Ptsd

[armywifie]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My husband has PTSD and is driving me crazy. He lives in TX right now. Every other week he says he wants a divorce, then changes his mind and wants me. He has had two affairs since coming home from Iraq in March. I know this because he told me. He is putting me through hell. We have 2 babies. He is now threatening to cut me off from money, take our kids, take all of our furniture, etc. He's probably just trying to scare me, but it's working. What are my rights? What should I do? I dn't understand why he is doing this, but I don't want to end up homeless with 2 kids!

[DRTDEVL]

What makes you think he has PTSD? Any official diagnosis?

Without the diagnosis, I'd have to say he enjoys philandering.

[armywifie]

Originally Posted by DRTDEVL

What makes you think he has PTSD? Any official diagnosis?

Without the diagnosis, I'd have to say he enjoys philandering.

He has seen his company counselor and she said he shows all signs for PTSD and got him a referral to a pshychiatrist. I think he will be diagnosed. He is very paranoid and short tempered. He has nightmares when he sleeps, so he barely sleeps. He has crashed his motorcycle. He even robbed someone at gunpoint when he was home on leave. No one knows about that though.

Either way, he's not himself and he's threatening to take everything from me and not give me access to money. Can he do that?

[slwx]

Originally Posted by armywifie

He has seen his company counselor and she said he shows all signs for PTSD and got him a referral to a pshychiatrist. I think he will be diagnosed. He is very paranoid and short tempered. He has nightmares when he sleeps, so he barely sleeps. He has crashed his motorcycle. He even robbed someone at gunpoint when he was home on leave. No one knows about that though.

Either way, he's not himself and he's threatening to take everything from me and not give me access to money. Can he do that?

not a legal expert -- but it probably is PTSD.

if you want to stay with him, you should learn more about it.

my son has a psychotic disorder -- so i'd like to tell you something about sleep deprivation.

you can look this up yourself, the military has done all kinds of studies that show most people will show symptoms of full-blown schizophrenia after 3 or 4 days without sleep.

my son becomes very paranoid after 3 days without sleep -- on the 4th day, he's delusional. he's went 9 days without sleep before.

maybe it's PTSD, maybe he's bipolar and just been triggered, maybe he's self-medicating with drugs.

i know you're scared about not having access to money to live -- and i don't know what he can do and what he can't legally -- but make sure that he gets to the psychiatrist. medication and therapy can help a lot, but the longer you wait, the longer it takes to get better.

good luck to both of you -- there are quite a few mental illness sites out there if you want some support that way. NAMI has a pretty good one.

[ecmst12]

There are lots of support groups out there for families of service members with PTSD. You should find one. He also needs to get his butt into treatment (the sooner treatment is started, the more likely it is to be successful) and you should also go to therapy together. This is a very difficult situation for all of you but there is help out there.

If he is violent and you feel you need to leave him for your own protection (or even just because you can't live with him anymore) there are laws to prevent him from taking all the money and leaving you homeless. You can get a legal referral from a local domestic violence help group - plenty of lawyers will take cases like yours for low or no cost.