Spouses of Bipolar in Active Relationships

did anyone see the news on a JetBlue flight being diverted due to "erratic" behavior of the Captain?

It came on as my husband and I were watching the news. Very unsettling.

I asked my husband what he thought and he said: looks like manic episode to me". Wow this is only the second or third time I've heard him use this term.

I said yes it does. I said "JetBlue issued a statement the flight was diverted when the captain "became ill" the capita in was taken to a medical facility by ambulance upon arrival."

my husband said that that was "a responsible way for JetBlue to describe the incident"

So we basically leveraged this to talk about BP. I also noted that here is another" very capable, intelligent, high functioning person" who has an emotional health challenge. I do try to note the many successful, creative people who have mental health challenges. Whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I am leaning towards schizoaffective disorder, but since that is on the mood disorder spectrum with BP, that might be picking nits. Clearly a psychotic episode!

Wow. Just wow. Everybody handled this so well! The copilot locked him out of the cockpit and the passengers subdued him and Jetblue treated this like the MEDICAL emergency it was.

But just wait...this might ignite some talk about letting people with mental illnesses be pilots. (But don't tell your husband I said that...)

Yes I thought the airline handled it well. I was hesitant a first to ask my husband what he thought, but decided to see if we could have a discussion. I'm glad I did and that were able to talk about. It was just over 8 weeks ago that I posted on here that I asked my husband if he was looking into bipolar at all and he said " no, I don't give a sh*t". So this is another sign of steady progress.

Kitkat, the arc of your story is INSPIRING to me and I am sure to all who read it. You will have a few bumps down the road, but you are in a TOTALLY different place with your husband now than when you joined. You were about through with the whole relationship, as I recall. You didn't have a lot of hope.

But you researched and got support and gave him the Bottom Line and he got treatment and now is doing the tough work of getting stable. And you are doing the tough work too! (Biting your tongue any? I know we all did in the early stages.)

My husband and I are on the same wavelength about mental illness in the news now. We can both be watching a story like this and in the middle of it, look at each other and say "psychotic" at the same time. It really does help to talk about these things. My husband feels like a freak show some days, like a loser some other days, for having a disease that he cannot help but have. The more we talk about mental illness the better. I do wish there were more positive stories out there!!!! I know there are positive stories here, so I am attached to you all here!

Double yes to the biting my tongue lol!

But seriously in a much different place. I thank God for this site. I posted here in crisis. "how do I deal with rage?" and you and the other GL's were there to help. I couldn't believe it when I read these threads. I simply could not believe the similarities. It gave me hope. Not alone. This isn't about me(in other words, it's not because I'm not good enough, young enough, sexy enough- these are thoughts that drove me to despair as I struggled to make sense of his behavior)

What I have learned in the last 8 weeks? I'm going to be ok. Bottom line, no matter what happens I'm going to be ok.

Post edited by: Kitkat777, at: 03/28/2012 11:22 AM

Great post marriedtoit! I hadn't read the Jetblue stuff or heard about it, so I looked it up and watched a video. One of the articles said this as well....

The incident was the second to involve erratic behavior by a JetBlue crew member since August 2010, when a flight attendant upset after an altercation with a passenger bolted from a plane by deploying and sliding down the inflatable emergency chute.

Lawyers for the flight attendant in that incident,later told reporters he had acted in part out of frustration with the chaos of air travel and that he was under stress because his mother was suffering from lung cancer.

Two weeks ago a flight attendant started ranting about a possible crash over the public address system of anAmerican Airlines plane. She, too, was subdued by passengers and crew as the plane returned to the gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

What in the world is going on????

Post edited by: lollipop, at: 03/28/2012 12:03 PM