My mom is a senior and has paranoid schizophrenia for many years now. She is taking her medication daily. Most of the time she is fine but there are days and weeks where she will have paranoia and delusions where she said people talk about her on the radio and broadcasting her thoughts, people come into the house to steal things, photocopy her important documents like passports and ids. Recently, she said she will call the cops about people coming in to steal stuff.
When she sees the doctor to get the prescription, she will say she’s fine. I live with her and am her sole caretaker. I know not to argue with her that these thoughts are not true but I’m at a loss and don’t know how to de-escalate. I really hope she won’t call the cops or do irrational things. This will add on to the stress I’m having - the stress from my workplace and from my cancer treatment. My mother have no other relatives in the same country except me.
Hi and welcome back to this site. It may be good for you to visit here more often to learn some tips with dealing with your mom’s delusions.
I just wanted to say that my daughter used to call the police quite often when she was very delusional. I wouldn’t try to stop your mother if she feels that she must. Our police in this town are great, and are trained to understand mentally unstable people. Most times they deescalated the situation, a few times she was taken to the hospital or jail, but I feel they were always correct actions.
One thing you can do is provide information to your mother’s doctor about your own observations of her delusional thought. The doctor may not be able to respond to you because of HIPPA laws, but should be very interested in your observations. I used to fax things to my daughter’s doctor that I thought should be known.
You must try to self care as much as you can too, while worrying about your mother. I understand, I have recently gone through cancer treatments myself. Make sure you do some things for yourself to make you feel better.