Walking Up the Stairs With A Bat: Perceptual Distortions Of A Paranoid Husband
From a neurological and psychological standpoint, this is very curious.
I told this story about my ex-husband to a neuropsychiatrist friend and he said, “that’s not a little weird. This is possible psychosis.”
My friend wasn’t making a diagnosis but telling this story to him made me realize that maybe I didn’t realize how profoundly disordered my ex-husband was. To this day, I wonder what his diagnosis would be, had he gotten one. It would have made a world of difference had he been diagnosed, for clarity’s sake.
Here’s the story:
Early on when I was married, I found my husband in the stairwell of our house. He had a bat in his hands and he looked like an animal whose hair was fluffed up with his eyes in both terror and attack mode.
I stood away from him in the stairwell since I didn’t know what was going on and didn’t want to get hit by a bat.
“THERE’S AN ATTACKER IN THE HOUSE, SOMEONE HAS BROKEN IN.” He said in a loud whisper.
I see.
So, why didn’t he call 911?
There’s an intruder in the house, so he’s going to go find him, and what…bash the intruder’s head in?
