I'm the partner of a paranoid schizophrenic

Hey @AudreyKane, thank you for sharing your experiences with the community!

It's heartwarming to hear that you love your partner and want to support them and it sounds like they are really fortunate to have you as a partner. It must also be really tough to see someone you love having the challenges that often come with schizophrenia and what sounds like some paranoia.

I also have a diagnosis of schizophrenia and have the support of my family but not partners. Support from our loved ones is really benefical and can really mean a lot while experiencing symptoms and in recovery.

You are definitely not alone in how you feel and people with schizophrenia who experience delusions can think that their loved ones are in some way involved with their paranoia. Delusions by their nature are very challeging to change the narrative with the person experiencing them even if evidence suggest otherwise.

When a person experiences delusions and have an alternate reality their feelings and emotions are real. And it's really important to not buy into or fuel them but empathise with how they are feelings and their emotions.

We also have a Hearing Voices and Psychosis thread here https://saneforums.org/t5/Useful-resources/Hearing-voices-and-psychosis-%EF%B8%8F/td-p/1682014 and I encourage to connect with the comminty in that space too.

I am sure the community will have some insights to share too!

Take care

RiverSeal

Thank you for reading, I'm so devastated right now. He's telling me that he's done, and had enough, and that essentially I do to him, exactly what he does to me, this is entirely untrue, but my heart is broken, I don't know what to do anymore.

Is he going to leave me?

Hi

It's great to hear you love your partner. My issue is I get voices from my parents

Hey @AudreyKane, sorry to hear that this is happening for you while you are trying to support your partner. It must be really challenging to hear that he is thinking that you are harming him in some way.

When we are experiencing symptoms we are still accountable for a what we say and our actions. We are still able to make life decisions whether they are based on factual information or our delusions. I can't say what he might do in this instance as we are all individuals and react in unique ways to different things.

You could try to contact Relationships Australia and get some support from them that may help in resolving the issue if you thikn it would be beneficial. Whether he would like to be involved or not but you could approach his with the idea.

Also the community may have some insights to share from similar experiences.

Take care

RiverSeal

Thank you.

Oh, I forgot to mention, my partner also has drug induced psychosis which has truly taken a toll after 25 years, these episodes are becoming all too frequent, it's extremely unnerving. He grabs things, darts all over the place as he believes people are watching us/him, he also sees and hears things that aren't actually there.

Hi @AudreyKane I'm hearing that things have been really frightening for your partner, and this would likely also be quite frightening for you to be witnessing too. Are you feeling safe with your partner at the moment?

Yes, but he is extremely verbally abusive, but says I am exactly what he is to me, as if he is aware of how he treats me but uses same as manipulation, if that makes sense