My husband of 34 yrs. was diagnosed as bipolar I in 2003. At this time he is in a destructive manic phase. I have been living for the last 3 weeks with my son and his family. I have animals at the house which I can't depend on him to take care of so I go over there once a day (with someone) to do it. I can't deal with his craziness anymore. I need to find a place of my own to live. He's going to ruin the credit I worked so hard to build up because he's taken more than a thousand dollars out of our checking in the last week. He and my son got into a verbal shouting match that became heated to the point I thought my husband might hit him and I called the police who made him leave for the night.

His therapist describes him as being very unpredictable and I need to be cautious. I might be able to borrow money from my mother to find a place. Her concern is that when I try to request money for alimony it would appear I might not need very much if I have an apt or home already. I haven't worked almost the entire time we were married because he didn't want me to so I will be at the bottom of the employable totem pole. We were married in CA which I know is a community property state and have lived in AZ for more than 20 yrs. He's been cleaning things out and I'm not sure what he might be taking that rightfully belong to both of us. In his mind he worked for what we have and it's all his, including his income.

My husband gets a pension from his employer. He also gets SS disability as a result of his bipolar. One attorney friend said I would only be entitled to half his pension but nothing of his disability. Our home is a disaster (severely dilapidated) and the payments are too much for either to handle on half the income so it seems his intention is to walk away. We have mutual credit cards that I won't be able to pay unless I get a job. We have a loan for a boat that I can't pay. I don't know what my options are in that respect.

I've always taken care of bills and the bank accounts. I'm afraid he's up to something and might have made arrangements for the direct deposits of the pension and disability into an acct. he would open in his name only leaving me with no income and no way of keeping at least some of our bills paid. What if he takes off and can't be found to serve with papers so that I can at least get something of his income? Unfortunately his mother and sister recently moved into our area from out of state. They are crazier than he is and are only encouraging his insanity to their benefit. One more thing. He was a professional athlete. He got a championship ring which I just found out he pawned for a fraction of it's value. The gold alone was worth more than the $800.00 he claims he got for it. Even though he pawned it and I'm sure has the ticket, do I have any right to try to pay the ticket and claim it before the time runs out? Our children are, needless to say, devastated their Dad would care so little about things he promised them.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

You may want to consider speaking with an attorney about his competency. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.