About my sister

The manifestations of schizophrenia seem pretty varied in presentation.

Sorry for being such a long post

My sister is chronic severe alcoholic, and I think psychotic for the past several years, but on the one occasion she saw someone medical she did not mention her strange beliefs or her use of alcohol.
The walk away more suspicious than ever

She was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, major depression, unstable personality disorder, p.t.s.d.

I’ve not found a syndrome more likely than schizophrenia that fits her state
I say schizophrenia because I believe it fits.

She is angry and irritated and threatening and suspicious with people she loves one moment then friendly and charming for a few minutes, After several hours of being rude. Paranoid and hostile

Is up in the night bingeing and purging Ridiculous ammonts of food on a daily basis or at other times underweight and water fasting
This bit puts her as bulimerexic I believe

Major depression, years of suicidality and EXTREME self injury moved on to suicide attempts.

Has a complex world view stemming from childhood trauma where she believes all the time that she is being stalked by the guy whom she used to abuse on line so much that she was put on probation for 18 months with restraining order.

I believe this man drugged and raped her and triggered her late onset schizophrenia

Her world view involves the Catholic Church
and oil companies and pedophile rings ruling the earth., strange stuff like they all want their “7 stone Eve’s“
And consistently confabulating about things strange men said who came round to our house when she was 2 and a half and the exact details of what these people said and memory after memory of abuse and paranoia and what her friends said and what that meant at the time.

She also disappears for several hours sometimes with no word of where she’s gone or where she’s going
Taking the car and disappears and gets lost frequently she loves to get lost and found her way even on Dartmoor which is very wild national protected area with bogs and hills and Changing ever.

Writes down her plans, with things like exercising and cooking but this seems to be getting more and more rare.most of the time she doesn’t manage it

Paranoid about the building she lives in a flat with our mum and area she lives in.she keeps all the curtains drawn says in her room for 20 hours at a time doesn’t now use a computer or have a phone.

Refuses completely to see any help a friend or peer or doctor refuses completely to take any medication including painkillers or antacid if she has a bad stomach

this is because of the alcohol she has tried to get off which has been more successful recently than I ever believed possible but she still drinks and smokes just less often somehow…

It’s good to get all this out I’m sorry I have been saying that I have two schizophrenic sisters and the youngest doesn’t have a diagnosis
this is very unsettling for me.

Even though I have had schizophrenia since I was a teenager I don’t really know what it looks on the outside… She presents so differently from our middle sister.
It is completely unique to the person perhaps it happens over so many years sometimes being L It is completely unique to the person perhaps it happens over so many years sometimes being ill, There are bound to be many manifestations and unique behaviour or traits

She has a very mixed drug use and alcoholism history. With some pretty extremeLong-term drinking and aggression where she just shouts for hours every time she gets drunk which used to be almost every day.

I have such a struggle calling her schizophrenic in my head without it’s having been diagnosed.

I am sorry you are under so much stress with your sister. Unless you have a medical degree you can’t be sure of her diagnosis. She needs to see a professional, somebody skilled in “dual diagnosis” which includes mental illness WITH addictions. One cannot be treated without treating the other as well. Does your town or city where your sister is have any kind of mental health outreach of any kind?

Maybe you can do some research and find out if there is some organization that can intervene and help get your sister diagnosed. Otherwise unless you want to try to pursue legal guardianship of your sister (if that is even an option) I would recommend getting some counseling for yourself if you are able to just to have a clear minded professional sounding board to keep your mind stable and clear, because all of this is very draining and stressful. Another plus of having a therapist for yourself is they often are a wealth of resources that eventually may be able to help your sister some day. I wish you the best.

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Thank you Catherine.
My sister won’t even take a paracetamol or a antacid and reacts to the idea of any intervention as it was a phobia.

It makes her not trust us for weeks, all the while suffering with more abuse dished out, just at the mention.

She is now drinking and smoking again quite readily. Extremely abusive.
Realise guardianship might be an option but we live 35 miles away and I have stress levels to think about

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that’s true, they do

@GSSP
I’m not disputing that
It’s just not safe to lose all functionality

It’s like there are real bullies out there even strangers on the street who take the piss out of people with mental health difficulties

If I get Unwell and then also get paranoid it would be a terrible illness and mind state to be caught up in.

It’s the same thing

Everyone has problems and they work it in their own way. Her age? You understand this SZ shit, you post to vent and look for some degree of support. So she smokes, drinks, and says crazy shit so really not to bad in the scheme of things. She drives, has a source of income and gets through it all. So really it could be worse… Does it really matter the diagnosis? It is what it is… Dont worry about it… lol, I smoke, drink and say crazy shit to…

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That’s severely belittling
She lives in hell
She puts mum through hell

In the scheme of things a first world problem
Are you trying to say that?

My point is: dont rip yourself apart over someone else’s problems.

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Her source of income has been my mums overdraft for 7 years

Sorry I read that wrong
Thank you

no problem man, if it was easy, everyone would do it…

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I don’t know the laws where you live but here guardianship does not have to be a relative it can be a court appointed guardian who in many cases is an attorney that follows the law and abides by court rulings which in many cases is 1/ must see doctor and follow doctors orders 2/ must have safe place to live (doesn’t have to be with family) 3/ also oversees getting disability and medicaid or whatever state coverage is needed for bills. 4/ oversees all finances and bills and gives an “allowance” as necessary 5/ makes sure regular medical health needs are taken care of. Periodically I think every 6 months to a year- they can re-evaluate and see if the patient is doing better and if guardianship is still needed.

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Just saying I find your approach to answers very refreshing. Many people make it so clinical. I think the relaxation of these kinds of conversations is A1!