Depressed husband and son, feeling worn out

MumPlus3
Community Member

My husband is depressed, and is currently taking antidepressants...my eldest son (I have 3 kids) has Tourette's syndrome, OCD and ADHD. My other son is free of all of these difficulties, and I also have a little baby girl. Sometimes I feel that between my husband and my eldest son I have to give so much, bend so much and tolerate so much, I am absolutely exhausted by the end of the day and while I love my husband, I do sometimes fantasize about life without him. He works and earns the money and I do appreciate that, of course, but he resents helping around the house, doesn't want to ever go anywhere or take the kids anywhere on weekends...his idea of the perfect weekend would be me and the kids going to stay with my mum in Tasmania so he can play the PS3 all day and night. I feel sorry for him, I know I am high energy and he just isn't, but I just feel so worn out from having to be the mum and the dad on weekends that I do wonder if we're better off apart. We sleep in separate rooms, have done since our youngest baby came along, so we barely connect anymore....help, how do I get him to tune back in to this family and help me with our very needy eldest son? My husband "checked out" a long time ago...how can we reconnect? I don't really think he enjoys being a dad most of the time...he would rather be alone with his PS3!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

2 Replies 2

trustlife
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

Hi MumPlus3 (love the name),

I really am sorry to read your post but I am glad you did take the first step towards a resolution by writing it. You do have a lot to contend with but perhaps we can come up with an approach that's probably going to make it all seem no quite so hopeless.

I would suggest first and foremost you focus on getting your relationship back on track. Try to find a way to shut everything else out of the way. I appreciate that may not be easy but until you have that common ground with your husband and (more importantly) mutual respect, it will be very difficult to resolve anything.

Right now you can be sure of a few conditions that exist. 1) You are trying desperately to fix relationships with your husband, your son and at the same time juggle what remaining time you have with your other 2 children. Anything left over from all that is obviously devoted to running the house. 2) Your husband does not see any of this.

I'm not going to go into the issues of depression and medication, but I believe you'll agree that if your both on the same page and in the same bed, you have a chance to start building again. Now this is the best part; if you agree that your priorities have now all changed to just your relationship, you will find your energy will rise and you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you can re-kindle a relationship.

Get the babysitter, organise a bit of time to yourselves (perhaps a night away in the city) and give whatever originally blossomed between you to re-grow. Then you can start on number 2 but you won't be alone.

Mike

soldieron
Community Member

im hearing you . I also love my husband who has suffered with depression and anxiety for a long time. Also 3 of my sons suffer with it too. Its so draining ,you find yourself sitting down in tears a lot of the time wondering how you will fix things. Sometimes I dream of a normal life without depression but I too love my husband and would be very scared of what would happen if I left . Its a hard situation and I feel for you