My 47Y/O Female wife

Just wondered as I feel so lost currently, in my home I have 3 sons 20/19/14 all are Autistic/ADHD but 20YO not had formal diagnosis. Around 11 years ago when my 19 YO was diagnosed I started to see similarities in my wife’s behaviour, I brought this up with GP as she was always a bit insecure and nervous and struggled a little with illness, when Covid hit and she started Perimenopause she became fixated on illness, she’d been put on antidepressants 20 years ago but suddenly she was blaming everything on side effects of different tablets and withdrawals.

What is especially difficult as she was diagnosed ASD/ADHD 6 months ago and for 5 years it’s been spells shutdown in bed, she has got to be in control so chooses her own medication, orders antibiotics because she believes she is ill, stockpiling them next to her bed. She threatens to end herself if I don’t listen, Police got called by our kids scared of her meltdown and they said it was coercive control but I didn’t press charges as she’s not doing it on purpose. Sorry if this is too long but GP’s and Psychiatrist will only listen to her and I’m exhausted.

Parents
  • She has every right to be in control of her own medication and illness - if anything perhaps she has hypercondria and hopefully she’s taking some medical advice for this or you have asked the doctor about this. Not sure how she gets hold of antibiotics without a GP. I really can’t imagine the police saying that someone threatening to kill themselves was coercive control (unless you’re missing a lot more detail in this story) they would be opening themselves up to prosecution making statements like that especially if she actually does. If she needs to go to bed she’s likely suffering from burnout and not being understood. 

  • She has every right to be in control of her own medication? So she should be able to order prescription meds from Superdrug online or when she demands antidepressants but won’t take it at the dosage given to her by the gp. She’s had loads of support from all sides but is so focused on symptoms.

  • Also correctly this behaviour has been going on 5 years so of course this isn’t isolated incident, she gets antibiotics because she describes symptoms of an infection and they give her them.

  • At the moment there seems to be no downside to her behaviour, as in no consequences .

    She needs to regulate herself first.

    If she can't or won't then this is not solvable. You can't regulate other people, it leads to  hyper vigilance, burnout, dysfunction (dependency) and trauma if not careful (as I know).

  • I would still try the doctor together and give it time to see if she will work with you now she has the diagnosis and explores everything including your relationship together. Personally I think it would be better for your kids to see you both working together to create a solution…. If she won’t engage then there’s not much you can do after that. Talking to your counsellor friend hopefully will help think of a way to communicate with her in which she will work with you 

  • Yeah it’s sounding worse now like you do need more support…. And you don’t need your cupboards throwing all over the place. I don’t know if you have asked her (maybe you wrote it earlier and I’ve missed it) but I think try and get her to go to the doctors with you together and see if there is some sort of counselling you can do as a couple in relation to also the new diagnosis. I’m not sure why she has done that with the clothes maybe the doctor will find out 

  • The go to is just stupid things like tipping clothes are over or the shoe cupboard or throwing stuff, all of that I can deal with, having our sons scared and used I can’t 

  • For instance if i am having a meltdown it means I probably don’t go to the party because there’s too much going on or there’s too much conflict amongst other people but if I have a meltdown it’s silent and I just remove myself or I tell everybody I’m not prepared to deal with them and their control so don’t speak to me 

  • Ok now you’re adding the detail that makes it more scary (you didn’t need to) but if they’re empty threats (she hasn’t done anything physical before or during) then there is still time to not write her off from life. It’s hard when kids are involved and especially if she’s starting to use them against you - that’s where I loose support for somebody. Meltdown is a broad term and it doesn’t automatically mean I or anybody knows that , that is what it looks like or means for you.  
    you absolutely should not ignore your children.

  • I know you haven’t. I’m concerned about people responding and reinforcing the negative when you’re in a vulnerable place over seeking correct support - I know you haven’t mentioned the NHS haven’t been particularly supportive to you and I think you should book an appointment for yourself. You’re right in what you said later on about her ordering the medication and the detail you listed about trying to stop her - fully support you there. I’m not expecting you to provide deep detail - I just thought people jumped in too heavy too soon with minimal detail about why this woman who is clearly suffering (your whole family is with this situation) about why she is wrong and to suggest you have no future and there is no work through for this. There may be elements of coercive control but the police won’t prosecute somebody on that alone and especially as a first time offender - they will want to try to do the best for your family and they might try to provide you with more information to be able to provide a workable solution before it gets to that stage. It’s difficult if you feel like everybody is against you - I would rather see you all pulled out of this sticky place which has gone on for a while. 20 years is a long time and there is a lot to explore here especially if either of you don’t know how to explore you’re difficulties (we’re not all psychologists) and find a better future for all of you without any extremes 

Reply
  • I know you haven’t. I’m concerned about people responding and reinforcing the negative when you’re in a vulnerable place over seeking correct support - I know you haven’t mentioned the NHS haven’t been particularly supportive to you and I think you should book an appointment for yourself. You’re right in what you said later on about her ordering the medication and the detail you listed about trying to stop her - fully support you there. I’m not expecting you to provide deep detail - I just thought people jumped in too heavy too soon with minimal detail about why this woman who is clearly suffering (your whole family is with this situation) about why she is wrong and to suggest you have no future and there is no work through for this. There may be elements of coercive control but the police won’t prosecute somebody on that alone and especially as a first time offender - they will want to try to do the best for your family and they might try to provide you with more information to be able to provide a workable solution before it gets to that stage. It’s difficult if you feel like everybody is against you - I would rather see you all pulled out of this sticky place which has gone on for a while. 20 years is a long time and there is a lot to explore here especially if either of you don’t know how to explore you’re difficulties (we’re not all psychologists) and find a better future for all of you without any extremes 

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