About 5 months ago my brother had a severe psychotic episode it was his first. It was life shattering to see how terrified he was, how much the terror consumed him, how he felt like he must be a terrible person to deserve the things he thought would be done, to have him beg me for a suicide pact because death was better then what they were planning for him. After a huge amount of time trying everything to get him help we were able to get him committed because he was trying to hurt himself. after he was releases i vowed never to leave his side. But we lost the place we were staying and our mom had to move out of town with her sister for work and the sister wouldnt let us stay too so we were homeless untill a month ago when i saved enough money to stay in a motel for a couple months. Thats the course of recent events summed up i cant type well im on a smartphone. I just want to know what can i do? he sometimes runa out of our room at night and gets away from me and walks along the freeway for daya he ended up 100 miles away before he finally called asking for help getting back. Im scared hes gonna get hurt i dont know what to do i do all i can im only 24 and i spend 24/7 doing the best i can to keep him safe and taking care of himself. He still has gotten any better and refuses to take medicine hes just not the same person at all anymore and all he ever says he wqnts is for everything to be normal again it breaks my heart i want to be able to do something anything i will never abandon him. does anyone know what may help him
I had a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia when I was 19. I spent two 1/2 solid years fighting every day to keep my sanity. My parents put me in a long-term hospital, partly to keep me safe, partly to get me on medication. I’m still significantly disabled but I work, and take online classes and live on my own. I emphasize with you but i don’t know how to make someone comply with treatment when they refuse help. Sorry, I can’t help you but I just didn’t want you to think everybody was ignoring you here. Right now is when this site is the slowest and least frequented. Keep posting and more people will read it. I can’t help except to say when I was 19 and going through hell, I did want medications and I didn’t believe anything was wrong with me when it was obvious to everybody around me that I was sick. But I have worked, albeit, mostly part time since 1983 and I only need 5 more classes for my AA degree. Recovery is possible. Have you looked into getting him benefits from Social Security? He might be eligible for SSI or SSDI and Medicare. Call your local office or call the national number at 1-80-772-1213. Good luck.
When you had severe symptoms could you organize your thoughts enough to write a sentence he just can’t even shower its been over a month since he has.
I just want to understand how he feels
When I was at my worst I could literally not solve 15+ 2 =…Or subtract 7 from 10. My guess is he is more miserable now than he has been in his whole life. It’s a terrible disease. Like you said, he is probably extremely frightened at all these changes that are happening to him and probably very disoriented. Having schizophrenia is new territory to the sufferer.We don’t understand what is happening to us. One day were talking to our friends and going out to see a movie or something and then suddenly three months later we are fighting for our sanity from an all consuming disease.For me, at my worst, knowing that my family wanted to help was a tremendous help.
I wish he’d get on this site 90% of the time he doesn’t even believe schizophrenia is a real illness but he’s just gone up to me and told me he thinks he may have schizophrenia twice. I have to say his name over and over when we talk because it’s like the voices he hear constantly take every bit of his attention. He won’t even admit he hears voices except when me and him are having a good time he mimics them if they aren’t sating terrifying things. I get worried he’s going to hurt someone he sometimes tells me if he fights random people everything will go back to normal and whenever were outside he tells me everyone’s fucking with him.
Hi there,
Calll your local NAMI chapter (if you live in the states) and see what resources are available. When someone is not aware they have an illness it’s tough to help them. What about your family. Can they help?
He needs a hospital stay and some meds.
They are threatening him it sounds like, same thing happened to me, they threatened to torture me forever, i had never had anyone speaking to me in my mind before so it seemed as if it could be true.
They’ll say alot of things, they even blamed what they were supposedly going to do to my family on me because i had done nothing about it, so i even asked my family if i had harmed them, of course they were confused because they couldn’t see or hear them snarling in my mind.
Try and get him to the hospital and medicated.
Welcome to the forum blissfreak.
Take a look at some of these links. You may find some help/resources to help get your brother into treatment.
http://www.leapinstitute.org/ - under resources are free videos on using LEAP
LEAP is a way of communicating to build trust. Listen-Empathize-Agree-Partner.
http://dramador.com/ - Dr. Xavier Amador is a clinical psychologist whose brother had schizophrenia. He is the founder of the LEAP Institute. Wrote the book: I’m Not Sick I Don’t Need Help! Can buy from his website.
Search Xavier Amador and LEAP on youtube.com and you should find some long videos
Treatment Advocacy Center - under problems you will see anosognosia
Anosognosia looks like denial but is different.
Bayes for Schizophrenics: Reasoning in Delusional Disorders - LessWrong - helped my understand delusions
http://www.nami.org/ - National Alliance on Mental Illness.
http://www.schizophrenia.ca/ - Schizophrenia Society of Canada
Can also find some very useful information here:
Early Psychosis Treatment center information in these two links
http://www.raiseetp.org/sites/
Psychiatric Treatment Centers affiliated with Medical Schools in the USA
This link may help you find a psychiatrist in your area
Maybe approaching medications from the point of him needing some anxiety relief may be helpful. Perhaps by using LEAP can you get him to atleast try. Wishing you both all the best.
He is currently in NAMI Sacramento for the fifth time because he was rufising to eat and drink for 2 days and trying to run in front of cars. He tried fighting another patient he thought was going to hurt me so they extended his stay. What you said about the anxiety Barbie I think is one of the key recently he’s been drinking heavily which of course is not healthy physically but the anti-anxiety effect of the alcohol helps him more than any med his dr has put him on which are all atypical antipsychotics, when he drinks he is nearly his old self and doesn’t even act drunk just his old self. Me and our mom keep asking his dr to prescribe a benzodiazepine for his anxiety but he just looks at us as if we are stupid and doesn’t even acknowledge it. He has no insurance so he can only see the dr once every 3 months and cannot go to any dr but the one he’s seeing who obviously isn’t really concerned with effective safe treatment, I believe he’d take a benzo even though he refuses to ever take a antipsychotic, which I partially understand, between ages 7-12 I took huge doses of typical antipsychotics for tourrettes syndrome they impaired my brain development and caused depressin and lack of motivation that persists to this day. Why any neurologist would prescribe a 7 year old those poisons for tics is evil they had no beneficial effects on my tics.
Blissfreak… HI, I’m am the younger sister of a man who is fighting SZ.
I looked up some other resources in the Sacramento area
http://www.dhhs.saccounty.net/BHS/Pages/BHS-Home.aspx
low income and no income help. Its a start.
This one said free mental health access, but please check it out carefully. It feels a bit religious.
My family has always had better luck with colleges.
I know UC Davis is far out of Sac limits but I do believe the YOLO bus 42A will pick up in downtown and go right to the Davis campus.
http://www.yolobus.com/routes/index.php/42A
Here is my favorite… these guys helped find my cousin when he went missing in sac
FREE help, shelter, resources, These guys will help homeless, almost homeless and no insurance.
I really hope the best for you. I can only imagine how scared you must be.
So Sorry!!! Hope you are not doing this on your own. It does sound like your brother needs a hospital stay. I can`t improve on any of this info. already posted. Your brother may Not like the idea of a hospital stay, but once he gets some rest and more stable, he is going to feel a little better. It may also give you and your mom more time to figure out a better living situation for all of you.
I hope you can move closer to your mom. Bless you and I will say prayers