I really need some outside perspective because this situation is getting overwhelming.
For about the past year, my mom’s behavior has changed a lot. She’s become extremely paranoid and fixated on the idea that my dad is cheating on her. The problem is, it’s not based on anything concrete—it’s more like she’s constantly looking for “proof” in random things and connecting dots that don’t really make sense.
For example, she’ll go through her phone or other things and interpret normal or unrelated stuff as evidence. The name of the person she thinks he’s cheating with even changes (it’s been different names at different times). When we try to point out that something doesn’t add up, she insists we’re wrong or even says we’re somehow involved—like we’re putting things in her phone or helping my dad hide things.
It’s gotten to the point where she’s arguing with my dad almost every day, often late at night. I can hear everything from my room, and it’s starting to affect my sleep and my ability to function normally. I end up feeling anxious and trying to step in and mediate, which just drains me even more.
What really worries me is that this isn’t just arguments. And my mom has had some crisis situations over the past year and there have been extreme behaviors (like destroying meaningful personal items during emotional episodes). It feels way beyond normal relationship conflict or even regular distrust.
I’ve tried reaching out for help before, including writing letters to her psychiatrist, but nothing seems to be changing, and I feel stuck watching this continue.
I’m not a mental health professional, so I don’t want to label anything incorrectly, but this feels like something serious that isn’t being handled properly.
At this point, I don’t know:
* How to handle being in this environment without it affecting my own mental health
* Whether I should keep trying to intervene or step back
* What options even exist if someone clearly needs help but isn’t improving
If anyone has been through something similar or has advice on how to deal with this, I’d really appreciate it.
Honestly the way she's acting is giving Othello syndrome and Persecutory delusions but again I'm not a mental health professional.
My mom also doesn't want to go to therapy and she is very manipulative with this situation because when she accuses my dad of this shit. He gets frustrated and walks away then she tries to play victim and act like she is trying to have a "normal conversation" and not attack him. Plus my dad is pissing me off. Because he'll say like the last time she was admitted to an institution which she has been admitted multiple times this whole year. But my point is, II asked him, like, are you gonna try to make sure she stays in there? And he says, yeah, but then he tried getting her out quickly. So it's like he has no self respect or care about the situation.