My girlfriend turned psycho scary

[Applejack]

My girlfriend is really upset with her dad lately and last night she said she wanted to kill him but doesn't want to go to jail. Today she giggled in the car and said she was going to kill me someday. We've been together 6 months and everything has been great. She's never said anything like this before but she's on a new pain medication so maybe it's affected her but honestly after she said those things I'm a little uneasy. What should I do?

 

[DoPo]

I'd suggest consulting with a doctor. If she's on pain medication, then I suppose somebody prescribed it to her - it's a good start to talk to them.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Umm I would recommend persuading her to see a psychologist, because even with the whole "I'm going to kill you" thing aside, it sounds like she has some issues with her father she needs to sort out. Sounds to me like she was joking, people say they want to kill people all the time but they would never seriously consider doing it.

Its my belief that even the happiest, most stable people could use help from a psychologist, they can help a lot, even if just for a morale boost or as a repository for your thoughts and emotions. Everyone has issues, don't ever let yourself be too proud to accept help.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I would ask if she was joking but if I think about it for a second I don't recall anybody ever jokiing they would kill me someday. If she's on pain medication that means a psychiatrist prescribed it to her but I don't think anybody's allowed to discuss a patient with their shrink. Look up her meds on the internet and find about the side effects, see if they match her behavior. And I really don't know what I would do in your place. Discussing these things with her might not be the right move.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

I would ask if she was joking but if I think about it for a second I don't recall anybody ever jokiing they would kill me someday. If she's on pain medication that means a psychiatrist prescribed it to her but I don't think anybody's allowed to discuss a patient with their shrink. Look up her meds on the internet and find about the side effects, see if they match her behavior. And I really don't know what I would do in your place. Discussing these things with her might not be the right move.

As far as I know, you don't need a psychiatrist do get pain meds. Any doctor will do.

Also, I would either discuss this with her, get her to talk to someone about it, or invest in a stab-proof vest.
But as Johnny saudm discussing these thing with her without a professional might not turn out to be the right choice.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Damn it captcha, why did you make me double-post?

 

[Lilani]

I would ask if she was joking but if I think about it for a second I don't recall anybody ever jokiing they would kill me someday. If she's on pain medication that means a psychiatrist prescribed it to her but I don't think anybody's allowed to discuss a patient with their shrink. Look up her meds on the internet and find about the side effects, see if they match her behavior. And I really don't know what I would do in your place. Discussing these things with her might not be the right move.

Calibanbutcher is right--you don't need a psychiatrist for pain meds. And psychiatrists usually don't prescribe them because they aren't usually dealing with physical pain.

Anyway, to the OP, saying "go to a doctor" might be easy, but you've only been going out six months so you may or may not be at the point where you're willing to become that invested in her personal life (that is, her medical needs). I would recommend the next time she says something like this, ask her what's up and find a way to tell her saying things like that makes you uncomfortable and that you're a bit worried. I couldn't tell you if it's the meds or not, but depending on what it is and what the side effects are that is a possibility. While it would be nice if you can help her out of this, she has to be willing to help herself to some degree. If she reacts harshly and won't let you help her there may not be anything you can do. The only way you can really force her to do anything is if you get her arrested for the threats, which you'd need evidence for. And even then, considering how little we know of the situation, that may or may not help. I doubt it would, being arrested often doesn't help people who are perfectly well in the head, never mind people who are having trouble.

At this point, just stick to making it known that you are noticing her change in behavior and that you want to help her go back to the way she was before (given she didn't say things like this before the meds changed).

 

[Applejack]

I would ask if she was joking but if I think about it for a second I don't recall anybody ever jokiing they would kill me someday. If she's on pain medication that means a psychiatrist prescribed it to her but I don't think anybody's allowed to discuss a patient with their shrink. Look up her meds on the internet and find about the side effects, see if they match her behavior. And I really don't know what I would do in your place. Discussing these things with her might not be the right move.

Even jokingly hearing someone say they're going to kill you someday is kinda scary. Our relationship is almost perfect and I hope this doesn't affect it but I'm thinking about it a lot. She was talking in her sleep about her problems with her dad so I know that's hurting her. The medicine is new and for her ibs pains, last night she told her mom about the weird thoughts she's been getting so I don't think she'll be taking it anymore.

 

[sarkeizen]

It is probably nothing. Someone saying they are going to kill you is probably not a significant indicator of actual ability or intent. You *should* tell her that her saying that bothered you - in a way that lets her know you are serious. Once you establish that this is something you find socially unacceptable. That's when you watch to see if it happens again. If it does, that doesn't point to your impending murder but it does imply something is wrong. It might be related to meds or it might be simply that she's depressed or that six months really isn't that long to evaluate someone.

wrt the medication. I don't know what medication she is on. IBS is treated with a wide variety of drugs. Anything from anti-spasmotics to anti-depressants. Rather than directly implicate the drugs you might do better to ask her how she's feeling every day for a week. If she says something negative every day, on the last day encourage her to see her doctor and casually mention that the change in meds might be related.

 

[Zantos]

Talk to her about it, tell her you're worried about her. Anyone going on to, changing or coming off medication is going to have a few weeks of seriously odd behaviour, and referring to her as psycho scary isn't going to help anything. Trust me, when I went on pain medication for a similar problem, the only thing thing that I struggled with more than going on to them was coming off them. For now just make sure she knows you're worried about her and try to address the issues, and if she doesn't start to calm down after, say about a fortnight when her body has become accustomed to the new meds, then suggest she talk to her doctor about it.