Contents
Chapter 14: Unsuitable Friends
Chapter 18: Psychosis, Madness, Insanity and Lunacy
Chapter 30: Wish You Were Here
18. Psychosis, Madness, Insanity and Lunacy
"How did it go at the hospital?" Lara asked.
"Dr Asref has written me a prescription for two medications and he's made the referral to the crisis team" Neil replied.
It was the third time he'd visited the small community hospital as an outpatient and the second time he'd met the psychiatrist. Lara had never even heard of the hospital, even though it wasn't far from their home. The hospital mainly dealt with mental health patients.
The first appointment Neil had as an outpatient was for an assessment with a mental health nurse, 8 weeks after his doctor had made the referral to psychiatric services. He'd spoken to the nurse for about 90 minutes, while a trainee listened in and furiously scribbled notes. The nurse was kind and easy to talk to. He seemed to know exactly what kinds of things Neil was going through and was able to second guess what Neil was about to say, which made Neil relaxed and chatty for the first time in months.
The second appointment was with the consultant psychiatrist. He was not particularly conversational and seemed to be almost rambling to himself about various diagnoses and treatment regimens. He had presented Neil with a stack of photocopies of information on various medications and the consultation was suddenly over. Neil was confused and a little cut adrift. Asking what happened next, he was told to wait for another appointment where he could say which medication he'd like to try.
"Did you get the mirtazepine?" asked Lara.
"Yeah, but the consultant said I should take venlafaxine with it"
"Two medications?"
"That's right" said Neil, rattling two boxes of pills at Lara with a grin.
He seemed happier but his behaviour was worryingly erratic and childish. He would say and do regrettable things with no care for the consequences, or he would burst into tears and leave things in a mess if anything didn't go well.
One day, Neil had suddenly decided to demolish the garden shed with the supposed intention of building another one, but he hadn't purchased any materials to construct a replacement. Lara found him in bed when she got home, dreadfully upset and stressed about what he had done. That evening, she had to move the contents of the shed that could be damaged by rain and store them in the spare bedroom, while Neil cowered under the duvet.
His energy levels had improved, but often he would stay awake all night on the Internet. When Lara came home he would want to tell her about all the things he'd found out about UFOs, conspiracy theories, quantum physics, stock market trading and chaos theory. Neil's eyes would be flashing wide with wonder and excitement, but his thoughts were jumbled up and he was talking so fast she could only pick up every third word. He would get frustrated that she wasn't understanding and storm off in a huff.
"Did you get a new diagnosis?"
"He can't make up his mind. He said he's still convinced that it's major depressive disorder, but he also mentioned borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. He wants to treat me as if it's treatment resistant depression" Neil replied.
"Who are the crisis team?"
"Well, it's a number to phone if I'm thinking about hurting myself"
"Are you still having suicidal thoughts?"
"Not really. I'm too busy with my project"
Since losing his job Neil had been obsessed with the idea of creating an out-of-the-box security system bundle that would include wireless CCTV and motion sensors. The house had become increasingly full of equipment from Far-East manufacturers that Neil was tinkering with. Lara worried about how much it was all costing. How did he intend to sell this system if he could even make it work?
"Can I have the crisis team number?"
"Yeah. I'm supposed to give it to you and family so they can phone if they're worried about me" he replied. "And to any employer, but I don't want work sending round their goons to spy on me" he spat.
Neil's employer had become concerned that he hadn't turned up for work and had called his emergency contact - Lara - to see if he was OK. Lara was working and hadn't been able to answer her mobile, so the police had been phoned out of concern for Neil's welfare.
Neil had ignored the knocking on the front door, hoping that the police would just go away. A neighbour let the police into the back garden and they jumped over the fence. Neil heard the officers shouting at the back of the house and knocking on the back door. Yelling from the back windows, the police had insisted he come to the door so they could see he was OK. Neil had begrudgingly complied.
Lara was weary from constant worry about how Neil. She was very much relieved that there was now somebody else to contact in an emergency.
"People care about you, Neil." said Lara.
"Why are you using my name?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is there anybody else here? Why have you got to refer to me by name?"
"I don't know what you mean"
"You're so fucking patronising" said Neil, storming off.
Lara could hear him go into the box room upstairs. She knew he would be pretending to fiddle with stuff, brooding angrily. He would probably sleep in the guest bedroom again, even though it was packed with junk and the bed was covered with stuff from his project. Perhaps he would be awake all night surfing the Internet, following some thread that captivated his interest. They were definitely not going to have any further cordial discussion tonight.
Picking up the tablet on the coffee table - an impulse purchase that Neil had made - Lara searched the Internet. Typing "borderline personality disorder" she wondered what borderline meant. Did it mean that it was a milder form of the illness? As she read the symptoms she decided that it didn't really seem like Neil at all. They'd been together for so many years and they were engaged to be married. The part about unstable relationships didn't seem to fit at all.
Searching for "bipolar disorder" she came across a number of symptoms that sounded much more like Neil's recent behaviour. Rapid speech and disordered thinking, irritability, spending money and risk taking. She read the word "hypersexuality" and felt a knot in her stomach. He'd shown relatively little interest in her recently, but she knew he was watching more and more pornography. With a kind of shamelessness she heard him masturbating at night and found discarded tissues littering the floor. He made little effort to hide his Internet browsing history.
"Delusions of grandeur" and "psychosis" were things that were a little hard to place. Lara had worked a night shift and she heard him on a phone conference call during the day with his boss and human resources. Neil had ended up yelling about how he knew more than "all of you put together" and how he would create a competitor company that would "crush you like a bug". She knew that he had become frustrated and enraged by the conversation which had been ostensibly about sacking Neil, but his crazed response was completely out of character. She put it down to the extreme stress of the situation.
He was withdrawn and distant. It seemed inconceivable that he would be hearing voices or suffering with hallucinations. In her eyes, Neil was still strong, rational, intelligent and in control. She trusted him. They had always been open with each other about household finances and shared the burden of balancing the books. Even though she was cross that he'd thrown away his job, she thought that it was necessary for Neil's health and that he'd easily get more paid employment when he was ready to go back to work. They had enough savings to cushion their loss of earnings in the short term.
Two days later, Neil had disappeared.
"What do you think I should do?" Lara asked on the telephone.
"Have you rung the crisis team?"
"No. I don't know what the best thing to do is"
"Well, he didn't like it when the police got involved" Neil's dad replied.
Neil's dad was a practical man and had become a useful person to phone when she didn't know who else to speak to. Lara's parents were very sympathetic towards Neil, but it meant that they tended to share and exacerbate her worries rather than offering simple clear-cut advice.
The crisis team had promised to arrive within an hour. That was early on a Saturday morning. Neil had returned home in the afternoon, but had barricaded himself in the box room and refused to talk to Lara. Some eight hours after she had originally got in contact, there was a knock at the door.
"Hello, Lara?" asked a balding man, slightly overweight and wearing rimless spectacles. A mousey woman waited nervously behind him in the darkness, clutching a bulging ring binder.
"Yes, Hi"
"I'm Dan. This is my colleague Sue. Can we come in?"
"Please. Please do. I've been waiting all day" said Lara, ushering the two visitors into the hallway. "Neil, there are some people here to see you" she called upstairs.
Dan and Sue stood awkwardly and Lara gestured towards the snug, where they entered and sat down.
"Sorry... Lara was it?" Dan said.
"Yes, Lara"
"We had a number of urgent calls come in."
"That's fine."
"I'm a social worker and my colleague Sue is a nurse. We're here to make an initial assessment and see how we can help. Can you tell me what's been going on? It's Neil isn't it?"
"Yes, it's Neil I phoned about."
Lara noticed that Neil was hovering by the door.
"Ah Neil. These people are from the crisis team. They're here to see if you're OK."
"I'm not" said Neil, half entering the room but not sitting down, surveying the scene with distrust.
"Hi, Neil. I'm Dan. This is Sue" said the social worker, leaping to his feet and offering his hand. Neil took it and shook it. Sue half stood up, but remained quietly in the background. "Can you tell us what's been happening with you?"
"I can't cope anymore. I feel desperate. Suicidal"
"I'm sorry to hear that, Neil. How long has this been going on for?"
"On and off for months. It got really bad this week."
"OK, I need to ask you some basic questions." said Dan, now looking at Sue. Sue opened her binder and readied her pen.
"Do you know what day it is today?"
"Yes. It's Saturday the 20th of August, 2016."
"Do you know who the Prime Minister is?"
"David Cameron. No, er, I mean Theresa May"
"OK, and where are we?"
"We're in my house"
"Are you hearing or seeing anything unusual. Any voices?"
"No"
"Are you receiving any instructions, do you believe you are able to make people say or do things you want?"
"No"
"Is there anything you're anxious or concerned about right now?"
"I'm worried I'm going to kill myself"
"OK. Thanks, Neil" said Dan, glancing at his colleague. "It says in my notes that you've never been in hospital, because of your illness. Is that right?"
"Yeah, that's right. I've never been in hospital in my life except as an outpatient."
"Well, I think the safest place for you right now is at home. Where your partner and family can keep an eye on you. The crisis team can come and check on you, to make sure you're OK. How does that sound?"
"I want to die"
"OK well psychiatric hospitals are pretty crazy places. You wouldn't get a lot of rest there. The staff don't have a lot of time to help everybody. You'll be much better looked after at home. Do you have anything to help you sleep?"
"I've got mirtazepine. That makes me really sleepy"
"That's great. Do you know where it is?"
"It's on my bedside table."
"Lara, do you want to get it for Neil? And a glass of water" Dan prompted.
While Lara was gone, Dan and Sue sat quietly smiling and then Sue's mobile phone rang. She stepped out of the room and let herself out of the house while taking the call.
Lara returned with the medication and a drink.
"OK, Neil. What you're going to do is take your usual medication and then we're going to come and see you tomorrow and the day after. We're going to come and visit you here at home every day until you're feeling better."
Sue now let herself back into the house and popped her head around the door.
"Dan, we've got to go."
"Alright, sorry it was such a flying visit, but we have to attend to an emergency situation" said Dan, standing up and smiling. Pausing for a moment and taking on a more serious expression he said "everything's going to be OK. Hang tight. We'll be back tomorrow."
"OK, thanks" said Lara, following Dan to the door. Sue was already outside, eagerly wanting to get away. Neil was sat on the sofa, a little dumbstruck by the whole experience.
The front door closed, Lara returned to the snug.
"That went OK. There'll be somebody coming to check on you every day. That's reassuring isn't it?"
Neil simply looked at her blankly and then went upstairs to bed.