AIBU to worry as my husband thinks zombies are coming?

[ByKookyPombear]

DH can at times go a bit funny , though he normally snaps out of it.
This current episode has stuck around for longer than usual and as a family we are getting concerned.

It started off with him locking the doors as soon as the sun had set just incase, that then escalated into the garden gate have padlocks fitted and the doors locked at all times, DH had also set dug the ring camera and doorbell out of the cupboard to monitor activity.

Yesterday I had a hospital appointment, whilst i was having my procedure done he waited outside in the car park, there were two incidents that took place.
The first it was a warm day, he kept the kids in the car with the windows up “just in case”.

Then the youngest really needed the toilet so he put the 14 year old in the drivers seat , with the engine running and told her to “be prepared”

Is this normal, he appears to be his normal self but is scared of zombies coming

I don't think this is as unbelievable as it first sounds; society is awash with conspiracy theorists, and whilst I think a lot of it is indicative of mental illness, some of them are, or at least start out as, a bit of fun or harmless eccentricity, and I can see why it would be easy to miss the point where that escalates into something concerning enough to meet the bar for medical intervention.

OP, in your DHs case these sound like more than quirky but harmless beliefs. Your DH sounds like he is in psychosis. It is quite common for people suffering these delusions to start becoming suspicious of their own partner and children, and there have been cases where people, particularly men, have harmed or killed their own families either to protect them or because they believe their family are part of the conspiracy against them.

It has gone beyond the level where you can dismiss it as weird but harmless. Please have a word with your DHs GP or contact the mental health team.

You need to remove him from the internet and get him help. Or leave.

Assuming this isn’t a joke, you need to seek urgent mental health support for your husband. He seems to have delusions of persecution. So phone your GP, or phone his mental health team if he has one, or call 111 in out of hours if you’re in the UK.
he has had the children in unsafe situations now because of it so you must take action. (Leaving children in a hot car windows up & leaving child in a running car)

If you are serious I would be looking for mental health intervention of some sort.

OP - Do you have somewhere to go with your children while he gets help? Or can you persuade him to leave the family home?
Believing that Zombies are real is not normal

I thought you just had to cut the spinal column.

Has he specifically said zombies? YouTube is awash with prepping videos that predict that the world order will crumble and you will need to live off the land. I watch them because following covid, Katrena etc it's possible that a disaster may occur.

But. And it's a big but, order will be restored. You need to be able to cope for a week...in your own home. If your husband doesn't realise that you need to get him to watch videos from Future Proof Survival which points out the bollocks in most of the other videos.

Personally, I have full food cupboards, torches and candles, a camping stove and a bag packed in case we do need to leave the house (almost flooded 20 years ago due to flood water..water was flowing under the house).

The messages these channels send out are repetitive and doom filled. Plus once you've hit the algorithm that's all you see. Like you need to carry a key to turn on water hydrants to get home safely. And an axe to break down doors. So you're going to take days to get home in the UK and you'll need to forrage for water in the centre of London? Madness.

A psychotic break isn't normal to crazy. It's little things building over time which is why it can be missed for so long before the behavior becomes more extreme.

This.

One of my friends had always had some slightly odd ideas, which got more odd over time, but it was only when he stuck tin foil over all his windows to stop some un-named organisation monitoring his every move that we realised that he had actually become very unwell. He also removed the doors from the toilets and bathrooms in his house, because "they" were going to send remote controlled weapons up through the sewers to kill him.

He'd worked out the scientific proof that god didn't exist, which would mean the downfall of the monarchy because they only rule by divine right, so "they" were out to get him.

He spent a few weeks in hospital and is fine now, btw, and has been for years.

My ex has schizophrenia, he lives in over 55's sheltered housing now. His illness started with him thinking the phones were being tapped, and that he was being sent coded messages in the junk mail. I could usually get through to him and the paranoia would calm down and seem to go away, but then stressful situations would bring it back. Sometimes he would answer me when i hadn't said anything, that's how i knew he was hearing voices. Apart from these few strange behaviours he lived a perfectly normal life, working and looking after kids, no one else noticed anything wrong. It hit crisis point when he suffered a really stressful event, that's when his paranoia became full-blown schizophrenia.

Your dh needs to get help for his paranoid delusions - that's what this is. It won't necessarily turn into psychosis or schizophrenia, but it could if he suffers a traumatic event or prolonged stress. Paranoia is a natural self defence mechanisim, but it can become overactive and turn into psychosis, i'd say that your dh is already halfway there. He needs to get professional help to get control of it.

Get him some help OP, even if it means sectioning for his own good, and your family’s

I would guess ops dh isn't too worried about snails. As a Biologist there are plenty of insect parasites that feed off insects that modify their behaviour then leave them dead. But I guess the traditional zombie story is about human living dead attacking on mass. Realistically that's way off possible atm. It's easier to keep insects hearts beating as it's a single open circulatory system.where as ours is a closed double.

Part of my biology A level was chopping of off a locust head, wigs, legs. Then cutting it's thorax open to look at it's heart beating in different temperature ranges. I doubt many human hearts could still beat after that 😅 so try not to panic about it crossing through species barrier. I refused to do that experiment. My teacher had to do it for me. So nasty on so many levels. So basically insects happily beat on with no virus, no medication or chemicals when you chop them up anyway. As long as they don't dry up.