My sister may have been brainwashed or I'm in denial

Family
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Hello everyone, my name is Makenzie and I am 30 years old. I first just wanted to say that I deeply thank everyone for their love and compassion for their own family members and others on this forum. You are all doing the best you can in this wild journey! I’m saddened that it has come to this, that I must seek help/support for my own sister.

She is 32 years old and within the last 2 years I have noticed intense delusions that she may be creating. At first, I believed her… somewhat. She lived in Venice Beach with her fiance. Back in may 2015, they were involved with a cult like group called Full Circle whom believed and preached “avatarism”.

I can’t get to much into detail, but from my research I do believe they have taken different drugs to reach a shaman like spiritual being. My sister started telling me that she was very important to the elite group that runs this world and they were all watching her. Videos, pictures, bugged, her and her fiance would whisper when we would visit their home.

Throughout this time it seemed to get worse and worse, her fiance tried committing suicide and then blamed it on “them” and that “they” had implanted the thought in his brain. During this time my family and I went about our lives and figured she was a big girl and considered she needing to move away from that area to get some clarity.

She had excessive cannibas use, so I suggested she stop to also get clarity. Which she has not. One night about 6 months ago she showed up at my house saying she needed to get away from her fiance. I have 4 small children and at the time my boyfriend was over. Someone she has meet many times before.

She started yelling at him saying he was taking pictures and how he is evil and has no soul. I was devastated and angry so I made her leave. She went and stayed with my parents because she lost her home in Venice. My parents are in total shock, they have no idea what to do and are in complete denial of schizophrenia.

The last few weeks I have had her living with me because she was sleeping (she doesnt actually sleep, she thinks all night and writes notes in her phone) in her truck in LA. Which has been undoubtedly stressful and so hard!

Now here is the strange part, she deeply believes that she has a twin flame (soulmate) with a famous singer. Which she actually met when this all seemed to have started and has had some history with. She believes that he shows her many signs throughout the day. Colors: red and black are bad, black heart, he’s disappointed. Greens, blues and pinks are love signs, she gets really excited and will burst with joy. Anyone that wears a shirt with words is giving her a message.

She keeps telling me that she is backwards and everything she does is wrong. She’s very hard on herself. She believes this is all a test for her to prove she is worthy of “the game and of love”. She believes everyone is involved and is constantly sabotaging her to keep her away from her true love. As I write all this, I feel crazy myself!! At times she will look at me with big eyes and ask me to help her. I am devastated because I have no idea what to do. She is extremely healthy, will barely eat or over indulges, would never take any prescribed medication, will not get on the grid to apply for any benefits, has no idea she is delusional, and won’t get help. I don’t even know where to start because I am not fully convinced she is paranoid schizophrenic.

I feel she was involved in something else, dark magic maybe? Am I the one being delusional now??! There is so much more to this, but i dont want to overwhelm anyone. My sister is this beautiful light that deeply cares about everyone. Throughout all this, she has ruined every friendship/relationship she’s ever created.

Her closest friends have been reaching out to me angry and confused. All i can say to them is to keep loving her and caring about her because she is not the same person we knew right now. I pray i can find her again and bring her back to reality. Thank you so much for listening and please send us your love and positive thoughts.

Ps. She refuses to talk to her fiance whom now lives in Washington with his parents. He believes he has been reincarnated from the bible and that God talks directly to him. Is it possible for two people to become schizophrenic at the same time?! I’m completely baffled by this and desperately want to know what happened to them both. My heart aches. Any insight or thoughts would be so greatly appreciated.

So much love,
Makenzie

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For now, keep nurturing your relationship with her and start writing out events with date periodically so that you can look back and objectively know if it is getting better or worse. This is so unsettling and I’m sure you are baffled by it. I remember trying to make things make sense in my head about different things my son would say or see including being possessed. I would take him to a Catholic Church early Saturday afternoon so could talk to the priest, then stay for rosary, then mass. He was always calm and at peace at church. It could be the drugs the cult or group used which caused psychosis or it could’ve been what triggered schizophrenia. Drugs, including marijuana can do that. It is so much stingray than it was when I was a kid. It is hard to tell and at some point it might not matter but documenting will allow you to go back and ask more questions and get more information. Look at the advice others have put on about LEAP and NAMI. I wish you every success and patience as you deal with this. Thank you for helping your sister. I don’t believe you will regret it.

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she really sounds like its highly probable that she has some sort of psychosis, and probably schizophrenia - she has many of the classic symptoms, delusions, paranoia, and the sleeplessness and random writing.

I recommend you try to get her for a good early psychosis evaluation center as soon as you can. The sooner she gets help, the better the outcome would be. Here is more info on these centers:

Also - I recommend you read this “First Aid for Psychosis” writeup on how to interact with people who are psychotic:

http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/005561.html

More on the common symptoms of schizophrenia:

and personal stories from people whose family members developed schizophrenia:

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Hello! I joined this forum because I am going through something extremely similar. I will not get into here because it’s a lot of writing, but I just want to let you know that you are not alone. It’s so painful to see a sibling you love so much, change drastically right before your eyes, and the worst part is the not knowing why. My mind has been racing these past few months, and I’ve come to my wits end. It was just recently that paranoid schizophrenia came to mind after my mom mentioned it. You are not delusional by any means (I’ve thought this about myself as well)…we are concerned!!! My sister, like yours, has been involved in the “spiritual world”…my sister is only 21…started this spiritual journey at about 19 or 20 years old–her mind still fragile. She also became involved with this guy—a nice guy but quiet and mysterious. Together they embarked on this “journey” and have not been the same since. My sister left the house to live with him and I havent seen her in about 2 months…although we speak on ocassion. I will make a separate thread regarding this (I hope to see you there!). My advice for you is to keep trying but remember- we can’t help those that don’t want to be helped and we can’t force anyone to do anything. We can pray for them and send them lots of love and hope that whatever it is that is going on that one day they will wake up from-- but as far as making them try to get tested or to snap out of it, its useless. You’re a wonderful sister and I know this is painful–I can’t tell you the amount of times i’ve cried because of this, but at the end of the day, there’s not much I can do. My sister is stubborn and she will have to learn on her own. I just wish there was a way I could save her if indeed she has this mental illness. Stay strong and remain hopeful!!

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