Well, after 24 years of caring for my mentally ill husband I’m officially on a break. For the second time in 4 years I have had to separate the rest of us from my husband. This time, we get to stay in our home. I don’t know how long this separation will last but I have finally admitted that I can’t help him fix his problems that he has to do that for himself, by himself. While I am available to lean on he will never learn to stand. This makes me sad but it is really interesting living in a house where you don’t have to filter everything through the screen of how will the mentally ill person interpret this. It is sad that mental illness distorts everything so much that the sufferer often hears and sees things very differently from reality. For example, my husband can easily hear me say “I don’t love you.” when the words that I actually said “I have a cold and am going to have an early night”. Of course, at the moment he can’t get past the idea that I don’t love him, despite the fact that I have assured him that I will be waiting for him to work through his problems.