life, but a great one. I will keep you both in my thoughts, and prayers.

reply to post by Binder


Yes.. to pretty much all of this.
Abnormal psych was my major. Look approach him in a way that makes him comfortable, let him know that he can be honest with you as you are the person that knows him better than anyone.
Say (in better words) that he can cut through the BS with you. What is really on his mind, make your conspiracy theory ideas seem trivial, joke about them, approach them in a not so serious way so he can step away from them as serious and discuss his real feelings with you not disguising them with concerns of new beliefs. Find out what is the cause and what he feels. This is really important. Please take our word for it.

reply to post by stellawayten


Well I can't say as I agree with the part about God being an alien; however, if he really did have a spiritual experience, and he now believes in God and is reading his bible, if your concerned, see a pastor. As a Christian myself, that is always the place to turn. You know God has been known to enlighten people at the most inopportune times, especially when he wants our attention and we aren't paying attention. Good luck to you and your family.
God Bless you both.

reply to post by stellawayten


Firstly i'm so sorry to hear about your husband going through such a trying time.

Secondly i'm not a doctor.

Third, well i worked in a half way house for people with mental illnesses and what you describe sounds like the various stories of the people i worked with, bipolar disorder and psychosis produce those sorts of sudden shifts in personality. I remember one guy went off his meds and was exactly as you describe, preaching to everyone, accepting any conspiracy idea, he even thought we were trying to kill him and his family were trying to poison him his paranoia was so deep.

I wish your husband a speedy recovery, this is not a wake up, this is a break from reality and you shouldn't play into his delusions.

Originally posted by questcequecest
reply to post by stellawayten

 

E.T. revealed to me his singular purpose.
He said, "You are the Chosen One,
the One who will deliver the message.
A message of hope for those who choose to hear it
and a warning for those who do not."
Me. The Chosen One?
They chose me!!!
And I didn't even graduate from #in' high school

dont let us down !!!
oh and bring a pen!!! write it down.dont forget. bring a pen.!!! haha
im silly!

TOOL!!! hehe, nice!

Anyho, OP you and your husband are not crazy!! Its sad that he went on meds (imo), we so love to pigeon hole things dont we? "oh he's ranting about aliens and god he must be having a psychotic break!"
Listen, maybe he is sick and does need help and if so I apologise for my ignorance, but what if he isnt? why is meds always our first response? What if men and women who have these experiances are the true sane ones and "we" the "normal" ones are actually insane? What if we gave up something really awesome in our relentless pursuit of science and reason?!
I dont know
Im tired
Best of luck for you and your husband

Originally posted by Rhebefree
Anyho, OP you and your husband are not crazy!! Its sad that he went on meds (imo), we so love to pigeon hole things dont we? "oh he's ranting about aliens and god he must be having a psychotic break!"
Listen, maybe he is sick and does need help and if so I apologise for my ignorance, but what if he isnt?

If someone has a sweeping change in personality, coupled with paranoia and deep religious shifts then they do need meds because leaving them to do as they will can lead to a complete breakdown of their life. They can also become very dangerous to themselves and others.This isn't normal behavior, and i don't mean believing in conspiracies or religion is abnormal, but all of it at once, completely out of character is a clear sign of mental problems.

Believe me when you've been standing across from someone in the middle of a full psychotic break, them holding a broken light bulb and screaming they are going to shove it in your face then you might have a more cautious opinion.

I would hazard to bet that the diagnosis at the hospital was indeed correct. Trust me, even "evil shrinks" don't shove medication down your throat when you don't need it. There is a distinct difference between a simple spiritual awakening and the mental, bipolar disorder. I trust even a novice psychiatrist/psychologist to know the difference and to diagnose accordingly.

reply to post by stellawayten



I like to hear your husband's testimony on how he came to 'know' God was real. Did someone talk to him about the love of God that made him change his heart and mind and recieve the gift of eternal life?

If this did happen, then there was a act of forgiveness that removed all the bad things he did knowingly or unknowingly and he's experiencing what millions through the decades have done, which is taking a simple step of faith and have the 'evidence' of that forgiveness by feeling inside themselves as if a HUGE weight as been taken off their shoulders, for the lack of a better term since it's hard to describe the exact feeling when a person is forgiven.

As Keith Green put it, it's like waking up from a longest dream.

And yes... I completely believe about him bashing through the wall, God is like that, using the the simple to the wise even wiser in hopes that it had to be God because there's no other way to explain it.

I 've been used in such was as well, but,I'm just a vessal to which must be poured out for there are MANY out there that are the same way and God is using your husband to show the world around him that God is real, even in your husband.

As for God being an Alien, hmmm.. well.. might want to look up that defination, it's intresting .. because even God says we are aliens in a forgien land, in which Paul was saying that a Christian's real home wasn't Earth, it's a place where God resides and where we'll spend eternity with him. We really don't belong here because we're actually citizens of Kingdom of Heaven thus making us 'aliens' here on earth.

So, yes... the term Alien,a non-citizen inhabitant of a country, certainly applies to God.

I wouldn't care what hes thinking as long as he has no emotional feelings about this. High feeling of sureness for an example, sadness etc its not always a case that chemical imbalance has feelings of negativity. All has to do with the "spark" inside the head, this "spark" inside your head is the center of you and you are being controlled by it. Once you master this neuron transmitter you open a door to many things but believe me its not easy to master it i am still figuring out some secrets. I am a sufferer of depression and anxiety up to this state I managed to destroy the thoughts and thus came to attention that the problems I had was never problems at all I healed my mentality with a secret and to this state I only getting feelings of depression (the symptoms) without the thoughts this secret is also a instant re-leave of the symptoms as well. You have to fight two things at once the one is the symptoms and the second the mental issues. The symptoms is the problem! The normal person would use a psychologist and pills, I replaced both with one thing and became my psychologist. I wont share my secret because it can make it worst if you do not know what I know.

To make long story short the mental issues is an excuse for the symptoms. Its long real difficult story to explain everything. Two things can trigger this one lifestyle or second a event. If a event was the reason it must be killed immediately before your head starts to get lets say "addictive" of not releasing the correct amount chemicals. THE SYMPTOMS IS THE ROOT TO EVIL not the thoughts.

Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984

Originally posted by Rhebefree
Anyho, OP you and your husband are not crazy!! Its sad that he went on meds (imo), we so love to pigeon hole things dont we? "oh he's ranting about aliens and god he must be having a psychotic break!"
Listen, maybe he is sick and does need help and if so I apologise for my ignorance, but what if he isnt?

If someone has a sweeping change in personality, coupled with paranoia and deep religious shifts then they do need meds because leaving them to do as they will can lead to a complete breakdown of their life. They can also become very dangerous to themselves and others.This isn't normal behavior, and i don't mean believing in conspiracies or religion is abnormal, but all of it at once, completely out of character is a clear sign of mental problems.

Believe me when you've been standing across from someone in the middle of a full psychotic break, them holding a broken light bulb and screaming they are going to shove it in your face then you might have a more cautious opinion.

Yea sorry, I hadnt read all the posts, I just read the extended version on page 16 and it did sound less like a spiritual experiance and more like a break, so yeah his family was right for getting him help. I was wrong.
I also told my mum the story and she reckons he had an "episode" (my mother is a mental health nurse)
I apologize if I have offended anyone, the words "verbal spew" come to mind!

Originally posted by SusyQ30
reply to post by stellawayten

 

You know God has been known to enlighten people at the most inopportune times, especially when he wants our attention and we aren't paying attention.

You would think that the supreme creator of EVERYTHING and most powerful and omnipotent being in all of existence could come up with better ways to 'get our attention'.

He must be really really bored up there.

Well when we are heading down pathways that God doesn't want us on, he has ways of turning us around. Everything is in Gods time, never ours. To the lady and her husband, I wish you all the best, and I pray that everything turns out ok for both you and your family.

very interesting hmmm

So, having a psychological disorder is classed as ''waking up'' now? Something to be celebrated? I've seen some strange assumtions on this site but this is indeed in my top five.

Seriously, to be blunt, it's just ridiculous. Maybe people's whole belief in god is a psychological disorder and this thread is just more proof of that?

Although, bottom line, if the husband is happier after the mental change then good luck to him.

reply to post by Fatgoblin



He has a way of chastising those with worldly wisdom and reveal to them their spiritual foolishness. Accordingly, I think He delights in doing such things.

My wife has always been religious. Went to a prominate Christian College, attends Bible study when she can. A couple years ago she got a bad case of poison ivy. The doctor prescribed some steroids to treat it. The steroids kept her up for several days until she was delirious. We went back to her doctor and it took her all of 3 minutes to prescribed my wife some Xanax to "help her with the stress of the steroid reaction." I wish I would have reported her doctor for having done such an irresponsible thing without a proper examination.

Anyway, long story short (you can read the thread here), my wife went "nuts" and was having delusional "realisations" about God, Jesus and the Devil. When she wanted me to take her to the Emergency Room I did. And when the doctors on duty there told me she was having early schizophrenic episodes I told him she was not and that she needed sleep and to be purged of the steroids that were keeping her awake and the Xanax that were worsening her delusions. I knew she was only speaking of God and Jesus and the Devil because it was a belief that she held close to her heart. The doctor assumed the only possible answer could be schizophrenia.

It wasn't. It was sleep that was needed. I got her checked into a mental health ward (at the doctors request) and they shot her up with no-telling-what to get her to go to sleep. She slept about 18 hours. When she woke up she was still a bit loopy off the drugs, but was coherent and understood most of what had happened. All because of a bit of poison ivy that was thought would be best treated with the use of steroids.

Don't believe everything "modern science" tells us about our bodies. They're usually just guessing anyway.

The rest of the story...


So I went to my sisters and stayed the night. When I woke up I went to meet my sister and law and my husbands uncle. We drove to the jail to bail him out. When the bail bonds man came they got my husband out of the cell and walked him into the front office. He looked terrible. His head was down and he wouldn’t open his eyes. He could barely walk. They had to hold him up as he was walking. They set him down in a chair and he still wouldn’t open his eyes. We told him that he had to sign the papers to get bonded out and he said that he wasn’t ready. I knelt down beside him and told him that he had to do it so we could leave. He started asking if his chief was there. I said no, you have to sign the papers. He said, no, I’m not ready. I said, I will help you sign them. I had the bondsman hand me the papers and I put them in his lap. He flung them out of it.

I started crying and begging him to sign the papers. My sister in law took me outside and we both cried and hugged. They told him that since he wouldn’t sign the papers that he would have to go back into the cell. They took him back and I went in and said that he needs to go to the hospital. They said there was nothing they could do and that he would have to wait for three days for their doctor to get there. My husbands uncle thought that was fine and that he needed to sleep it off. I was devastated.

We started walking back to the car and the people running the station came out and said that we could get him out but it would be under our responsibility. His uncle said… nah, lets just let him sit in there for a few days. I threw a fit and said… no way! This is my decision and I will unload all our bank accounts to get him out. The people that ran the jail took me to the sheriffs office. I said down and apologized for being so emotional. Then I said…. Look, I know yall think he is on drugs but he is not. He has had headaches for years and something is wrong with him. This is not his typical behavior. He is a firefighter for gods sake. Something is wrong with him. The sherriff told me that he would call the judge and get the charges dropped.

I walked back to the front desk and they said that we would have to get an ambulance to take him to a hospital before they would let him go. We went to the hospital and frantically started looking for an ambulance service that would take him to our home town hospital. By this time my mom and sister showed up to support me. The look for an ambulance took at least an hour. No one would do it. My mom and I finally talked to the hospital administrator and she didn’t understand that if they were dropping the charges why they would insist that he leave in an ambulance. We said we didn’t know. She said to let her make a few phone calls and she would get back with us. She made her calls and told us that they said they didn’t say he had to leave in an ambulance (which was a lie). We thanked her for her time and went to pick him up.

He came out of the jail looking like he did the first time he came out. This was my mom and my sisters first time to see him like this. They both started crying. We got him into the car and drove him to our hometown hospital. All the way there he kept talking. Ranting really. Telling his sister that she couldn’t drive over 50 mph. Saying that if you weren’t going to be a good person that you needed to just jump out of the car. This whole time he still wouldn’t open his eyes.

We got him to the ER of our local hospital. We told him that he was going there so they could give him something to sleep. By this time it had been about four days since he had a full nights sleep. He laid on the ER bed while we would visit with him. He ranted for the whole 5 hours we were there. It was like all of the thoughts were flooding his mind and he was confused by them and trying to figure them out. During the 5 hours, they did blood work, urine analysis, and a CT scan. Two MHMR ladies arrived and evaluated him. I over heard them telling the nurse that he is manic. I don’t remember anyone asking about his past or anything but maybe they did. I don’t remember.

The two ladies told me that he would have to go to a mental hospital and they said I would have to pick which one. I said, can’t he stay here and yall sedate him and let him sleep and see how he is tomorrow. They said no because that hospital wasn’t equipped for mental health patients. I cried but picked a hospital. The JP came to the hospital and signed the papers to have him committed. And two officers came to take him to the hospital. They shackled him and led him to the police car. It was sad. But in a funny way I was relieved a little. I guess because I thought maybe they could help him.

The hospital only had three days of visitation for an hour at a time. I was there every moment that I could be. I could see that he was getting better. Coming down from his manic phase. During one of the visitations the staff told us about his breaking down the wall. They asked us if he was really a firefighter. My husband filled in the rest of the story. He said that he was asleep and smelled smoke. Got up and broke the wooden cubby that they had attached to the wall and used one of those boards to break a big hole in the wall. Big enough for him go to the other room and wake the other patient up. At visitation we heard her talking to her family tell them that that guy tried to save me. My husband said after they took him down from that and started walking him to the little room he could hear the other patients yelling ‘bless you’. That story makes me think that it all means something ya know. Out of all the hospitals I could have choosen I picked that one and out of all the rooms they put him in that one. Where they found the bad wiring that had already arched. Them telling us that the place would have burnt down makes me really have a wow moment.

Anyway, he was in the hospital for a week. Now he is home and trying to adjust to the meds… unsuccessfully so far.

Why do I think he woke up? Because he is still changed spiritually. I don't know if it is permanent. I don't know if the meds will dampen it. I'm just taking it one step at a time. I started this thread for many reasons. I wanted to document this happening in case others start doing the same. I also wanted others peoples opinions on it. I had no idea that I would get so many. My baby is starting to wake up so I will tend to him till his nap.