Do you feel as though you may just snap?

Almost a year ago to the day, on November 24, 2015, Matthew (not his real name) was asleep in bed when he suffered a vicious attack. The offender was his wife.

It was 4.59am when we received the 999 call from Sarah (not her real name) who stated there had been an incident with a knife.

We could hear a man in the background saying “why have you stabbed me?”

When we arrived at the house in Cambridge, we found Matthew with two deep stab wounds to his upper left shoulder, with blood across the bedding and floor, and a bloodied knife left on the desk.

Sarah was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH).

In interview she was asked if she had stabbed her husband, to which she answered yes. She said she had smoked a couple of cannabis cigarettes and chatted to Matthew, all was quite normal and at about midnight they both went to bed and watched a DVD before falling asleep.

She then told us she woke up – she and Martin were squabbling around the bed for some 15 minutes when she recalled the sound of something being dropped on the floor, something she believed to be a knife.

She picked up the knife and was holding it, sat on the edge of the bed before she stabbed Matthew in the shoulder.

When asked why she had stabbed her husband, she said she wanted deflation, she wanted everything to stop and wanted to get away from Matthew and their marriage.

Five years ago Matthew had been diagnosed with depression and an anxiety disorder and struggled with his mental health. Sarah told us it had been hard to get her husband ‘back’ after this and wanted it all to stop – she couldn’t deal with his illness any longer.

Abusive behaviour can often be aggravated by the use of alcohol or drugs – if you are feeling as though you are struggling with a relationship and are worried one day you might snap, help is available in many different forms, whether it may be to work through the issues in your relationship, or to deal with any abusive or violent tendencies towards a partner or family member.

If you feel you need support, anger management guidance and courses are available from a variety of places, however the NHS website has lots of useful information.