dad with paranoid schizophrenia
He isn’t diagnosed, but I (19) believe my dad has been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia for at least 30+ years, since from what he as told me, his story starts from when he was in college.
He said he was one of the top students at his university and that he was extremely smart. He said he was going to receive a prize but “someone” or “some group” was jealous of him and intervened from him receiving his prize. I never let him tell me his story since it was always so exhausting hearing his delusions, so I don’t know much from the beginning.
When I was growing up, he would consistently insist there was a group of people against that was jealous of his skills and constantly “attacked” him. He believed this organization was apart of the US government. He believed he organization would block him from promotions, poison the food he ate, and believed they installed machines that radiated beams to his head, causing him headaches and trouble sleeping. If I ever brought up I had a stomach ache, head ache, or I was sick, he would always double down on his delusions and it would worsen.
He also had something against the US military. I used to be apart of Girl Scouts when I was younger, but the leader of our group used to work in the military. He eventually took me out of Girl Scouts in 4th grade telling me to not interacted with them agai. In 6th grade, my friend’s dad worked in the military. He always had issues with me hanging out with her. I asked my dad if I could visit her place, but he yelled at me and insisted that I would end up hurt or dead, and yelled at me “I don’t care if you die.”
As years went by, I gave up trying to reason with my dad, that there was a logical reason why he had a stomach or headache and that it was impossible to have machines that beamed lasers into our home. Instead of arguing with what he said, I mainly just stayed silent.
Everything escalated when it came time to decide where to go for university. Because of this organization, he was heavily against me attending school in the US. Anytime I brought it up, he would yell at me and say that he will get killed or go to prison if I stayed in the US for university. I gave up and just went with his idea, and now I’m attending university in a country I don’t want to be in.
After I moved for university, he sold the house and went back to China. Since then, it seems his delusions have calmed a lot, but recently in January, he suffered a seizure when I was visiting. I tried to convince him to visit the hospital, but he refused and insisted that they were going to kill him there. I want to move back to the states after university, but I’m so scared of telling him.
Sorry if this is kinda all over the place, I’m mainly just venting everything that’s happened with my dad. I recently found this sub and it’s so comforting knowing that there’s others out there dealing with the same situation. I’ve always struggled telling people and always felt like I was alone in this situation.