It's been a crappy few months! Supporting my ex.

[Bridge9484]

I have 1 child and another on the way with my ex. We separated a few months ago due to his increasingly unpredictable and aggressive behaviour. He never used to behave like this at all and it's been a gradual decline in his attitude towards me, not helped recently by his family's less than joyful reaction to my pregnancy.

His behaviour is so odd and not like him at all but he's really struggled to see that it's not acceptable to treat someone the way he has treated me, he seems to want to forget about things soon afterwards and remember the incidents in completely different way so that it was my fault somehow.

Finally, he has agreed to get some support and realises that he has made mistakes and been a bit of a dick towards me. He's looking at seeing his GP for a mental health assessment and attending support groups after a diagnosis is made.

Maybe I'm being stupidly optimistic but I'm so hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel...

Fingers crossed, the process of diagnosing mental illness can be a long one. DH suffers from depression and episodes of psychosis and can be very anxious, erratic and aggitated when unwell. The first GP we saw told me I was just looking for excuses for bad behaviour. The second wasn't much more use, then the police picked him up in a distressed and aggitated state a few times and took him to hospital where crisus team got involved and his GP started him on antidepressants which helped a bit, 5 years later he was diagnosed with serious mental illness.

I'm not wanting to be completely negative, just warning you that we found it very hard to get anyone to listen to us until things reached crisis point. What is it that is making you think it's mental illness? Its worth thinking about this as it will help him to explain the problem more clearly to his GP. Is it just you his behaviour has changed towards, or is it everyone? Although often people put on an act for people they don't know as well and those close see the worst bits when they let their guard down, if it's a mental illness it's unlikely to be only you who is seeing the changes. Has anyone else expressed concerns about his behaviour? If it's just with you then would you consider couples councelling?