First off, I apologize for the very unpolitically correct title to the thread. The title that I wanted to make was this:
Will living with people who have serious and difficult to deal with psychological disorders cause someone else to experience mental problems of their own?
That wouldn't fit.
My wife is diagnosed bipolar. It has been a frightful decade plus of marriage. One of our children, we believe, has Aspergers syndrome. This hasn't been confirmed medically but he has more than 75% of the symptoms and, now that he is entering adolescence and middle school, the problems are amplified beyond what either of us can handle.
I have arranged an appointment to have him meet with a mental health professional.
Still, the stress on me is extreme because I have to deal with both of them. Sometimes I feel like I can't take it anymore. After speaking with my wife this morning on the phone (they are never good conversations anymore) I ended up throwing the cordless phone into the fireplace, where it broke into many pieces, because it is becoming more and more difficult to deal with her and my son.
To make matters worse, any time things are not going well, which is 90% of the time these days, it's "my fault" for not studying the Bible with the kids or her more and that the Bible scriptures can help everyone. This is part of the WT guilt trip. The Watchtower teaches that if you aren't going out in service or commenting at meetings that you are the spawn of Satan, unworthy of his spirit, and doomed to die in a hole. Anything that goes wrong could have been avoided if you had only "listened to Jehovah."
I feel like I am going insane myself. And not in a joking way. In a real "I might explode any moment" kind of way.
My wife tried medication but she doesn't like that it makes her uncomfortable at night so she refuses to take any more prescribed medication or to look for any other alternatives. She feels that "Bible study" is all the help that she needs. I am certain that our son will require medication because he has been worse than ever lately: self-harming behavior, "I wish I was dead" sort of stuff.
We have other children that are fine and adjusted, in spite of the fact that they are also within the WBTS mind control unit. But it's the two that have problems that are causing me great stress.
The main reason for me writing this is not to ask for help, assistance, support, or anything like that. I just need to get it off of my chest because I can't talk to anyone about my personal problems for fear of being "outed" and then you can add being shunned and demonized by my family to the list of my stressors.
er
...OUTLAW