Tuesday, November 16, 2010
I is ever so difficult to help my wife. She is hearing voices and has delusions of me cheeting and talking on my phone all night. She sais she hears the womans voice coming from my ear and that I have some kind of invisible blue tooth. I try to reassure her however; sometimes i get frustrated. does anyone know how I can help her? she is taking medications and the visual hallucinations are gone but the auditory remain. I love my wife and will be there through thick and thin.
Hello,
You are a wonderful person to stand by your wife. You most likely understand that she has an illness and doesn't want to have it either and would rather be free of the voices if she were able to make that happen.
Should she have any insight into the knowledge that what she thinks is happening is not actually happening I will first recommend some web sites that offer coping techniques for hearing voices:
Hearing Voices - Coping Techniques
Hearing Voices - Coping Techniques Two
Hearing Voices - Coping Techniques Three
The last two web sites are from organizations based in the UK however it is their content that might be of use.
So I would start from the idea that if your wife is aware that the voices are not real she can develop coping skills.
Also: cognitive therapy can help her control her symptoms and cope with them as well.
If she lacks the awareness that what the voices are saying are not real that is a harder thing to change. What you describe seems like a delusion or fixed false belief that you have an invisible blue tooth. I wrote a SharePost titled Understanding Delusions that you might want to take a look at in this case.
Her hearing the voice of a woman would be an auditory hallucination.
I would suggest cognitive therapy either way and also a consult with her psychiatrist to determine if her medication needs adjusting: either the dose or the type of drug she's taking if she has had a good long run with the meds and has seen no relief.
A friend of mine was on one drug that didn't halt the voices and when he was placed on a new drug the voices stopped completely. This is not a guaranteed outcome for everyone who switches drugs however it could be possible.
I would not give up hope that she can find relief.
Sometimes you have to try all the drugs out there like trial-and-error inserting multiple keys in a lock to unlock the drug that best helps a person recover.
I would also hope your wife is taking her medication every day as prescribed because that is the best way to see a better improvement.
Earlyriser-a community member here-has heard voices going on 30 years and uses coping skills to deal with them effectively.
As I said: the goal is total symptom relief and if the voices cannot go away the goal becomes effective symptom management with therapy and coping skills.
Please continue to contribute to this web site as often as you'd like.
We will support you in what you're going through.
Regards,
Christina
I appreciate your response. It was nice to know that there is someone out there that will listen to my concerns. My wife remains on 15mg of zyprexa a day, Paxil and Klonopin. Unfortunately the voices remain not only the delusions about me but she sais she can hear the "spirits" and not she sees new people. A Man, Woman, Child and Baby as well as a dog. Luckly enough they are not harrassing like the other people that were there. I take this as a good sign that at least the medications are changing the type of people she sees.
I will stand by my wife no matter what we have been togerather for 20 years. I believe that the delusions around me stem from the fact that it was always her fear that I would find someone younger (she is 60 this is 20 years older than myself). Unfortunately I cannot prove other wise. This seems to be an ever changing road. I pray for stability in her condition. thank you for the advice and the links. I at least now have a direction to go in.
You also might want to contact your local NAMI chapter for a family support group to attend. Ring them at (800) 950-NAMI (6264) to get the name and phone number of a local chapter if you are in the U.S.
Christina