My brother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia about 2 year ago. He has been hostile to me and my family due to his untreated symptoms (he refuses any treatment, has Anosognosia so he does not believe he has schizophrenia) so I cut all contact with him 1.5 years ago for our safety and well being. He has now cut contact with both our parents, so all of his immediate family. He says we are “dead” to him etc. Well, recently (or for who know how long…) he has been providing my phone number and email to financial institutions like loan service providers, as a way to evade making payments and possibly to trick me into paying them? I don’t fully understand his thought process but it’s definitely to route the payment notices elsewhere. It happened first with his student loans and just happened this week with a debt collector contacting me asking for his name. This is now a trend and I’m anticipating he will continue to try to evade financial responsibilities this way. Today with the debt collector I was able to explain the situation and get my contact information removed and his updated. It had no barrings in the end, but I wonder about how this could happen again and again. Surely it must be a crime for him to provide my contact information without my consent and falsely presenting this information as his own. I think about when websites or contacts make you certify the information is correct and how it’s a crime to provide false information. Any thoughts on how I should handle this situation?
Hi Sis,
I know it’s annoying to do it, but you could change your email and phone number and ask the other family members to not share your new information.
Maybe your parents would be interested in getting his student loan forgiven? With a diagnosis, the paperwork is relatively quite easy compared to applying for disability or even SNAP benefits.
Thank you for comments and ideas. My brother refuses to acknowledge the diagnosis but I am curious how the paperwork differs from applying for disability benefits. I suppose we had thought that was required to substantiate student loan forgiveness. Right now my brother will not talk to either of our parents, he says we are all “dead to him” but if things changed there they approach the student loan issue. My brother was on course to becoming a doctor, had just a couple clinical courses left when he developed schizophrenia so he’s got a good amount of loans…
As you do more research, you will discover that your brother most likely isn’t refusing to acknowledge the diagnosis. Anosognosia is a medically recognized symptom with schizophrenia. Anosognosia makes it impossible for your brother to realize he has a brain disorder.
Having disability benefits would make getting the student loans forgiven even easier.
Our son’s original psychiatrist gave us our homework after he made his diagnosis. Apply for disability and get the student loans forgiven. Our son did not acknowledge that he had a brain disorder but he was willing to sign papers that meant he would get monthly money and healthcare.
A doctor fills out the form. It is separate from social security disability.
There is a 3 year waiting period after it is accepted.
Getting the paperwork accepted can take a while. They basically want to make sure you are not earning from working at a certain level and they monitor this through tax returns. The link below explains the process.