It is With Deepest Regret

To my amazing readers,

It is with deepest regret that I inform you that Grant and I have officially separated. Tyler and I left our home the second week of December but I did not want to let you know then because I know for so many of you who follow us that this would put a serious damper on your holidays.

Tyler and I are doing well. We are currently staying in a hotel but are looking at renting a home or townhouse. My SSDI benefit started early this month but I still have not received my back pay award, which is what we need to be able to put money down to secure a more permanent place to live.

Grant and I suffer from catastrophic, life-threatening illnesses and it is with a heavy heart that I admit that in the end our illnesses have proven stronger than our marriage. We are not the first couple to separate over the extreme stress chronic illnesses can cause on a marriage nor unfortunately will we be the last.

I would be lying to you if I told you that there is a chance we will get back together. Both of us do not see that happening. We are trying to keep things as amicable as possible as we go through our situation. Right now we are taking things slowly, though, we do not see the need to rush.

As I write this post, I can’t help being reminded of a post I wrote in 2011, “Why I Stay”. It may not make much sense to re-post it here right now but I feel the need to. Like I said, in the end for the both of us, our illnesses proved to be stronger than our marriage. In November we celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary.

I hope you will support me during this difficult time but please know that I am going to be fine and so will Grant and Tyler.

Be well,

Emily

“Why I Stay

I am married to someone with severe mental illness, so severe that he receives disability as he is no longer able to work. If you don’t know much about the Social Security Disability process, you pretty much need to be near death or severely mentally ill to be able to get disability on a first time application. My husband was a “yes”, on his first try.

Grant has had mental illness since he was a teenager. He spent his teenage years (in the mid ’80s) suffering until he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In college he drank and abused prescription drugs and marijuana in an effort to self-medicate. He got the most help when the ground-breaking drug Prozac and others that would follow became available to the mentally ill population.

When we met he was pretty well balanced, mental health wise. The drugs were working for him. Ours was a long distance relationship for a year when we decided that he would move to New Jersey from Ohio and move in with me. I was 31 and I knew this was something special. Grant was loving, generous, sensitive. I had never met another man like him and I felt truly loved and respected.

We married in 2002. Grant had a good job working for an insurance company that was free or at low cost for poor families. Unfortunately he happened to have the boss from Hell, and it wasn’t just him who thought so. Part of what I loved about him was his sensitivity but it did not serve him well when it came to this woman. Eventually, despite asking for an accommodation, they were not able to work things out and it was a mutual decision that Grant leave his job.

In his next job he worked as a Consumer Advocate, helping parents of disabled children get the services they deserved in the public school system. Grant has never had a job that did not benefit mankind, something I really admired and envied, as while I liked my job, I often felt unfulfilled. What was I doing to benefit humanity?

Unfortunately, after a couple of years, Grant began having difficulty there too. He had trouble getting out of bed to face the day. He had trouble getting through the day, and due to his OCD he was unable to keep up with the huge amounts of paperwork that the job required. He had never asked for an accommodation and was fired in May of 2007. He has not worked since.

When our son was born in 2006…I don’t want to blame him because Grant and I don’t regret having Tyler for one second. Having a child, being a first time parent is hard for anyone, but for Grant it was like difficult times ten and throughout Tyler’s life I have been watching Grant sink deeper and deeper into his illnesses.

Grant is now to the point where he spends a good deal of the day just sleeping, having to medicate himself (under doctors’ watchful eyes) because life is sometimes too painful. The stress of me being chronically ill and collecting diagnoses along with our son having Tourette’s Syndrome, OCD, Anxiety and probably more doesn’t help. Again, any husband or father would struggle having a sick wife and a child with emotional problems but for Grant it is times ten.

It’s no surprise that Grant’s mental illness has put a strain on our marriage. Sometimes his mental illnesses make him say things that he doesn’t mean. He will come up to me and say, “I want a divorce” or “I can’t do this any more, I need to leave, I need to go away”, only within the hour to come back to me and say he didn’t mean it and he loves me and is sorry.

It has been hard on me but I have learned to harden my heart and, as difficult as it sounds, take these kinds of things he says with a grain of salt. Of course these conversations are not without damage to me, I would have to be soulless to say they aren’t.

I once called his therapist, crying because I couldn’t take it any more, I just couldn’t keep going on this roller coaster! His therapist told me, “Emily, Grant adores you! He loves you and does not want to leave you and Tyler. It is just his mental illness talking, he does not mean it!”

But as I said, these conversations do do damage to my heart and soul.

So, why do I stay?

Because Grant is doing the very best he can. He takes his meds, he sees his psychiatrist, he sees his therapist. He doesn’t stop trying every day.

I stay because of the love and support he has given me. Me, with my over a dozen diagnoses and counting. I cannot tell you how many men leave their wives when they become chronically ill, how many men cheat on their sick wives. Grant is my biggest cheerleader. He is my best friend.

I stay because, although he is not a perfect one, he IS a good father and tries every day to keep being a better one. He cares almost too much about Tyler and agonizes over trying to do right by his son. Meanwhile, Tyler thinks that Grant is the best daddy, the funniest daddy in the whole world. Tyler doesn’t care that Grant is mentally ill, he still thinks his daddy hung the moon.

I stay because I took marriage vows. For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

And the number one reason why I stay?

Because no matter how the mental illnesses are destroying him, Grant is still the most loving, generous and sensitive person I have ever met.

That person I fell in love with is STILL there.”

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis

About mamasick

Emily Cullen is a pen-name. I suffer from chronic illnesses and diseases which include Bipolar Disorder, Asthma, Diabetes and Fibromyalgia. I had battled Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis but there is no longer evidence of me having these diseases and my Rheumatologist has declared them to be "burnt out" of my system. I am separated from my husband, “Grant”. Our son, “Tyler” was born in September of 2006 and suffers from tics and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and is delayed in fine and gross motor skills. In my blog I seek to let sick moms know that they are not the only ones going through this, and to educate people about what can happens when one becomes catastrophically ill. I also strive to break down stereotypes of what a “Welfare Mom” is like. Anything that I have gone through due to being sick, is written on the pages of Mama Sick.
UncategorizedPermalink

4 Responses to It is With Deepest Regret

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge