My brother has all the symptoms of schizophrenia, but he only believes he was brain washed, and trying to find out what happened to him. He believes his best friend is the one that did it, and he is upset because he can’t remember. He believes everybody is stilling his ideas and making million of dollars out of it. Now he thinks my dad is involved. I try to explain to him that he has same symptoms as schisophrenic people, but he gets upset and doesn’t t want to listen. 
Cloklo,
I am so sorry your brother feels like he is at the mercy of his delusions. Psychosis can be caused by different things. Is sz in your family? He hasn’t been diagnosed, right? This IS all very typical of psychosis…
You won’t be able to tell him these are delusions, for every argument you make that they are not true, his brain will come up with another equally irrational reason why what you say is not true. It can solidify the delusions even more because of this. Try instead to find a rationale why he should consider getting professional help. If he’s feeling depressed, anxious, he will probably recognize those feelings and his difficulty in coping with them. Try and use that as the reason why he should see a doctor. If he hears it from a doctor it may help. Try to remain neutral about his delusions so he continues to open up to you and feels safe and comfortable doing so, then you are in a better position to continually advocate for his care. It may take a while, just don’t give up on him. If you feel like he may hurt himself or someone else take action! You can ask him if he has any plans to hurt himself or someone else, this does not put ideas in his head, it just gives him an opportunity to tell you, and it could save his life. I am so sorry, you must be so worried.
Welcome to the forum @Cloklo
Please look at these sites:
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
He said a few times he wish he can just kill those who did this to him. That he was a normal person and they distroyed his brain. He is very careful when he eats out, because everybody is poisoning him…he lost so much weight. I came home 3 days ago …I work outside the country, and I found him not well at all. He is very agitated, very depressed, he thinks everybody complots …I am the only one he kind of trusts now. I spoke with a doctor and convinced him to go speak with her tomorrow. Only because I promissed I will give him something he really wants…I don’t know what to do…The doctor will ask me tomorrow if I will sign for him to remain in the clinic and get treatment.
Last year when he started this, I went and placed him against his will in a clinic. They put him under medication and was more a vegetable for 3 weeks. Nobody spoke with him…but yes, he is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I don’t remember having anybody in my family with this.
Thanks Barbie…I will check those. I am so new to this sickness…is so sad there is no cure for it
dont jump the gun it could be mania too. also could be amphetemine psychosis
This doctor tomorrow is willing to investigate. But I don’t know if he will stay. He already told me that will talk only one hour with her. He was smoking all kind of things. I don’t even know if he is still doing it. I still hope he can be cured
Despite how this must feel, this is good. Wanting to kill someone, and a plan to kill someone are a little different-it’s the planning that we must really worry about. I know it’s a crappy position to be in, and there may be those who disagree with me, especially anyone who has been hospitalized because no one likes it-but I say by all means sign him in! No matter what he says, and he may manipulate, outright lie, guilty you, be angry with you-just let him know that you are doing this because you love him and want to help him-you are worried about him, over and over and over. It’s better to have an angry bother than a deceased brother. You do not want to regret that you didn’t sign him in-that is not the kind of regret that’s easy to live with. Also you and your family should get some support and education as well, this is a long difficult road to recovery, but it can happen and a strong support network can make a big difference.
make sure he knows to pick the right meds to feel as comfortable as he can in his own skin. abilify is a good one for a male
He is already upset with me because the last time I signed him in without his consent. My question is…after I will take him home…do I start again from the beginning? There will be any difference? Should I just try to show him I love him, and offer him moral support …I am just so lost…what if us not schizophrenia…what if is maybe something else? Is so hard to find doctors who wants to look into it…spend time with him. And I know he is scared that I might sign him tomorrow
He stopped the last treatment as soon as he got home…because he believes he is controlled. He always says he needs to disconnect from them…I don’t know who is them…
One thing that made things easier for me and my daughter is that she was under 18, and I didn’t have to rely on her judgment to hospitalize her. After she started doing better, I had her do a living will and a medical power of attorney. I remember when we got to the part about my ability to sign her into a hospital she was like “Ah, no.” I explained that if she was a danger to herself or someone else she would be committed for 72 hours, and during that time I felt it was necessary I would petition the court for her to get treatment, and that’s the way it was going to go if she ever got to that place again where she was unsafe. After a while she came back to me and agreed to leave that decision up to me.
People do get better, some maybe never 100% but they can get better enough to have relief of some of the worst of their symptoms-that is what you are fighting for. You’re brother is not in the position to fight for that for himself right now.
let him know the longer he waits without meds the more psychosis can damage his brain. it took me two months for the meds to begin working
You were having these kind of psychosis as well? Are you feeling better now? How did you manage to understand you had this, …at this stage I don’t think he wants to accept this…even though sometimes I feel he knows…But, he believes his friend did something to him and this started …and he is upset he can’t remember what
just so you know the meds make schizophrenics feel 100% uncomfortable in their own skin, and some psychiatrists are begining to believe they do more harm than good to some schizophrenics. i hope you can speak to her with more empathy than that because schizophrenic symptoms arent always what torments us, sometimes the meds do. i got tarditive dyskinesia from mine.
im sure she needs insight from the meds but please tell her these things from an empathetic point of view as shes likely giving up her physical heath to be on meds in order to relate to you
He may be upset with you, but if he’s still being open with you, seeing you, you obviously handled something right and he felt loved and trusted-you are doing better than you think. It took 6 months to find the right med regimen for my daughter, her baseline at that time was so unsafe. Then it took another 6 months for the side effects to lesson-and it’s hard for the person taking them to deal with the side effects which is often when they go off the meds, but the side effects subside as well eventually.
It could be something else, then again it may be mental health related. They should be doing labs to rule out drugs, look at hormone levels, all those kinds of things to see if there is something abnormal that could medically account for his symptoms. If not you’ll have to fight for this. Research psychosis and the causes and try and decide what you think it might be-you are seeing thing the doctors may not witness, doctors rely on self reporting-you can know things your brother is not communicating or the doctors don’t get the chance to see. And while doing all of this-take care of yourself and use your support system because this is time consuming, difficult and stressful-you need to take care of yourself too. Show your brother love and support, spend time with him, do little things to show him how much you love him.
my psychosis came from adderall. i went to the doctor about depression and he recommended adderall which worked for six months but lead me to have a psychosis. then another med i got on caused it after i got better from it the first time. basically i think i have schizotypical so im borderline schizophrenic but ive been off meds two months and im fine. i do hear disorganized thoughts about 1% of the day when im about to sleep or laying down, so it might be coming back but two months relatively no psychosis off meds is pretty good. i got gynecomastia, tarditive dyskinesia and erectile dysfunction from the schizophrenia meds.
you know that feeling when your holding your breath underwater, and your just about to break and come up for air because youc ant take it anymore? thats how the meds made me feel all day long. its not like taking an advil or even taking an adderall. these meds are different and the struggle is still there on meds, they just help us appear more normal. thats why we come off them. the anehdonia (lack off emotions) from meds doesnt feel worth it for us.
You see, the worst part is that i am Home two months after 4 months contract. Every time I am home he feels better. He always look for me, wanna go out with me. He is 28 and I am 37. I was the one taking care of him after parents divorce. He trusts me but in the same time we always have controversary conversations…because I can’t agree with what he saying. I feel sometimes so helpless…and it breaks my heart to see him this way
I was reading a comment about the groups…the abusers. …but seems the owner deleted…That’s what he kind of talks about. A group that us controlling him…getting into his computers, he suspects his ex girlfriend ( they have a baby together) that she tried to kill him…that is part of this. That they did brain wash on him, that they were learning how to do this on people…maybe you can write that back to me on my email. Cloklo14@gmail.com