Hello, this is a complex situation, but I’ll try to make it as concise as possible.
My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 19 during an episode which had gone on for probably over a year. I distinctly remember him being delusional, claiming he could talk to god, being very paranoid, and totally isolating himself socially. One of his main delusions was that his penis was deformed due to being sexually abused by my mother. Because of this he started to hate our parents. He visited doctors who examined him and found nothing wrong with his private area. Eventually family members were able to get him to sign himself into a hospital and receive treatment. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, given haldol and even seroquel. It took some time, but he made a very good recovery, dropped his delusions, was on decent terms with our parents, and went on to work and graduate college.
Over the past 6 or so years, he has not relapsed and has even steadily decreased the dosage of his medication, hoping to eventually get off it alltogether. A few years ago, he began seeing a therapist for psychotherapy because his mood began to decline and he was feeling depressed. He started talking about how our childhood wasn’t good and how I wronged him in the past. (I disagreed with him as I thought things weren’t too bad) Sometime after this, he eventually told me that he discovered in therapy that our mother had abused him. I asked him about it and he assured me that it happened and that he was not having delusions. I wasn’t sure what to make of it since he was holding down a job, interacting well enough socially, and living on his own without issue. Eventually I did question him more about it, but he would become angry and threaten to cut contact with me. Looking back, I feel I should have done more, but was afraid…
Fast forward to the past months… He tells me more specifically that he was sexually abused by our mother (that she kissed him and touched him) and that he also hated our father because he “knew and didn’t stop it”. He is also upset that nobody believed him about the abuse when he had his original episode. He seems to think that even though he was very delusional that people should have believed him. He also claims my parents got a lawyer during this time to defend themselves (this definitely did not happen). I tried to question him about this and he exploded with anger on me, called me a piece of shit, and hung up the phone. He told me he has now been diagnosed with PTSD due to this abuse and this is what caused all his issues.
I am worried that he is either having symptoms again or has developed false memories when he saw his therapist. This therapist was very big on past trauma/abuse and almost asked you to try to find instances of trauma (I know because I saw him). I can never be 100% certain that nothing occurred, but both my parents say that nothing happened. I am older than him and I also have zero memory of any such abuse occurring. However, he seems normal when I talk to him on the phone and is doing well with work and living on his own… so he appears to be functioning well.
I’m at a loss. I honestly don’t believe him and I think he is either starting to develop delusions or has fallen victim to false memory. This is tearing my family apart, because he won’t talk to my mother and father and said he’d even get a restraining order against them. I’m caught in the middle of course and I can’t take it anymore. I don’t want to lose him, but I feel like I cannot go along with this anymore.
Please help me.
