Constance Hall claims she’s been left feeling ‘lonely, resentful and exhausted’ due to an ongoing issue she faces with her husband.
The mother-of-six, from Perth, revealed her partner Denim Cooke has been suffering from ‘stages of chronic sleeping’ since they first met in 2017.
Constance said that for the past few months Denim has been sleeping all day to try and ‘shut out the world’.
‘People think that [it’s] nothing and when he was in his coma I too was angry at myself for letting something like sleeping too much get to me, but it isn’t nothing. It affects 100 per cent of my life,’ the ‘mummy blogger’ wrote in a lengthy Facebook post.
‘Half the time he isn’t even really asleep, he’s lying in bed with a t-shirt wrapped around his head, shutting the world out. Meanwhile our entire house is always a pigsty.’
Denim was involved in a horror motorbike crash in August, 2020 that left him in a coma. He was airlifted to a trauma ward at Royal Perth Hospital suffering seven broken ribs, punctured lungs, multiple infections and a brain injury after skidding off his bike.
But Constance says his sleep issues started long before his accident.
While she ‘loves her husband’ and has overcome several issues with him in the past, Constance says she’s left looking after the household and struggles keeping up with daily chores.
She said that for the last few months, Denim hasn’t got up out of bed unless she made him.
She added that when he isn’t sleeping he’s her ‘dream man’ but when he’s not around ‘it’s a struggle’.
She explained it wouldn’t be a problem if he was scrolling mindlessly on his phone or if he took short 30-minute naps – but that isn’t the case.
‘But a friend once said to me, “I don’t think people realise that you’re not exaggerating when you say he will sleep all day everyday during these phases. I had to see it to believe it” – and it leaves me feeling resentful, lonely and exhausted,’ she added.
‘So I’m not going to lie and say “love concurs all”, I’m not going to say that being in a relationship with someone who has mental health, diagnosed or undiagnosed or someone with past or present addictions is just like being with someone who doesn’t.’
Constance has tried to help Denim with the problem but nothing has seemed to work.
‘I think back on all the things we’ve tried, routine, gyms, cutting weed completely, then bringing it back, the CBD oil, antidepressants that did nothing, meditation, he was even prescribed ADHD stimulants but refused to try them because they would stop him from sleeping,’ she said.
‘It’s f***ing exhausting. It’s all well and good for someone to need to shut the world out to cope, but where does that leave the woman that he considers his world?’ she added.
‘Love and happiness don’t always travel the same path. We stay on love, but it occasionally veers me off happiness.’
The honest post resonated with others struggling with similar issues.
‘Love your honesty sweetheart. It’s refreshing, as are you. Have followed you since the beginning and admire you as a woman and a parent. Well done you,’ one wrote.
‘Thank you for being vulnerable. This world needs more of that. More truths however big or small. So thank you,’ another added.
A third said: ‘I so relate. Husband diagnosed with a mental health condition. He initially resisted the diagnosis, the treatment, the counselling.’
