I am concerned about my husband’s recent behavior. My husband has recently been having blackout moments. Sometimes they last for just a few minutes and sometimes for days at a time. The first one happened just a few days ago. He was very irritable and edgy and I kept asking what was wrong, he would just say nothing. He ended up getting very angry and got in his car and drove around for hours. We started talking on the phone while he was gone and he was very mean in things that he would say. After about 3 hours, he asked if he could come home. He was very emotional and said that he did not feel right. He did not remember being mad or driving anywhere and he did not remember anything from that day or the day before. When he arrived back at home I put him in bed. While sleeping his eyes were fluttering violently and he just mumbled when trying to speak. He also said he was very dizzy.
The next day he was very weak but did not remember anything about the incident. I showed him text messages he had sent me and he had no recollection of them. 2 days later we were talking and I said something that seemed to make him mad. His pupils got very large and his eyes were moving back and forth rapidly. He would not talk to me when I asked him a question. He would look at me like he was very angry. He looked enraged. It only lasted 2 or 3 minutes. I watched his pupils shrink back down and in his face could see him come to. I asked if he knew what had happened and he said he didnt know what I was talking about. I described to him the incident and he said the last thing he remembered was us talking but did not remember anything during the incident. This time he did not feel weak or anything after, he went right back to his normal self. I am very confused and extremely frightened by this. He is the kind of person that does not like to go to doctors and Im not sure of how to get him to go. Any suggestions or thoughts on why he may be doing this?
He needs to see a doctor immediately. As you said he is not a person who likes to go the doctor but you need to insist that he go. One way to try to convince him to go to the doctor is to tell him that the next time one of these rage incidents occurs that you will call the police and the paramedics.
As you said, he leaves the house in a vehicle, drives around for hours, experiences extreme emotional and physical dsyregulation (e.g. dizziness, dilated pupils) and is not able to recall these incidents. If he is driving when these incidents are occurring, he is a danger to himself and others.
Don’t just threaten to call the police and/or paramedics during these incidents, you should actually do it. Telling him that you will call the proper authorities might be one way to convince him to see a doctor for a medical evaluation.
As for why these incidents might be occurring, it could be something neurological such as a seizure disorder but they might also be related to drug use. Do you know if he uses illegal substances? Drug use might explain these incidents.
Another possible explanation may be prescription drug use. Has he started a new prescription drug recently? He could be experiencing a negative reaction to a new prescription. Is he taking a sleep drug such as Ambien? There have been reports of individuals taking Ambien and experiencing strange incidents while under the influence of the drug. Some people taking Ambien report blacking out. Others report sleep eating, making purchases in the middle of the night, or making phone calls to family and friends. There also have been media accounts in which people taking Ambien were reported to have left their houses in the middle of the night, sometimes on foot and on some occasions, driving and wrecking their cars.
It may not be easy but try to convince your husband to see a doctor immediately. He needs a medical evaluation as soon as possible. I wish you luck.