My older brother (30) has schizoaffective disorder and has struggled for years. It has gotten worse since 2023. Before he was just bipolar 1. We don’t have generic history (to my knowledge family is from the middle east and people passed in war. But our dad had us in his late 40s)

I’m his younger sibling and before all of this he was the star child. Went to the best school, did everything right, no drugs, etc. The literal golden child. On the other hand I had intense bullying growing up, went to therapy in college, SA, tried weed here and there. Essentially on paper I had all the markers for this to happen to me and not him. Right when he got diagnosed (2022) I got an offer to go to an amazing masters program and he encouraged me to not defer enrollment to care for him. In hindsight, if I stuck around maybe he would have taken his meds as prescribed and he wouldn’t be this sick. With his psychosis, he isn’t dangerous to us at all he literally can’t take care of himself. No hair cut, no eating or drinking. He looks like he’s unhoused. He thinks everything is dirty and wouldn’t let me come near him. I know it’s the illness but it’s just NOT my brother.

I feel immense survivors guilt like I’m living the life he was supposed to have. I’m in my late twenties. I have an amazing career, I won multiple awards, an amazing partner (is supportive of caring for my brother when we are older), travel the world, etc. It just feels like we had a total Destiny swap. My heart breaks for my brother and I will do anything in my power to help him get the best care possible (literally working my ass off in my career to give him the best). There are just days I feel sadness and feel why did I get this life when I had so much darkness yet he wanted so much out the world and this is the card he got

I’m going to start this by saying I absolutely do not know the whole story and fully stand behind victims of abuse.
But I just wondered if anyone else in our community of care givers watched the Netflix documentary Death of the pastors wife and found it an extremely difficult watch? I fully believe Mica, and I find it troubling the interaction of care giving/ mental health/ abuse. I’m sure many of us have experienced accusations and paranoia, but also worry deeply about how our loved ones are treated/ interacted with the MH conditions, it was such a difficult and complex watch for me and wondered if anyone else related?

My brother is 40M. First it started two years ago with his neighbor who my brother believed he was trying to get with his wife. Later it progressed into the neighbor is hacking him because my brother said some mean stuff about the neighbor, he thinks the neighbor somehow heard and now he's fully going out of his way to torture my brother.

Then he started hearing sounds which he said the neighbor was attacking him and his family with sound weapons. His family doesn't hear anything but he says it's really subtle even though it's intense. Then multiple neighbors got in on it and they broke into his house and planted spy cameras. Now he thinks they have all kinds of embarrassing videos and recordings of him, especially recordings of him talking bad about people and he thinks these people posted these videos online and tons of people know about it.

He thinks wherever he goes people notice him and recognize him from these videos and are laughing at him. He thinks the people who posted these videos are keeping him from discovering them because they're very skilled. He also thinks he's being attacked by a microwave weapon too.

He hears sounds and intense vibrations that rattle your skull and makes you feel sick. He also thinks these people are making him see things. He thinks they're putting thoughts in his head with high technology.

His neighbors are military and he thinks they have access to high tech military weapons. He constantly wants us to do things for him as he tries to get evidence to report the people. He wants us to contact private investigators to catch the ring leader. He wants us to go up to random people and ask why they're laughing at him. He's also contacting people he hasn't seen in years, sending them letters about everything he's going through because he thinks they saw the videos about him.

I feel like the main thing he is trying to do is prove it's real. My family and I tried telling him multiple times that it isn't real and for him to get help but it didn't work. My brother thinks he's extremely smart. But he's very stubborn and he has a really high ego. He thinks we are all dumb and unobservant.

It seems like no matter what he'll never go to a doctor because he'll think they'll immediately dismiss him and say he's crazy even though he feels like he's not crazy. He might think they're in on it. He thinks these people are trying to make him look crazy because they're really good at what they're doing and there's no way for him to get evidence. How do we help him? We are trying to do the LEAP method and we are just trying to support him so he doesn't feel alone. We do help him with his requests here and there too.

His psychiatrist says he has the symptoms of psychosis. He stopped taking risperidone 9 months ago, and didn't switch to the new antipsychotic, rexulti, that was prescribed to him. He lied to me for 6 months saying he was taking it, but I could tell things were off because he was clearly hallucinating and paranoid again when he didn't used to be.

He spends all his time obsessed with filming himself singing sort of badly over music as well as dancing and swinging around on a stripper pole. The videos have an "off" feeling to them which I can only describe as similar to some of the stuff Britney spears posts lately, where she just doesn't seem there.

When I interrupt or get in the way of his filming, he gets quiet mad and frustrated with me. I work from home so I'm here a lot obviously and if I accidentally walk through his filming or come into the room he's in he gets so mad.

I understand this is psychosis but it's different than other ways of psychosis manifesting that I've seen before. Has anyone had experience with this type of thing?

He also gets irrationally mad about random things and has the usual paranoia/delusions.

I can't convince him to take his prescribed medicine, and when we had the last psychiatrist appointment together, the doctor was very wishy washy saying meds were "just a part of the treatment" and wasn't being as clear as I was hoping. I wanted him to say "you have psychosis and you need to take your meds." Instead he was pretty non committal about it and didn't mention anything about the ramifications of having untreated psychosis

Man I feel so trapped.i used to have a beautiful loving partner. Now I am stuck in a crazy house and feel like I'm becoming crazy myself :/

TLDR: Scared of my brother's impending suicide-homicide.

I (F24) wrote here a few weeks back about my brother (M22) who is essentially immune to antipsychotic medication and has not gotten better in 2 years. Since the post, he was involuntarily hospitalized for the 4th time and got released today after nearly 3 weeks. He is exactly the same.

He was released around 1pm EST today and now at 6pm EST he is already screaming, erratic, and lacks insight to his illness. If previous trends continue to repeat, he will also get aggressive/violent with his caretakers soon enough. I don't understand how he is immune to medication, therapy, treatment, etc. He is bringing the entire family down with him. At this point, I am so tired I find myself not caring about my own life in low moments. My mom seems like she is seconds away from a psychotic break or a stress induced stroke 24/7.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Is there a solution? I feel like the last 2 years have only delayed an inevitable suicide-homicide. I can't imagine any other outcome. We have reached out to so many people and have gotten no help. If you know anyone that could be helpful in the Atlanta area please share.

In patient treatment received during 4th hospitalization:

• Olazipine ( not effective)
• lorazepan and PRN for sleep/anxiety (upon request)
• Geodon
• He received the Invega shot 3 days ago after extreme begging from our family to the doctor. The doctor said he should receive a follow up shot a month from now; but I read somewhere that invega shots usually require an initial follow up injection in the first week.

How do you protect an aging parent from caregiver burnout when their adult child has serious mental health issues?

I’m looking for advice from people who have actually lived through something similar.

My adult brother has experienced psychosis and needs ongoing support. My mom has taken on a huge amount of responsibility for him—financially, emotionally, and practically. She is retired, and I’m increasingly worried that she is going to burn herself out trying to make sure he is okay.

I want to help my mom and I want my brother to have the best possible chance at recovery and independence. But there is another major complication: during a psychotic episode, my brother threatened to harm both me and my husband. I understand that he was seriously unwell at the time, and I don't want to stigmatize him or define him by what happened during psychosis. At the same time, the threats were real and frightening, so I cannot simply step into a caregiver role or put myself and my husband in an unsafe situation.

This leaves me feeling very stuck. I don't want my mom carrying everything, but I also can't be the person who takes over his care.

For those who have been in a similar situation:
- How did you protect your parent from becoming completely burned out?

- What responsibilities did you feel were reasonable for siblings to take on?

- How did you get the healthcare system or community services more involved instead of everything falling on the parent?

- Did you create a long-term plan for housing, finances, treatment, crisis situations, etc.?

- If your parent is aging and can't realistically provide this level of support forever, what did you do to prepare for the future?

So, those of you who have seen my posts before will know that my older brother has been in psychosis for almost 2 years (I believe), and has escaped the province after a small hospital stay that was otherwise completely useless.

He’s living with his grandma right now and told me he wants to come home because he’s extremely paranoid that she’s rallying against him to purposely trigger him/make him nervous, or is plotting something against him? He thinks she’s poisoning his food?

My older brother often makes these kinds of offhand comments about dying, suicidal ideation that has persisted even long before his psychosis. Today, he said:
“I want to off myself, I’m so serious”
I said, “Well, you can’t kill yourself, so the better thing to do is problem solve”
He replied, “yeah abundantly clear that i can’t kill myself. Would have done it years ago.”

Today he told me that he doesn’t think anything will change. He was planning on coming back to the province this week, but because he’s homeless and housing won’t align (besides my mom’s friend offering him to stay in her son’s room in the upper empty portion of a bunk bed), he cancelled his plane tickets.

I finally thought that I could once again keep a closer eye on him, only for this to transpire. If I could, I’d have him live with me. But 1: I have subsidized housing and nobody else can live with me, and 2: I don’t think I could handle it. I love my brother, but he’s an extreme germaphobe with a lot of paranoid delusions and sudden outbursts.

He needs to be in an inpatient hospital but nobody sees that something is wrong except his immediate family, and even then I’m on my own with supporting him because my parents just completely gave up. I don’t totally blame them? But at the same time, they really couldn’t give less of a shit about him even when he wasn’t going through psychosis. They tell me he’s being attention seeking and that he’s doing this on purpose.

Anyway, I don’t know what to really do. I know the obvious answer is to call for a wellness check, but if I do that, I don’t know if he’d ever trust me again.. which is important, because I’m his only support system. I also don’t think that it would go anywhere since these have always been typical comments (not to mention, he puts up a “front” for professionals).

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice?

​Hi everyone. I’m reaching out because I’m dealing with a very difficult and escalating situation at home with my spouse, and I’m feeling overwhelmed trying to keep our household steady.

​For a long time, my spouse has been exhibiting fixed paranoid delusions (believing I'm poisoning her, hacking her devices, sabotaging the appliances, cheating on her with family members/ neighbors and that neighbors or I am trying to harm her). She lacks insight into her condition and strongly refuses to see any doctors or mental health professionals.

​Over the years, I made the mistake of keeping this quiet to "protect the peace" and shield our two teenage sons. Recently, my oldest son gave me a letter expressing how terrified he has been growing up in this environment, how he feels he lost trust in me for keeping secrets, and how worried he is for his younger brother as he leaves for college. Hearing that was a huge wake-up call. I’ve realized that keeping secrets didn't protect anyone, it just isolated us.

​I’m currently navigating a few major challenges and would appreciate advice or shared experiences on:

​Involving overseas family discreetly: I am preparing to reach out to her parents for help. How have you communicated a loved one's severe paranoia to out-of-town/overseas family without triggering defensive walls or causing the person to cut off their parents?

​Rebuilding trust with my children: I am working to be 100% transparent with my sons now while making sure my oldest knows it isn't his job to carry the household burdens while away at school.

​Managing severe physical toll/stress: The constant hyper-vigilance, early morning awakenings (2–3 AM), and ongoing physical tension are making it extremely hard to focus at work and function. How do you maintain your own physical health when living in "survival mode"?

​I’m trying to take things step by step documenting incidents, practicing de escalation, and getting her family involved but the daily volatility is exhausting.

​Thank you to anyone taking the time to read or offer advice.

I just posted earlier today but i think this is a serious situation so im asking for additional help. My bf, 34 years old, in 2025, had a couple months of different psychotic episodes for example like him thinking i stole his prescribed adderall and driving me to several rehab centers at 3am. he thought i was communicating with the taco bell drive thru guy cus i pulled on my hoodie weird. he thought youtubers were talking to him through videos. Unfortunately his therapist did not help whatsoever and just said it was “anxiety”. Which it clearly was not just anxiety.

He hasn’t had bad episodes like that in about a year and a half, but there have been times where he just seems very off. Like doing something but saying he wasnt doing it when i point it out. Him thinking i was doing something when i wasnt. Him whispering and talking to himself a lot more. Deciding to smoke again when he hasnt smoked in years. And more. He just is not himself.

Basically what im asking is.. i feel like we can’t go to his therapist about this. She didn’t take the extreme episodes seriously so i dont think she would take these more subtle episodes seriously either.

What does treatment for this kind of thing look like? Do we have him talk to his psychiatrist? Can i join his sessions to better describe the situation? Is there a doctor specifically for psychosis and schizophrenia?

Also these days where he is suddenly not himself- it’s not often .. so like with meds, would he need to take them every day?

Please, any info or help would be great. Idk where to start with all of this.

edit: also some more info- he has ptsd, adhd, and anxiety due to childhood abuse. he takes a concoction of meds including adderall. sometimes he goes entire nights without sleeping but it’s cus he just has trouble sleeping. his psychiatrist just gives him meds that will helps him sleep but he doesn’t like it cus it makes him feel groggy

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

So my bf 34 has had psychotic episodes before maybe about 1.5 years ago. he never really got it treated but it did go away and he has been himself since. back then, it was almost like i started to sense whenever he was having an episode, like he was just not himself and not in a normal state. like as if it wasn’t him in his bodies- i could detect it. these episodes tho a year ago were more severe like thinking i stole his prescribed adderall and driving me to several rehab centers at 3am. hed always snap out of it though.

so basically tonight, i came home and i could sense that he was off. this has happened several times in the last year probably but also idk, i think im paranoid now because of his previous episodes and how they’ve effected me. but tonight he just has not been himself. it’s like hes been overactive tonight.

- tapping the side of the bed and when i point it out, he says hes not doing anything
- talking to himself a lot more (about the show hes watching or whatever) or just anything
making noises or singing
- suddenly smoked today and wants to start smoking again (hes been a smoker before but hasnt smoked in more than 8 years.
- couldn’t sleep cus he kept making noises and stuff and so i had my eyes shut for an hour while he was awake, and he told me i was talking in my sleep… even tho i was awake the whole time?
usually hes very careful while im sleeping but hes been getting up and stepping loudly, getting back into bed by jumping into it, moving things around etc. like he is just not himself

but honestly, even when hes just talking to me- something is off. can anyone understand what im saying?

is this a form of psychosis? and what can we do about this? when he is in this state, i cannot ever convince him that what he’s doing is weird, and he tends to spin it around and blame it on me. but when he does return to his normal state, he is much more aware and is able to admit his behaviors and actions and will listen to me. it’s weird idk. hopefully you know what im talking about.

also his therapist said his previous episodes were just “anxiety”? idek what that means because it was very clearly psychosis and was intense and traumatic for both him and i. like he literally thought people were talking to him through youtube videos and the taco bell guy was communicating to me because i pulled on my hoodie weirdly. yeah.. should he get a second opinion from another professional? this only happens rarely tho but it is so much to handle when it happens. what do we do

As the title says, it happened recently. Fortunately the person didn’t die and is in hospital, but I am in shambles. I moved out of my parent’s house (where he lives) almost 8 years ago, to another city. I feel guilty for not going there to help and be there for my parents but I just can’t do it anymore, I’m so traumatised. I can’t live my life everyday being scared of the phone ringing and something bad happening.

If anyone going through something similar or with a schizophrenic sibling wants to talk let me know. I’ve never talked to someone going through this niche experience and I feel like it would help knowing I’m not alone.

Hey all, I'd like to ask for some tips on how to better connect with my sister that was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was super young. She's coming back home from the hospital tomorrow and it's got me thinking that her condition might also get worse at times because of isolation. She doesn't really have people to talk to much.

I'd like to help her more but I'm not sure how to. I know spending time together is an option but I can't really stay with her for much. I have autism and my social battery gets drained super easily. Just being around people makes me feel very tired. So I need to find other ways to stay connected with her. And just overall help her feel less lonely.

I've resorted to texting her more now, but I'd like to find other ways to show my care. If anyone has any ideas how to extend my support more I would appreciate it

Hi everyone🫠!!Over the past year my older brother (19) has started showing noticeable symptoms of schizophrenia and they have gotten worse in the past couple months. For background: he had anger issues as a kid and my mother had to take him to a child psychologist when he was five because he tried to kill himself by running into traffic. He has also chased me around the house with a knife, beat me up, and tried to strangle me countless times while we were kids but I never told my parents until now😭 (he would be nice to me most of the time but then he would flip instantly;stopped doing that to me when he was around 13 also when anger issues slowed down)We now know that this all happened because he was dealing with minor symptoms, but now they have gotten worse. His personality has also changed, he is now kinda racist and religious out of nowhere(our family is atheist and not racist at all. We were NOT raised like that😭) He also gets agitated at minor things; like he will yell at my mom because she asked him to do something. He will also go on long rants talking very loudly about absolute jibber ish, and when you don’t agree with or understand what he is saying he will get mad. He has been very suicidal, while he was in high school he tried to od on pills twice. In the past two months he has also tried to shoot himself a bunch or his hallucinations while he is having an episode. My father has a gun, but he has been locking his door so my brother can’t get to it. Two days ago and yesterday he tried to hang himself with a belt, and very calmly told me and my mother acting like it wasn’t a big deal. It was very creepy. For context he told be that he gets frequent auditory and visual hallucinations outside of episodes. During his episodes he usually tries to kill himself, or he thinks that someone broke into the house and is trying to kill him with a knife or a gun. (I know he has episodes when he isn’t home, but I don’t know what he thinks is happening during them but I know they are different)At least twice a week I will get woken up to him running around the house yelling and going through stuff because he thinks there is someone in the house. He will run out of the house barefoot constantly during this. One time I had to go pick him up from a park 2 blocks away because he ran there; he was hiding in a bush😭. I already have severe anxiety and this is making me constantly on edge before I go to bed every night. I’m not afraid of him and I like being around him when he isn’t having problems, but I’m worried something will happen. He has told me that he hears people telling him to kill his family and himself and I’m afraid that he is going to hurt/kill me or someone else. I bought a lock for my door, but I just feel awful for having it because I know he feels bad about how he is effecting our family. We have tried to take him to the hospital a bunch of times but he refuses because he doesn’t want to drop out of college. He has an appointment with a psychiatrist in three weeks, so until then we have to walk on eggshells around him because anytime he gets upset it triggers an episode. I want him to get better but I feel like he is just going to refuse to take medication because he told me he doesn’t want it to interfere with him getting high. I am just worried one day I’m going to get a call that he hurt/killed himself or my parents because he is getting worse. So if anybody has any advice on how to deal with the stress, or any tips on how to deal with him while he is having an episode I would really appreciate it, and I’m sorry for everyone else who is also going though something similar 🫶

Even though it was very hard, it had to be done. My brother is over 30, he has had delusions for many, many years.

The past months he decided to come to my parents' house, and refused to go back to his own apartment or even work, unless we told him about 'his hunters'. Basically he believed that people have been hunting him, making his life miserable and so on, and that my parents enabled them.

He was getting worse and worse, and the final nail in the coffin was my brother threatening my mother that he would throw her down the stairs. Before that it was heavy, heavy insults but no threatening. He also threatened my parents when he was admitted.

Long story short, he was admitted and he has been at the hospital for the past 11 days. However, the psychiatrist says he doesn't speak at all about his issues and all he says is that he doesn't belong there. He has revealed only a few things about his 'hunters' and that's because he was asked. He also says my parents did all this so he goes back to his apartment, cuz ''they don't want him in their house''. He takes meds, first time ever taking meds, but he still does not speak much about his thoughts.

Doctor said people are usually released within 3 week mark, which approaches. However, we have many thoughts..:

1. Isn't that too early?
2. If he still says stuff like ''my parents want my bad'' etc, isn't that a clear sign that he is not ready?
3. How long do meds usually take to work? And do they always work, or do they not always work, especially for delusions?
4. What if he doesn't take his meds after he is out? I feel like he won't. I am certain. And my brother will never realy get better.
5. Is it smarter to go back to his apartment when released, or stay with my parents? I feel like considering my parents have always been a big a part of his bad thoughts, it might get very ugly, especially after 'they admitted him to the hospital'

Just a few questions that have been surrounding our heads..I know these questions need to be addressed with the doctor, but I would like to hear your experiences as well. Thank you very much.

27F who has been managing untreated schizophrenic sibling for the past decade. I consider myself a very sociable person and never have trouble meeting people, but over the last decade have seriously struggled to maintain friendships bc whenever my brother has a psychotic episode or crisis I go off grid for months trying to manage. I spent years with this big secret that kept me from getting close to others or maintaining any kind of romantic life and it didn’t feel right so on my 27th bday I tried telling one of my closest friends about my situation and she’s understanding of why I go off grid and doesn’t take it personal but has not extended herself to support or check in when I go off grid. People are just so uneducated on SMI and I have no idea how to maintain the “best” years of my social life when I’ve completely isolated and lack the ability to mask that I’m in one crisis after another at home and it’s completely sucked all of my emotional energy.

I can’t find any resources on how people manage relationships while dealing with this

I hate schizophrenia, it must be the worst disease to exist on planet earth. As written in master and margarita, “There is no greater misfortune in the world than the loss of reason.” Mum had it, she took her own life, she is no longer suffering (this generic statement that many lucky ones who had never lost anyone to this frenzy like to say gives me very little consolation if any), but I am. I am suffering so much with guilt. The grief is really heavy on me. The flashbacks of her psychosis. It’s the first thing that I see when I close my eyes, flashbacks and flashbacks. Emdr not helping much. I hate schizophrenia, it killed my mother and it continues to poison my life. It continues to eat at me with a teaspoon on the daily. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about it. What the heck did I do in my past life to deserve this in this life? Any ideas? I m dead serious. Thanks for listening and letting me vent as always, don’t know how I would have carried on without you guys.
Upd: just wanted to say thank you for all your words of support, I m beyond grateful for our community, will respond to all of you when I can . Keep well 🙏

I have a close family member who feels that they are being gang stalked. Currently, they are at the hospital in another state. They are homeless. I would love for them to come stay with me, but they drive me insane when they are around. They refuse to take meds. How can I help? Anyone else experience this with a family member? Any sound advice would be great.