Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Mental Health (Expert Forum)
Shared psychotic Disorder
Questions posted in the Mental Health forum are being answered by Dr. Roger L. Gould, author of the Mastering Stress and Depression program and affiliated with the UCLA. Department of Psychiatry. Topics covered include anger, attention deficit disorder (ADD), bipolar disorder, dementia, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), learning disabilities, memory, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, personality disorders, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, stress, transitions, and work problems.
Shared psychotic Disorder
by james, Oct 27, 1999 12:00AM
Back in Sept. of 1999 I posted a question trying to find out the name of whatever disorder my ex-wife and her mother may have.
HFHS Md-SW suggested that the problem may be a rare disorder called shared psychotic disorder.
Even though I am no Doctor, I lived with this enough to know (and it was the major contributor to our divorce 6 months ago]that this diagnosis is 99% correct from my perspective.
My ex wife lives on the same property [next door], as her dominating mother [Who is a recently retired mental health counselor] who I have no doubt is psychotic {grandiose delusions},as she has set me up on several ocasions, is very clever and devious, extremely controling, and very manipulative. I once saw her through a temper tantrom that was bizare. Both myself {as the son in law] and my ex's brothers wife do not speak to this woman. Her brother is lucky he doesnt live in the same area or their marriage could have ended also. With the birth of my 1st child her mother interfered by coming to the hospital and basically taking over as my wifes couch [which I trained for at La maz]. As my wife was in labor I could do nothing because I did not want to upset my wife. Any Mental Health counselor knows you never interfere with a husband and wife like that. What hurt me the most was the fact that my wife cared nothing about feelings about this when we discussed this afterward. Her mother twisted this around to try and make it look like it was of all things my fault.
I remember when we first got married and we bought her mothers house I would not agree with the sale price initially but we ended up compromising, well she told my wife {passed on to me}
that because I didnt buy the house for the original price she wanted ,that she was going to pay for the entire Wedding ,but now only the food,as was originally talked about. In other words, if I would have done as she wanted I would have been rewarded. I thought that was a very vendictive thing to say and later I saw it for what it was "a Control Technique".
Anyway, I had to get away from this and I had known that something was wrong with the wife because she was unrational and it became impossible to communicate [so frustrating]. She lives in what I see as a delusional world where her mother is like a god and can do no wrong, and where she is not responsible for anything negitive in her life, as an example: she blamed me for her smoking habit and also for words that she thought up and that came out of her mouth were my fault. When friends don't want to be around them anymore their thinking is that something must be wrong with those friends,its never them. They support each other very strongly in their delusions and have a very unnatural (extremely close) mother/daughter relationship.
Of course I was the one blamed for our problems and the divorce and lying to make it so and ingoring the truth seems perfectly normal to the Ex wife.
Please give me any additional comments you may have on the above and very importantly, our two young daughters {ages 5 and 3] live in this enviroment. So far she has been a very good mother but are my children in any danger?
Also, I meant to mention that the mothers husband {wifes stepfather] is nothing more then a puppet of the mother. So this bunch is completly dysfunctional.
Are my children in danger? What can I do? Should I give this information to her relatives so they might intervein. Their is no way I would be listened to, I tried previously (before I had a diagnoses]. Please help.
Thank you very much for this free forum, it is appreciated.
HFHS Md-SW suggested that the problem may be a rare disorder called shared psychotic disorder.
Even though I am no Doctor, I lived with this enough to know (and it was the major contributor to our divorce 6 months ago]that this diagnosis is 99% correct from my perspective.
My ex wife lives on the same property [next door], as her dominating mother [Who is a recently retired mental health counselor] who I have no doubt is psychotic {grandiose delusions},as she has set me up on several ocasions, is very clever and devious, extremely controling, and very manipulative. I once saw her through a temper tantrom that was bizare. Both myself {as the son in law] and my ex's brothers wife do not speak to this woman. Her brother is lucky he doesnt live in the same area or their marriage could have ended also. With the birth of my 1st child her mother interfered by coming to the hospital and basically taking over as my wifes couch [which I trained for at La maz]. As my wife was in labor I could do nothing because I did not want to upset my wife. Any Mental Health counselor knows you never interfere with a husband and wife like that. What hurt me the most was the fact that my wife cared nothing about feelings about this when we discussed this afterward. Her mother twisted this around to try and make it look like it was of all things my fault.
I remember when we first got married and we bought her mothers house I would not agree with the sale price initially but we ended up compromising, well she told my wife {passed on to me}
that because I didnt buy the house for the original price she wanted ,that she was going to pay for the entire Wedding ,but now only the food,as was originally talked about. In other words, if I would have done as she wanted I would have been rewarded. I thought that was a very vendictive thing to say and later I saw it for what it was "a Control Technique".
Anyway, I had to get away from this and I had known that something was wrong with the wife because she was unrational and it became impossible to communicate [so frustrating]. She lives in what I see as a delusional world where her mother is like a god and can do no wrong, and where she is not responsible for anything negitive in her life, as an example: she blamed me for her smoking habit and also for words that she thought up and that came out of her mouth were my fault. When friends don't want to be around them anymore their thinking is that something must be wrong with those friends,its never them. They support each other very strongly in their delusions and have a very unnatural (extremely close) mother/daughter relationship.
Of course I was the one blamed for our problems and the divorce and lying to make it so and ingoring the truth seems perfectly normal to the Ex wife.
Please give me any additional comments you may have on the above and very importantly, our two young daughters {ages 5 and 3] live in this enviroment. So far she has been a very good mother but are my children in any danger?
Also, I meant to mention that the mothers husband {wifes stepfather] is nothing more then a puppet of the mother. So this bunch is completly dysfunctional.
Are my children in danger? What can I do? Should I give this information to her relatives so they might intervein. Their is no way I would be listened to, I tried previously (before I had a diagnoses]. Please help.
Thank you very much for this free forum, it is appreciated.
Doctor's Answer
by HFHS MD - RG, Oct 29, 1999 12:00AM
Dear James,
We are certainly glad that our forum has brought some help to your current situation.
As defined, shared psychotic disorder develops in an individual in the context of a close relationship with another person who has an established delusion It requires an absence of a psychotic disorder prior to the onset of the induced delusion. If the diagnosis has been established by a mental health professional that your ex-wife and ex-mother in law are suffering from shared psychotic disorder, it is likely that your children may be affected in some way by this exposure to both individuals.
To prevent such occurrence, mental health professionals often use family therapy and social support to modify the family dynamics. It is often helpful for your daughters to be exposed to input from outside sources to decrease their isolation.
Sincerely,
HFHS MD - RG
We are certainly glad that our forum has brought some help to your current situation.
As defined, shared psychotic disorder develops in an individual in the context of a close relationship with another person who has an established delusion It requires an absence of a psychotic disorder prior to the onset of the induced delusion. If the diagnosis has been established by a mental health professional that your ex-wife and ex-mother in law are suffering from shared psychotic disorder, it is likely that your children may be affected in some way by this exposure to both individuals.
To prevent such occurrence, mental health professionals often use family therapy and social support to modify the family dynamics. It is often helpful for your daughters to be exposed to input from outside sources to decrease their isolation.
Sincerely,
HFHS MD - RG
Member Comments (2)
by Mica NJ, Nov 30, 1999 12:00AM
Wow, interesting. I had never heard of that disorder before. I wonder now if that could be what happened to a couple of co-workers of mine. A woman I used to work with took another job at a bank where she did some sort of bookkeeping work. She met a man at that job who somehow convinced her that there was shady deals being made with some of the banks customers. Shortly after that another coworker of mine came to work with bizarre gossip about this couple and how they both felt their lives were in danger because they "knew too much" about some big secret at the bank. This coworker that relayed the gossip was also convinced there was someone out to get them and now even HER because she knew about it. I tried to convince the coworker that they were imagining things, but she also became convinced and delusional. Soon this couple dropped everything and fled town without trace in fear for their lives. When I questioned the coworker about the situation (I suspected they had gotten themselves into trouble or something), she said the couple had been repeatedly pursued and harrassed by "government agents", and that there were even attempts on their lives. She also insisted that she too was now being followed. Stories of tapped phones, people lurking in bushes, etc., were common. I was truly amazed that both of these seemingly rational women would suddenly get so delusional. Fascinating.
by rock, Feb 08, 2000 12:00AM
There is a report I am working on for school and I was wondering if you could help me with a few questions on it.
by rock, Feb 08, 2000 12:00AM
There is a report I am working on for school and I was wondering if you could help me with a few questions on it. Why not I can't find verry much information any where else.
