How to manage a paranoid wife?

Q: I am residing in Saudi Arabia, though my birth place is Bangalore in India. I was divorced after four months of my first marriage & got married a divorcee with a child for the second time. We had good married life with the kid for a year. Since she gave birth to my child, she feels insure about the women. She never lets me see a woman, she never lets me out of the house alone after my working hours, and she gets upset when I see a woman in the magazine or even a sexy cartoon also. She never allows me to travel by air, she never lets me talk to my family members especially females. She never lets me attend functions, where female presence is there. She always thinks if I am exposed to women, seeing at them she will never have sex for that particular day. She is suspicious only on the subject women. The above act is killing me, it has destroyed my peace & normal life. As well as its a problem for my job, without travelling I am unable to perform in my job. Past I have attempted to tell our problems to their family, they shout at her in front of me & later on she is back in Saudi & starts harassing me for a year till the next vacation. I have consulted Psychiatrist they tell that she is paranoid, is this true - if so is that there is a cure for this, how long it takes & who has to convince her? I will be grateful for the help & assistance in the above subject to bring our married life back to normal.

A:It does seem probable from your description that your wife has some kind of a psychological or psychiatric problem. The possibilities are of a psychiatric disorder like Delusional Disorder / Paranoid Schizophrenia or a psychological problem in terms of a paranoid personality. I am sure you will understand that the opinion is extremely tentative, only aimed at helping you get a sense of the next course of action and a reliable opinion can be made only after consultation in person.You have already consulted a psychiatrist on your own in your place who has also provided similar opinion. The difficulty in most such instances is that the person concerned does not easily agree for a consultation. It must be said, though, that persuasion may well work in convincing such persons to go for a consultation. If at all the problems do really get worse and the person concerned is not agreeable for a consultation and/or treatment one may have to consider legal provisions for getting such persons into treatment. Obviously, the legal option has many considerations of ethical & social nature, and one may wish to consider it very carefully. Please be assured that once the diagnosis has been made and the treatment has been initiated, a lot can be achieved in terms of helping the person and the family members. You will have to depend on the locally available services and resources for help.