It was about last week sometime my sister (36 year old) was messaging me saying she is experiencing a “spiritual awakening” and she can talk to spirits. This has slowly progressed over that past week to where just two nights ago during the full moon she said that she was Jesus Christ and is the second coming of Christ. She keeps insisting they are coming for her yet she doesn’t know when and that they will take her to the moon. This is where the dogs and her are going because they will come back and reveal their true being. She has been posting on social media that she will reveal to the world and the world will see she is Jesus on/around her birthday April 25th. Last night she walked her dogs to an open field in a desert and left them there while she walked back. Luckily our family has been monitoring her and a family member retrieved the dogs and took them home. We want her to seek treatment but she won’t willingly go. What advice does anyone have?
I would send an email to a nearby psychiatrist. She or he can give you good guidance.
It will probably involve a forced mental institution visit. But she doesn’t seem to be doing “enough” to warrant that yet. But she’ll get there. Her mental state is declining.
Thank you for your response. And you are right, she isn’t doing anything to warrant that. Local law enforcement was called and they did a welfare check. She told them she is doing nothing other than minding her own business and that they should go about doing the same and closed the door on them. My family called a specialist from the VA (She’s a disabled veteran) and that was their recommendation was to see if law enforcement could bring her to them. Our concern is she is very adamant to go to the moon because that’s where she will transition and she has mentioned for us not to worry if there isn’t a body because there won’t be a body. I will mention to family members to see if there is someone locally that can assess her instead of just the VA. It’s harder right now due to all the restrictions from COVID-19.
Dr. Tracy Marks who is a wonderful psychiatrist on youtube. gave an answer to this question a few days ago on a live stream
Check it out if you can, shes very helpful.
Question #14 35:25How to guide a family member to get mental help?
I hope that helps
Sometimes, I find that if I listen to the other person talk and ask “why do you think that” it may help. My daughter has delusions during her psychotic stage. I stayed away from disputing her and the funny thing is she could realize some of her thoughts were not logical when she tried to explain it further. A tip. Don’t try too hard to steer the conversation, let it flow. Best wishes.
Getting a loved one to seek treatment when they are in psychosis is the hardest thing… there is no one easy answer.
I suggest you read a lot on here to find out the different ways different family members have had success.
And educate yourself on the laws that apply where you live.
For me, I had to learn the laws, and then get smart and use those laws to get my daughter forcibly admitted to the hospital several times. Once out of the hospital, though, she would stop taking her meds as she didn’t think she was mentally ill and the psychosis continued. In the end, the police arrested her downtown screaming at buildings and running in and out of traffic 2 1/2 years after her psychosis began. That arrest (her 2nd one) was followed by a hospitalization and a court order (that I asked the judge for) to force her to take medicine, or stay in jail.
She has been successfully out of psychosis and on meds since Dec 2018 now. She is only now maybe having a glimmer of understanding that she has a mental illness.
Good luck, you are on a long winding road trying to help your sister. You may fail repeatedly to help her before you succeed. Don’t give up.
Thank you. That was very insightful
I understand that now that you mentioned that. I wouldn’t listen so she quit talking. I’m working on getting her to talk with me again. Thank you for your response.
I understand that since before this she has had a drug addiction and that was a long winding road to get her treated. Although I feel this is different than one being strung out because rehab helped her overcome her drug addiction. This I feel is far more complex than getting help over an addiction. This is her reality. She firmly believes in her delusions. And I now know trying to reason with her will only push her away. Thank you for your response.
I will say only this: that kindness seems to go much further than anything else. That, and biting your tongue when you have so much to say to her. Sz messes with cognitive ability, it isn’t just hallucinations and delusions, although those are the most noticeable symptoms. The loss of thinking and speaking functions is also very real, and hard to see at first. My daughter would say the same things over and over in slightly different ways, but she didn’t know she was repeating herself. I would get irritated and upset her with cross words as I didn’t want to hear what she was saying (again). It would have been way better just to listen as eventually she stopped talking to me: she only spent hours and hours talking to her invisible people. Once the psychosis was gone, I found out how HARD it was for her to tell me her ideas, especially ANY new ideas.
I recommend the book “I’m not Sick, I Don’t Need Help” for ideas on how to talk to a person in denial and psychosis about anything.
This video was taken on April 7, 2020
Right now she’s in her trailer which is a 5th wheel on my parents property
and won’t let anyone in. She said “GET OUT, I’M TRYING TO KILL IT!!” So we still can’t get her evaluated and it breaks my heart.
I am so sorry - it’s so clear to anyone that she needs help.
set vid privacy to unlisted, repost, I want to see…
my son went through something similar…he thought he was the return of the Buddha…he htought he was more important than Jesus…he thought he defeted the devil.
as i said he thought he was the most important human ever and was destined to become President, as this was God’s plan. As i said he had these beliefs since he was 26, hes older now but his beliefs started to unravel over time. As i said these delusions can be hard to crack but they do unravel over time
just keep being supportive and in time things will improve.
on any given day, what percent of that day is she normal? Does she drive?
my wife is only normal less than 5% each day (no possible way she could drive), my daughter is over 90%, functions and drives, both med resistant SZs…
Past 3 days she hasn’t functioned. This is her very first episode. Unsure what her illness is for she refuses to seek treatment and has been very agitated and has been talking a lot to herself in her trailer which we can hear from outside. Prior to this she is a disabled veteran who suffers from PTSD. She does drive but not within the past week while she’s been in this state. Her keys have been taken from her and hidden so she won’t go and try to drive. She has had little to no sleep for the past 3 days but today she has been sleeping all day. My parents have gone in and checked on her several times and she’s been asleep since after 3 this morning and having been checked at at 8am and through out the day
She shooting up anything? meth,Crack, H or synthetic heroine? How is her money managed?
She is hallucinating, they talk to her, hard to say if she is experiencing visual hallucinations…
Only uses Marijuana. She is on disability from when she served in the military.
You sure? Marijuana is no big deal, the hard shit?