Committed.

I had to commit my husband to a mental institution last week.


I'll rewind.


My hubs is in the active duty Marine Corps.  I'm a Marine Corps veteran.  Between us we have 13 years of active duty (so far) and three deployments to Iraq.


Thats a LOT of PTSD to cram into a single household.


My hubs works a VERY high stress, high security clearance job.  In a position with a TON of responsibility.  He's been working in that particular position for over two years.  Now they work these guys to death- hubs schedule was two days on, two days off, three days on, three days off, repeat in 12 hour shifts.  5 am to 5 pm, 5 pm to 5 am, switching days and nights every two weeks.


I totally defy you to work like that and not go crazy.


Add into the mix a genetic predisposition to depression and a fucked up history of childhood abuse, and you have yourself a steaming cauldron of crazy.


Long story short, my hubby told me that a) he couldn't shut up the voices in his head and b) that the voices were telling him that it would be an awesome idea to kill himself.


I have to explain that besides being husband and wife, we also have a parallel bond as Marines.  It's hard to explain if you've never been a Marine, but it's like having been in a cult together.... I digress.


Anyway, in the last ten years or so, the Marine Corps (and the military in general) has been losing more guys to suicide (and motorcycle accidents, not suprisingly) than to the actual WAR.  So the Marine Corp's suicide prevention program is pretty pervasive. We're all trained to handle this shit.


So, through the shock of my husband dropping my shotgun in my lap and telling me to get rid of it because the voices wouldn't STFU, my training kicked in.  I guess brainwashing is for life.


I told him that either I call the ambulance, or the base Chaplain and hub's First Sergeant.  He picked the Chaplain.


Hubs voluntarily checked himself in to the mental hospital a few days later.  He stayed there for a week. He made incredible leaps and bounds in his recovery.  He's properly medicated, we have a tentative diagnosis.


He's home now, and in the middle of an intensive outpatient program.


I'm still numb.


We still have to figure out what our new normal is.