DW's Hallucinations and behavior getting out of control

btl1953

My DW's hallucinations of people (including my imaginary Son) in the house that are going to burn the house down are becoming almost constant. We make numerous tours of the house to make sure everything  is alright. She constantly wants me to call my imaginary ex-wife (that we tried telling DW took my troubled imaginary Son back home to imaginary Ohio thinking that might relieve some of DW's anxiety) to make sure he is still in a mental hospital.  This ploy on my part hasn't worked. 

In conjunction with her Neuro Psychiatrist we have upped her dosage of Seroquel to 100mg at night and 100mg in the AM. DW's behavior has become more agitated by the day when we can't console her fears. I have an appointment for a call from her Neuro Psychiatrist on Thursday at 11:15 to discuss this escalating issue.

In the mean time I feel like I need to know what to do in the moment if my DW becomes violent which seem that we are on the verge of. My  actual Son describes her as a pot about to boil over. I know I could physically restrain her but I don't want it to come to that. What do you do? Take her to the ER or call the Police? Or what? Maybe someone here has dealt with a similar situation and can give some advice.   

M1

So sorry btl. You might ask the doc about adding an SSRI (class of antidepressant like Celexa/Zoloft) which seem to help some with anxiety. S/he may have other ideas. She may need admission to do it in a controlled setting, don't be afraid of that. Keep us posted. You must mind your own safety too-

harshedbuzz

We had a similar situation with dad. Hallucinations and delusions of all manner of horrible goings on.

The advice we got-

1. The Area Agency on Agency gave us the name of the 2 hospitals in our area that had a geripsych service affiliated with them as well as the numbers of each unit, if dad needed to be transported for aggressive or violent behavior, we were to have the ambulance go to one of them and to let the unit know he was on the way.

2. We removed anything that could be weaponized- not just the guns and chef's knives, but also cast iron skillets, golf clubs and tables light enough to be thrown or swung at someone.

3. To have the same kind of medication consult you're having on Thursday until you hit on the right meds. I video taped dad during a few episodes since he could showtime like a pro during appointments. 

4. We figured out a lot of the hallucinations and delusions dad had a germ of a start in his TV viewing. He couldn't really follow plots, but even so mom's crime dramas and even the weather channels storm shows stuck and caused episodes later. I put parental controls on the TV to restrict things like CSI, the Weather Channel and other problematic shoes.

HB 

Pearzee

We went through this with my dad as well.  He was admitted to the local hospital's geri-psych unit several times to adjust his medication.  Unfortunately, nothing helped and he had periods of violence/combativeness until he died.  My only suggestion is that if your father has to be admitted to a geri-psych unit more than twice to adjust medications or behavior, please seek out a different hospital or another doctor's opinion to get fresh eyes on the issues.