r/SchizoFamilies

I am seeking some advice and just needing to vent my frustrations. My partner is 42 male who has bipolar and paranoid schizophrenia along with religious OCD and ADHD. He refuses to take his medication and I literally have seen all kinds of behaviors from him that are questionable. I try to realize he has mental issues and that I shouldn't be so harsh on him. This is a list of things that he has done or said this past year and it is mostly directed at me. I'm the main target because I live with him.

Told me to exfoliate my butthole everyday
Told me to douche everyday
Refuses to kiss me
Refuses to have any sexual contact with me except a blowjob nothing for me
Accused me of mastrubating next to him Accused me of sucking my thumb all night
Drinks excessively a bottle of Jim Beam in 2 days and 12 beers a weekend or more
Delusions and hallucinations about blue and gold lighting coming out of his hands

Makes out with his pit bull and doesn't even acknowledge me
Makes excuses for the dog and puts dog ahead of me
Let's the dog have fleas, skin allergies and never disciplines the dog
Constantly on phone with his adult daughter
Constantly inviting adult daughter to go with us on dates
Super clingy and touchy with adult daughter
Constantly touching her and hugging her
Won't sit by me in restaurants
Won't introduce me to anyone
Holds hands with adult daughter
Doesn't ever ask me anything or have any emotions

Doesn’t acknowledge my animals
Always wanting strange pets but doesn’t take care of them like armadillos and reptiles

Won’t let me listen to anything I like to in the car
Smokes all over me and puts ashes out on me
Wants me to pay for stuff but treats me bad
Invites his mother to everything
Has enmeshment issues with daughter and mother

When drunk tells me that I can get my stuff and leave
Brings up exes and how beautiful they are
Acts like he’s 12 when he’s 42
Won’t take his medication or seek therapy
Impulsively gets tattoos on his face
Blames me for anything missing or being moved
Listens to the tv and radio on volume 89

Won’t sleep or go to bed and stays up excessively late like 7 am still hasn’t been to bed

Leaves food and drinks out for invisible ghosts
Never thinks that I might want food never brings me anything
When I was sick wanted me to go a concert when I had a fever
Treats me like a maid
Asks me to get his coffee while he lays in bed with gross dog
Sits in his car for an hour talking to spirits after work
Accuses me of sending money to inmates
Doesn’t trust me to look at my phone
Accused me of being at a
Mexicans house because I ate roast with my friend
Can’t do anything right

Ridiculed for doing seemingly normal things
I am sick of the weekends and can’t even relax because he’s irrational and thinks things that aren’t true

Seeking advice if I should stay or leave this

One of my sisters is currently in jail and I believe she has some type of paranoid personality disorder or schizophrenia. I’m not a psychologist so I can’t formally diagnose her.

This is the second time she’s been in jail. She kidnapped her own son and made up all of these theories that the judges and district attorneys were out to get her when she stopped cooperating with the court, they ended up giving the father full custody because she wasn’t cooperating and she went into hiding with her son for about nine months until they arrested her and took her son away from her to give him to the dad.

They offered her plea deals but she kept saying “it doesn’t matter what I do they are just going to put me in jail anyways.” Before going to jail she filmed herself ranting about the judge, lawyers, and DA on Facebook. In the videos she slandered the judges husband. She was contradicting herself over and over again. The court demanded she take them down as it’s a small town and could taint the jury pool. She refused so they put her in jail early and forced her to take them down. Jury found her guilty. About a month more in jail and three years probation.

She got out of jail went on probation and started harassing the dad calling CPS on him showing up at her childs school and ultimately violated probation by not showing up to court dates. Even though she acts like they are conspiring against her she went into hiding again after violating probation showing that she knows what the consequences were going to be. They found her after a couple days arrested her and extradited her across the country. Now she is in jail for the second time and still she thinks everyone is out to get her.

She only talks to one member of my family at a time and well before all of this happened she has never lived in one place for too long. She’s constantly moving around getting into conflicts with people and even not telling family where she lives acting paranoid for some reason. Why would we care where she lives?! But she has paranoia and does these weird things because of it. I guess they can’t do court ordered intervention right now at least that’s what the DA is saying. Is there any hope? Anything we can do? Due to her paranoia, if someone tells her she isn’t thinking clearly she believes they are an enemy.

I’m 22 and I have a 27 y/o schizophrenic sister that has caused so much pain and distress to our family. Seeing what she has put both my parents throug, my mom who is now deceased and my dad who is in his 70s. I’m starting to resent her. She can’t live on her own, she refuses to be consistent with her medication and is in out of of the mental hospital every other week.

Im mainly worried about my dad he is all i have left and she’s putting so much stress on him. She needs to get out. I care about her and i know she can’t control it but i’ve grown a fatigue towards her because of what she has put our family through.

Are there any facilities she can go to that will keep her permanently and ensure she’s well cared for? Because the only thing the hospital does is dope her up and send her on her merry way and the cycle repeats over and over.

My dad won’t be here forever and i don’t want her to be left to fend for herself once he’s gone. I do wanna make sure she’s alright at the end of the day, and I wanna see if I can relieve some of the stress on my dad while he’s still here.

i don’t know where to start, i’m just really taken aback and i don’t know what to do. we’ve been together almost 4 years and have been through a lot together, we’re very comfortable with each other.

for background, he grew up in black churches but hasn’t been christian for years. we never really talked about religion much but we both didn’t like when christians would stop us to talk about sin and stuff. i’ve never been christian, i’m more spiritual if anything and don’t see that changing. he’s 25 and his mom has a history of serious mental illness.

this started sunday when he came over. around 9:30 he started talking about conspiracies and the world. at first i was into it, this isn’t unusual for us, we both like thinking deeply and connecting things. he actually sounded like he had done a lot of research and some of it did make sense. i was agreeing with him at first.

then he put on a youtube video breaking down a rap music video with “demonic meanings.” at first i was like wow that’s crazy, but then it turned into the usual “you need to stop sinning and ask for forgiveness.” he paused it and started listing sins to me which completely threw me off because we’ve never thought like that.

then it escalated into him talking about humanity being doomed, being scared he’s going to go to hell, and that humans are being set up. he said this has been on his mind for weeks which i had no idea about. i thought he was just stressed about life and finances.

we talked for almost 3 hours and every time it went quiet he would start again. anytime i shared my perspective he would counter it with “proof” and say things like “that’s what they want you to think.”

at one point he told me “i love you so much and i’d hate to go to heaven and not have you there with me.” i told him i’m not scared of death and don’t really believe in that kind of afterlife and he looked shocked.

since then it’s continued over text. i asked what he was doing and he kept saying “thinking” and “researching.” now i know what that means. today he sent over 100 messages going from lizard people, demons, dragons, god, princess diana, suppression of black people, etc. it’s all connected to him.

the hard part is some of what he’s saying sounds thought out and i don’t want to make him feel crazy or just dismiss him. i know religion/spirituality can be intense. but it feels like it’s taking over his mindset and causing fear and paranoia.

it also feels like he’s slightly trying to make me christian. he told me to read the bible and brought up sin (even sex) which made me feel weird. when i told him i have a different opinion he said “it’s not my opinion anymore, it’s proven facts.”

i don’t know how to respond without pushing him away, offending him, or accidentally validating this. i’m also mentally struggling myself so this is a lot, and part of me is even questioning if i’m wrong or just not seeing what he sees.

he’s always been against therapy/psychiatry and his family isn’t really involved. i’m basically the one he comes to for everything.

i love him and want to support him but i’m genuinely worried about his mental health. i don’t want to shut down his beliefs but this feels like it’s taken over in an unhealthy way.

has anyone experienced something like this? how do i support him without making it worse?

My wife 47F developed prosecutorial type psychosis recently. She thinks our neighbors are trying to kill her, songs are being written about her, that anyone she's had a grievance with in her life are out to kill/harm her, that our home is under surveillance and its being shared on the internet, etc.

I have tried to be empathetic with her beliefs but not try reinforce them.

I love her and want to get her help, I've contacted therapists, but she will not even talk with them even insisting that talking would put her or the therapist in danger.

Doing an involuntary hold to get her help is not possible where I live unless they are an active danger to themselves or others.

So now I am stuck between either waiting for this to spiral out of control and get worse, or recover on it's own (unlikely).

I'm frustrated and sad with this system and situation.

i just moved in with my dad after years of dealing with my mom's paranoid schizophrenia. couldn't take it anymore. she thinks there are spy cameras and recorders hidden everywhere in the house. accuses me of doing drugs and prostituting myself, no proof, just her yelling it. people following her all the time, so she snaps pics of random strangers on the street, their faces, license plates. super embarrassing when we're out and she's doing that.

thinks everyone wants to poison her food. used to hit me over stuff i didn't do, like the accusations. no evidence ever. the main problem is that, in the country that i reside in, mental health is disregarded, people dont believe in meeting psychiatrists and psychologists.

the main reason my parents got separated was due to her condition. when they got married, my grandparents hid her medical condition (she had epileptic seizures, which maybe also contributed to her condition). later on, when my dad tried to have a talk with my grandparents and some of her relatives, all they did was laugh at his situation. none of them wanted to help.

I once called emergency services because it got really worse and i couldn't handle the situation at home. instead of contacting my dad they ended up hearing my mother's sob story where she is the victim, and later gave me a lecture on how I should be grateful to my mother when she's been through all these hardships. after preaching, they told my mother that if I want to go to my dad we will have to come he next day and give a written statement that my father will take care of me no matter what. she didn't do that. in fact, i was in no contact with my father.

I was desperate for help and told my school counsellor what's happening at home; instead they made it worse by calling my mother to the school and telling her not to disturb. she prolly put on her fake personality there. when she came home, hell broke out. she fought with .e saying that im born to ruin her reputation and label her as a public nuisance. I BEGGED THE PRINCIPAL TO LET ME CALL MY FATHER BUT THEY DIDNT AGREE TO IT. in the end I had to take matters into my own hands and email my dad myself.

now she's put a court case demanding permanent custody of me. when we received the notice to be present at court on so and so date and time, we looked further into it and saw all the statements given by my mother. all complete lies.

she's been visiting a psychiatrist, but it's really hard for her to take medications. I love my mom but i wish she never had to deal with that type of problem. she is unknowingly making mistakes, and it's not in her control.

Hi, I am just a daughter that has entirely lost a mother (57) due to this illness. Living far from her .

I was the one who had to take her involuntary to the hospital after their lives being at risk, and she stayed there for 3 weeks. I took care of all finances, my little brother and herself entirely. I put her in the hands of a medical team , that at least attempted to communicate/inform me. I left to my city as I had to return to work, having mom compliant with her meds and things left organized. A month later she stopped them entirely and blocked absolutely every single person in her life including me, my brother blocked everyone as well.

The case manager was at least a bit communicative with me until January, where he stopped entirely answering any phone call or text from me. Last call he said he had zero concerns for my mom and little brother and they seemed completely fine to him and he would have to confirm if mom wants me to know about them.

How is this real? I was so close to my mom and my brother , we were one! I cannot explain my pain. I know nothing about them now, not sure if they're alive, no access to them. My only source of information to know if they were safe was the case manager. Why do I not even get a text saying: your family is safe? That's all I've asked !

There won't be enough years in this life for me to recover from this pain . I'm not sure what I'm looking for , but if anyone knows my rights as the closest family member? (I'm in Canada for context )I tried to save them and I've just summarized here how far I went . I even fought with social services so that they did not take her son away. How is this real? How painful this can be and I'm sorry for each one of us family members dealing with this.

A few weeks ago I started a support group for family, friends, caregivers, and partners of those who live with schizophrenia. We now have an amazing group of people leaning on each other for help and becoming friends. This is something I've always wanted because in the 20 years I've been supporting my brother, I've never had anyone I can talk to consistently about the specific challenges we go through in caring for someone with this illness. There are forums and reddit but we mainly get one-off question and answers.

If you'd like join, please feel free to comment or DM me! Looking forward to chatting with you and learning more about what you're going through.

EDIT: We're actually going to have video call meetups soon. I think it's easier if I just add the our discord here. The link may change in the future so message me if you're seeing this weeks later
https://discord.gg/FxeXzEc2

It’s been 3 months since increasing Aripiprazole to 20 mg, along with Olanzapine 5 mg. Still, the psychosis is getting worse day by day. Every year in the summer, the psychosis becomes very severe. I don’t know what to do.”

For years my mom has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. At least before my dad died, she was somewhat of a functioning one. After he passed all hell broke loose. She thinks me and my siblings are Freemasons, thinks there’s cameras and Freemasons following her, breaking into her house etc. It’s gotten to the point where she can’t work, my siblings and I have to financially support her and she’s at risk of her house going into foreclosure. I love her so much and don’t want her to be homeless. Part of me feels like I’m enabling her but the other part of me wouldn’t do anything differently because she’s my mom and I love her. I also am going back and fourth about calling the mental health services on her because if she finds out it’s me she’ll never forgive me. And I don’t want to ruin my relationship with the only parent I have left :( what should I do? I don’t know how to help her

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.

I F24 and my long term partner M25, have been really struggling with him hearing, seeing or feeling things are going on in our Air bnb we have rented for a few months. One of the first days we got to the house, there was hair in the downstairs shower drain. He wanted to call the police and have the house fingerprinted and checked out, but I felt a bit weird doing that since it is an air bnb, and the rest of the house wasn't cleaned very properly upon arrival. I thought the hair was left behind. Since then, there has been many instances where he thought something was wrong. He noticed the pool sticks again downstairs, not the main level, were out of place. I said that could be from us playing and putting them back correctly, but he says we laid them against the rack and not put them away. He has heard people on the stairs downstairs, heard noises and voices and seen shadows. For the better part of this time, we slept with a bar blocking the downstairs door from opening and thought that maybe because the house isn't really used, there were squatters/people looking for shelter. But recently, he has been feeling like I've been brushing off his concerns, not really listening to him, and I'm not afraid of what might be happening. He also is missing a few items, so someone breaking in and stealing them does seem to be a possibility. He also said that he saw someone outside of the house, walking around. Because of that, he has started to believe I have something to do with the people here or I have people over, mostly guys to cheat on him or do sneaky things. I have (in my eyes) really tried to reassure him that I am not involved in anything, and I could never do that to him. I am being 1000% honest, I have never had anyone over and I have never cheated, talked to anyone behind his back, etc. in the seven years we have been together. It has recently gotten so intense that we are not sleeping at the house, and we cannot stop fighting about this long enough to even clean it to leave.

I am trying to be fair in sharing the viewpoint of my partner, he feels unheard and that he is being brushed off with all the things he's feeling. He is afraid to stay in the house, and put us all in danger. He is also afraid that I am the one who is doing this to him, and he feels played and deceived. When we attempt to get along and clean the house, with him paying attention for our safety, he says that I am looking around sketchy or looking at certain parts of the house and it makes him feel more and more that I am involved and planning to get him set up. My view is that I have tried to be there for him when he was feeling, hearing or seeing things in other houses and before this, but they were usually explained by logical things. Some of the things he has stated are completely untrue, like seeing me look and smile at him through the blinds, or saying that hair products in the house are new when I noticed them when we arrived. I am trying to give logical explanations, not brush off his feelings.

Please help with any advice you have, is it too late to call the people if we check out today? Is this schizophrenia or some other condition? How can I help him feel heard and safe but also prove that I have nothing to do with this?

We are both in our mid-late 20s. It runs in the family for her. I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing when its affecting gets bad at her and have been nothing but patient and understanding. But she has a lot of worries that’s been stressing her out: accidentally lashing out and hurting me, losing interest in things that we enjoy doing together, not being able to keep her job

I’ve promised her that I will never let this get between us, and I’ll stop at nothing to help make her life better. We’ve talked about refinancing our home and get on a private insurance plans together so we can get proper treatments and antipsychotic medications, but from what I’ve read the meds have a lot of side effects.

I just feel powerless. I just want to be a good spouse for her. She’s lived a very traumatic life, when we found each other we were both in our lowest points, and I just want her to be happy. Is there anything I can say or do? Noises to avoid? Or is it really a person by person case?

I F24 and my long term partner M25, have been really struggling with him hearing, seeing or feeling things are going on in our Air bnb we have rented for a few months. One of the first days we got to the house, there was hair in the downstairs shower drain. He wanted to call the police and have the house fingerprinted and checked out, but I felt a bit weird doing that since it is an air bnb, and the rest of the house wasn't cleaned very properly upon arrival. I thought the hair was left behind. Since then, there has been many instances where he thought something was wrong. He noticed the pool sticks again downstairs, not the main level, were out of place. I said that could be from us playing and putting them back correctly, but he says we laid them against the rack and not put them away. He has heard people on the stairs downstairs, heard noises and voices and seen shadows. For the better part of this time, we slept with a bar blocking the downstairs door from opening and thought that maybe because the house isn't really used, there were squatters/people looking for shelter. But recently, he has been feeling like I've been brushing off his concerns, not really listening to him, and I'm not afraid of what might be happening. He also is missing a few items, so someone breaking in and stealing them does seem to be a possibility. He also said that he saw someone outside of the house, walking around. Because of that, he has started to believe I have something to do with the people here or I have people over, mostly guys to cheat on him or do sneaky things. I have (in my eyes) really tried to reassure him that I am not involved in anything, and I could never do that to him. I am being 1000% honest, I have never had anyone over and I have never cheated, talked to anyone behind his back, etc. in the seven years we have been together. It has recently gotten so intense that we are not sleeping at the house, and we cannot stop fighting about this long enough to even clean it to leave.

I am trying to be fair in sharing the viewpoint of my partner, he feels unheard and that he is being brushed off with all the things he's feeling. He is afraid to stay in the house, and put us all in danger. He is also afraid that I am the one who is doing this to him, and he feels played and deceived. When we attempt to get along and clean the house, with him paying attention for our safety, he says that I am looking around sketchy or looking at certain parts of the house and it makes him feel more and more that I am involved and planning to get him set up. My view is that I have tried to be there for him when he was feeling, hearing or seeing things in other houses and before this, but they were usually explained by logical things. Some of the things he has stated are completely untrue, like seeing me look and smile at him through the blinds, or saying that hair products in the house are new when I noticed them when we arrived. I am trying to give logical explanations, not brush off his feelings.

Please help with any advice you have, is it too late to call the people if we check out today? Is this schizophrenia or some other condition? How can I help him feel heard and safe but also prove that I have nothing to do with this?

Reading this sub is therapeutic. I didn’t realize how many people have siblings who’ve developed this illness in their first year of college/university. Its been 8 years since my oldest brother had his first episode and I struggle to remember when he was healthy. Unfortunately, when he was first hospitalized, he was misdiagnosed as bipolar and given the wrong medication. This has lead to a strong mistrust in doctors and medicine, causing him to remain unmedicated. with this, it’s been really nice to read other peoples experiences on here and realize I’m not alone.

we've been married almost 9 years and I love my schizoeffective husband so much, I just dont know how much more hurt I can take.

anyone else married to someone with these conditions? how long has it been? has it gotten better? how wrong am I for getting tired and wanting to give up?

Preface: I am copying and pasting this post from a Christian subreddit because my religious upbringing does come into play in this situation I'd say.

I'll preface by saying I'm not Christian. I grew up in a Christian household, believed for most of my life until pretty recently. I kept this change to myself for the most part, and told only my dad and a couple close non-religious friends. I'll say that I still agree with a lot of Christian values and what the bible teaches, I simply don't know how much of what the bible says actually happened. Anyway, that's not the main thing I'm asking for help on. And please, respectfully asking, don't comment asking me why I don't believe now or invite me to bible study with you or recommend me resources about faith. I called a lady from the church I went to growing up and she offered me advice until I said that I don't believe, and suddenly her focus was mostly on that, when frankly, that's not what I called her for. From her perspective, I understand that it was important to maybe help me with but again, as of now, it's not the focus. Perhaps faith is something I will revisit in the future, but as of now, this is not the focus of this post.

The actual situation I'm asking for advice/ideas about is communication with my mom. Frankly, I believe she has a history of some sort of mental illness. I believe she was diagnosed in the past with mild schizophrenia or paranoia by different doctors? She doesn't trust my dad because her delusions include him working with secret societies against her and trying to take me away from her. This has been ongoing for as far as I could remember. Eventually my dad divorced her for both his sake and my sake as a kid at the time. I'm now in college and have a very difficult time communicating with my mom because every time we call or meet in person, she asks about whether or not my dad is dating again or remarrying soon, etc. She's very repetitive, and gives me and other close family friends the sense that she's been hung up on just me and my dad for these past years, especially since the divorce. She doesn't work either due to a language barrier (and perhaps mental health and/or laziness) so I suppose all she really does is ponder about how I'm doing and searches forums on her phone and finds people who claim to relate to her experiences (I'd assume other people with similar mental illnesses and delusions). Aside from asking about my dad and sometimes my studies and health, she insists on the fact that there are things she can't tell me about (about people following her) and that she has many things she has learned since her marriage and divorce that she wants to share with me so I don't walk her same path. However, these conversatinos have been going on for the past 3+ years. Unless she's learning new things every weekend, I strongly doubt that she has new information to share with me on how to live life. Some things, I do agree with, some, I think are nonsensical and are related to her paranoia. She trusts only her like one best friend from the church I mentioned and I think that's because she's her closest friend who hasn't directly told her that her thoughts are due to mental illness (she frames it more as a spiritual problem although she has also told my mom she should go to a doctor multiple times over the years).

I don't know what to do about my mom. Talking to her stresses me out. Most of our calls and meetups over the years ended up with me crying or just feeling overall more negative. I've recently realized that her suspicions about my dad (even after the divorce) have negatively affected me and his relationship because she's been kind of telling me these suspicions (of cheating, for example) since I was little and although I didn't think some of her thoughts were true, I think I just passively accepted them. So now, I'm trying to set boundaries but I'm not sure how to, nor do I think she'll really understand. And whenever I think about my future life (since I'm a student), and I consider my job and my potential future family, and I think about the fact that my mom is like this and that I'll just have to endure this kind of relationship, it makes me cry basically on the spot. No one can give me any answer. I've contemplated cutting her off, or just temporarily blocking her until I feel like I can communicate with her normally. I'm an only child, my dad divorced her, literally no one else can relate to my position so I don't know what to do without feeling like I'm going to go insane and feel like she's just hopeless.

I do think her situation is a lot more mild than other cases I've read in this subreddit. I'm fortuante in that sense but it's still so stressful. She's gotten diagnosed years ago with mild schizophrenia (and maybe paranoia and depression? I heard these from different family members/family friends). My mom does admit to having depression, but doens't think she has like delusions or other mental illnesses. In the past she's had medication and apparently it helped... until she stopped taking it of course. And since then, according to her parents when I called them, she would just throw them out. I've honeslty considered also bringing up trying therapy because I've never asked her if she'd try it but considering her trust issues and possibly paranoia, I doubt she'd consider it.

Looking for advice/ideas on, I suppose, just coping from feeling like this is hopeless and how I can try to handle this situation. Cutting her off would be a last resort and would be something I'd consider only after I'm done with college and fully independent.

I have no one talk to about this who understands, but I’m sure someone here can relate.

My oldest brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia a year ago and since then, so much has happened. He believes my whole family is going to kill him, he got fired from his job, he left to a random state and now we don’t know where he is because he won’t talk to any of us. He reported fake cases to the police and they obviously were dropped once medical records were received.

Grieving someone who is alive is one of the most heartbreaking things i have ever experienced. I feel lost. My brother is a good kid, he has a bachelors degree, has almost every certificate regarding diving, and so much more. My family is loving and has always been there for him but now he doesn’t trust us, i don’t where he is and every night i feel like im relentlessly searching for clues. I’m scared he’s going to end up homeless or dead, i know that’s negative but he’s in a bad psychosis.

I just needed to rant. I love my brother and i just want the best for him but i fear i have lost him all together. I’ve been feeling displacement over this whole situation, i just catch myself feeling every emotion of sadness and spacing. I know i can’t change the outcome or the course of direction if he decides he doesn’t want us in our lives.

This illness, it has broken me because it has taken away someone i love so dearly.

I wanted to share something in case it helps another parent out there.

Two years ago, my son was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It was terrifying, confusing, and honestly I made a lot of mistakes early on. He had two stays in a mental hospital, and during that first year I did a lot of things people say you *shouldn’t* do — pushing too hard, saying the wrong things, reacting out of fear instead of understanding.

But over time, I learned. I listened more, read more, and tried to approach things differently in the second year. Instead of constant confrontation, I focused on building trust again. We had regular conversations about everything — not just his condition — and I tried to be supportive without overwhelming him.

One of the biggest turning points was helping him come to his own understanding about THC. I didn’t force it. I waited for the right moments, had calm conversations, and let him connect the dots himself. Eventually, he recognized that weed was making things worse for his brain.

Now, two years later, he’s doing really well. Back to himself in so many ways. I won’t pretend relapse isn’t possible — I know it is — but this is a hopeful chapter for us.

If you’re in the early stages with a loved one, just know: you might mess up at first. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed. You can learn, adjust, and do better. Patience, timing, and trust made a huge difference for us.

Just wanted to share a bit of hope.

I’m not writing this to fear monger or make it seem like this should or will be the outcome for others… but I think stories should be shared to show the importance of taking mental health crises seriously.

I made a post a few months ago about my older brother who was going through active psychosis when I visited home for the holidays. My brother had no history of mental illness before this, but we do have schizophrenia in our family. I got home a few days before Christmas and knew that something had to be done to help him. So, on Christmas Day we took him to a non-profit mental health clinic, where he was able to talk to a counselor and get some resources for moving forward. In all honesty he needed a full in-patient treatment, but I know that wasn’t an option, and this was at least one step m toward getting him some help. He agreed with me that he was behaving differently and he cried with me, thanking me for doing something to help him.

I had to leave after Christmas but worked hard the following months to get money to pay for insurance out of pocket for him and right after the insurance kicked in and I was working on getting him a doctor to see, my brother was killed. In no way was what happened to my brother his fault. My brother was in a vulnerable place, around a person he trusted (who also happens to be a dangerous person), and that dangerous person did the unimaginable. I just share this because the moment I saw my brother I knew that his mental state had the potential to become a danger to him. I did all I could to help my brother, I just didn’t have the help or time to get him back right before someone took away his chance at ever getting better. My brother was a beautiful, gentle person and unfortunately his battles with mental illness put him in a place where he had the potential to become victimized by a terrible person. I guess I’m just asking people to please be proactive if someone you love needs help. And for anyone battling with their mind, the people trying to get you help only want to protect you. I’ll miss my brother until the end of time and I just hope his struggles at the end of his life don’t follow him after life, he deserves a chance to be at peace.