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Originally Posted by JustJess
Ask a professional yourself and see what they say, get some advice from people who aren't armchair psychologists (like myself, sorry.  ) |
Yeah, this is the real reason I need advice...I know just enough about mental disorders to be suspicious, but not enough to make an actual diagnosis
I'm sure something happened to her, too. For one thing, she was "assaulted" in college (she never actually comes out and says 'raped' but I suspect it was attempted rape) and traumatized by that, of course. So we know she has a history of trauma, and that might be coloring her current situation - making her more suspicious, more sensitive to possible harm. But the one thing we do know for certain, confirmed by people other than L, is that her husband did cheat on her. Everything else is stuff she has said, and it's difficult to distinguish what's conjecture and paranoia from what actually did happen - the way she talks about things is usually saying "yeah, and this happened, and now that I know he was a sick fuck, I'm sure what it really means is X," so, coloring the past through a filter.
I'm totally in line with ratbastid - we're not just backing away slowly; we absolutely want to do what it takes to get her the help she needs. My problem is I don't know if that help is a psychiatrist or a bodyguard. I've hinted around to her that it's just very difficult for us to understand what she's going through, but that just makes her want to explain it, and the more she explains, the loonier she sounds. Maybe what we need to do is just come out and say the truth: we think something definitely happened to her, but we also think she may be subconsciously exaggerating some of the things that happened into a danger that doesn't exist, or is less dire than she fears. I guess I don't know what I want to accomplish, other than having her be safe and sane, and that's maybe more than I can do.