My mother was diagnosed with paraoid schizophrenia in 2015. I’m her main support in the family and I feel alone in this. I would like to have some insight for my situation.
She is highly obsessed with me, and has high anxiety. That’s the main reason I am the person who takes care of her.
She hears voices all the time, she believes she communicates with people - dead or alive, and she may go out of the house to have a meeting with said people. There were times that I came home from work and she was out somewhere waiting for them (not very frequently). She very rarely leaves home, is very isolated, doesn’t like to meet or see new people, if she meets someone new she gets paranoid about them. She sometimes comes into my room to check if I am alive, and she often thinks that I was stabbed/hurt in some way and gets paranoid about it. And so many more. She is on meds, and gets therapy frequently but has a hard time opening up to her therapist (she has a hard time expressing herself in general).
I have been taking good care of her, but she isn’t getting any better. I’m 28 years old and I haven’t been able to go out there and build a life for myself. My dad doesn’t think that this situation is serious - he’s a bit indifferent, he goes to work and comes home late, has to sleep early, so he doesn’t really have a first hand experience with her, and doesn’t really understand the severity of her condition, and how hard it is for me to be around her and witness everything. I tried to talk to him many times, maybe to hire a caretaker or something, a professional to help her. but he’s like “just accept this.” Sometimes I feel bad and have things to share with my mom, but when she hears about my struggles she gets upset and worse, so I have to seem ok all the time. It gets to me, and I feel lonely in this. I feel like my life will revolve around her forever, and I won’t be able to build something for myself because she heavily relies on me. Also it’s really hard to see her like this, knowing what she was like in the past. I am heavily depressed and have been using SNRI’s because of this situation.
I don’t have people around me to share this and get advice, so I’m posting this. I feel alone being her only caretaker in a situation that I can’t really help. I just wanted to share my situation with people who would understand, who has the same disorder or have their loved ones suffer from the same thing, and maybe get some advice. What can I do to make this easier for both of us and how should I approach her? I’m feeling pretty lonely in this, and I feel guilty for it. Any help would be appreciated.
