April 2023 — Addiction: Richard of Indianapolis shares, “My wife was mentally ill. I certainly should have figured that out long before I married her, but I was blinded by the love I felt for her.”

The start of our marriage was pretty good, I think, but after my wife got pregnant with our son, her mental state deteriorated quickly — and at one point threaten to kill him. I had no choice but to take him away where he’d be safe, away from her.

Before that I kept telling myself I could put up with this for my son. We were actually married four years. I soon realized it was much better for my son if I left her in raised him on my own. There was certainly a very difficult time with her mental illness it was very difficult to keep the Family together. When she was on her medication she was OK and things were pretty good, but she would never stay on the medication and then just had to wait for something bad to happen, I always knew something would happen but I never could do anything until she became a danger to herself or someone else.

From my experience, I can assure you that uur mental health system needs a lot of work. After I left her, I raised my son by myself for five years, then I met my second wife who had two young children of her own. It seem like a good fit we could both help each other raise our children.We dated for a year and then got married. She was a lot of fun, but I soon realized she drink a lot. The longer we were married and the more she drank.

Before long, the drinking lead to adultery. I wanted to leave her the first time, but our daughter begged me not to leave. So at that point I stayed to make sure the kids would be OK. The problem was I was raising her children as mine but legally they were not mine. So if I left I had no rights to them at all.

So I stayed for another 10 years until my daughter was 16. At that point, my daughter knew how bad things were and she told me she would be OK I could leave. So I did that. Shortly after leaving my second wife I was diagnosed with stage IIIC melanoma. I went through several surgeries and the year of chemo.

After I got through that I received a friend request on Facebook from my college girlfriend from 35 years ago. We chatted and caught up for a while, when finally we met up back at Ball State Where we first met. It didn’t take me long to know she is the perfect woman for me. We got married nine months later and have been married ever since. Today, my life is fantastic.