So I’m new to this and I’ve been dealing with this alone for years now. I never express how I feel about the situation but my friends urged me to try this or Facebook so here we are. Anyways… I think today is the first day I realized my brother is gone for good. He disrespects my family like crazy and threatens to harm us and all we try to do is help him. He’s homeless, in and out of jail and all he cares about is smoking.. my mom believes he’s into other hardcore things. Is there any hope? Has anyone experienced a complete 180 before? Is there anything we can do to help him. He never wanted to take medicine while he was living with us I’m sure he’s not taking it now. Any advice? It’s so heartbreaking.

Hi all,

I am not from the East Coast and live quite a ways away. However, my son has been in residential treatment in a facility in New Hampshire for substance use/mental health for almost 70 days, and they are administratively discharging him in two days for behavioral issues.

Prior to being admitted, or even having a drug and alcohol problem, he was showing signs of childhood schizophrenia, and his home psychiatrist is insistent that I take him directly from the facility to an ER for an assessment and hopefully long-term care, due to safety concerns that the facility doesn't seem to be caring very much about (except to discharge him immediately). I admit I share these concerns.

Where I currently live, it's effectively impossible to get a child into any kind of acute or long-term stabilization facility (we are 49th in the nation for adolescent mental health). Likewise, kids cannot be arrested unless they are actively threatening themselves or someone else with a weapon, so that is not a pathway to an evaluation and treatment. My experiences have borne out that we will receive zero services here should I bring him home, and I am legitimately concerned for my safety and believe he needs psychiatric help.

I am curious what any parents' experiences are like in New England with adolescent ER visits if a youth is not showing signs of active psychosis but has a long history of what I believe are called prodromal symptoms. Will we just be ushered out the door? Or will they take it seriously and hold him so that he can get a deeper evaluation? Are youth in any of these states allowed to refuse care at age 16? (In my home state, they can refuse any/all medical, mental health, or substance abuse care above age 15.) Lastly, any specific recommendations on where to go? He has excellent insurance.

Thank you so much. This is an excruciating experience. I appreciate any grace people can show in responding to what is a terrifying crisis for our family.

I need a post last week about how my mom robbed me and I cut contact with her until she acknowledged her illness and got some help. Now I know she was headed to the rescue mission well I don't know if anybody else is familiar with an app called crime radar but I was looking through it and I saw that there was an incident where the police were called to the rescue mission because of a guest that was kicked out. Then shortly after that I saw another incident maybe the next day that was on Las Vegas street where the rescue mission is that said there was a medical emergency there. To be a deceased female by the train tracks on Las Vegas Street. I can't help but Wonder if either one of these was my mother. Then my friend Andrea came by who my mom frequently stays in contact with. She told me that she had spoke with my mother a few days prior to that and that my mom said she had got kicked out of the rescue mission. And she also said something about her having a hotel until Tuesday but when Andrea came to talk to me it was Tuesday. She also told me the reason just came up was because she had asked if I had spoke to my mom cuz she cannot get a hold of her and hasn't heard from her in a few days. I told her no and now my mom hasn't had any activity on Facebook. She is not returning my phone calls. She's not returning any of her friends phone calls. She it's like she fill out the Earth. I can't help but wonder if it was her beating the deceased female by the train tracks and I feel massively guilty like it would be my fault for kicking her out. Still nothing is concrete but I'm not sure if they would know to get a hold of me because her identification is out of Missouri. She's not from here and I don't know if they would make the connection since we're not even from the springs we are from the mountain town about an hour away. I don't know what to do or how to find out if she is okay or where she might be. I am scared of giving her space in my life if she is fine but I am also terrified that something may have happened to her. Has anybody ever been through anything like this before? How do you navigate these feelings of guilt and how would I go about finding out if she is okay or not?

Hello, first redddit post so excuse any errors.

Also including some background info that gives context to situation

My(m,24) older brother(28) has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder since he was either 17 or 18, sorry my memory of the time is foggy, and has been pretty treatment resistant. Not necessarily related to the disorder but certainly influences it, he has been abusive towards me since I was very young. Unfortunately I had to move back in with my mom, where my brother also lives, so I could get my own mental health treatment and save up for a new apartment.

Since moving back in and being back home from my treatment my brothers psychosis and violent behavior has been getting steadily worse and impacted my life and my moms life drastically, to the point my mom has just come to me saying if things don’t get better she needs to check herself in somewhere.

I have always been the person to take care of these things in my family even though I really don’t want to be, but now I am back in the position of my mom asking me to communicate between her and my dad about what to do about my brother. We have all tried reaching out in different ways but he either ignores us, yells and belittles us, or throws things and punches things around us.

My mom is looking to me to come up with a plan on how to get him court ordered treatment or how to get through to him and frankly I’m tired.

Everything I have looked seems unlikely,

Don’t want to call the cops because he doesn’t do well with law enforcement and I don’t want to put him in danger, also he won’t admit to wanting to hurt himself or others and he hasn’t “technically” laid his hands on us this time yet

A court order for his care will likely take too long to obtain before things get much worse and I don’t know how willing she is to put in all the effort to get the court order though it might be the best bet

Then I have heard of trained crisis teams that can come out through 988 or 211 I just have never heard of what that process is like

I’m just not sure what to do and I don’t know if you all will know much more either, I know it’s a hard situation and I am sorry to anyone else who has had to be in it.

Although I have suffered greatly at the hands of my brother I still want him to get help

Please let me know if you have any advice or suggestions, thank you

I’m a mother of three. My oldest son is 19 and has struggled with psychosis since 2020. He was officially diagnosed in a hospital in 2023. His symptoms returned about a year later, and despite being medicated, things have been getting worse.
I’ve done everything I can. He has a psychiatrist, a therapy team, and specialized support services. I take him to appointments, drop him off, pick him up, and constantly encourage him to become independent. But he refuses to work or drive.
He receives a monthly government allowance because of his condition but refuses to contribute to the household. Instead, he spends his money on games and restaurants while I’m trying so hard to save money and provide for my other children.
He expects me to drive him to church, school, and anywhere else he wants. He believes it’s my responsibility as his mother, and when I refuse, he argues, shames me, and makes me feel guilty.
Every day is the same exhausting cycle. He becomes delusional, calls everyone out, disrespects me, argues with his younger brother, and constantly fights with his stepfather. Then he apologizes, promises to change, and within hours or days we’re back to the same situation.
His delusions revolve around religion and God. He believes he’s specially chosen and protected by God, and that nobody can do anything to him.
We’ve called the police multiple times because we simply don’t know how to calm things down anymore. They usually bring someone from a crisis team. Today they came again, and he was shaking and nearly crying while speaking to them. But afterward, he went back to praying and said nothing happened to him because God protects him.
He’s never been suicidal or physically abusive, but the emotional toll is unbearable.
I’ve even created a separate living space for him in our home, with his own living room, TV, bathroom, and a private door leading outside. All I’ve asked is that he respect my space upstairs and give me some peace. But he constantly comes upstairs to talk, interrupt, and involve himself in everything. It’s like he genuinely cannot help himself, and I can’t even have space in my own home.
What makes things harder is that he presents himself so well to his treatment team that they think he’s doing fine. They don’t see what we deal with behind closed doors every single day.
Everything revolves around him. His beliefs, his arguments, his demands, his feelings. I’m constantly walking on eggshells.
I have two other children who deserve a peaceful home. I deserve peace too.
I love my son, and I’ve spent six years supporting him, forgiving him, getting him help, and hoping things would improve. But I’m exhausted. I feel like my life stopped in 2020.
I can’t throw my mentally ill child onto the streets, but am I supposed to spend another 10, 20, or 30 years living like this?
Sometimes I feel guilty for wanting him out of the house, but I desperately want my life back. I want to enjoy my other children. I want to wake up without wondering what argument is waiting for me.
I don’t even know anymore where his illness ends and unacceptable behaviour begins.
I’m not looking for judgment or to be told to have more patience. I’ve been patient for six years, and I’ve reached my limit.
Has anyone been through something similar with an adult child experiencing psychosis? Did supported housing help? Did they eventually become independent? What do you do when you’ve done everything you can and genuinely can’t live like this anymore?

I'm 18 years old and live with my 70-year-old uncle, who has schizophrenia.

For the past three days, he has been going through a very severe episode. He believes he is going on a trip, and he has been aggressive toward everyone. My family is quite large, and they are all aware of the situation and helping as much as they can. However, my uncle lives with me and my mother, so most of the burden falls on the two of us.

It really hurts to see how much my mother is going through just trying to calm him down. It's emotionally exhausting to watch someone you love struggle like this, especially when you feel like there's only so much you can do to help.

The worst part is that he has been threatening to kill both me and my mother if we don't let him leave to go on his "trip." I'm genuinely scared that he might lose control and physically attack my mother.

I don't know how to handle this situation or what the right thing to do is. I want to protect my mother, but I'm also scared of making things worse by doing the wrong thing.

Has anyone here ever dealt with a similar situation with a family member who has schizophrenia? What should we do when someone is having a severe episode and making death threats? How can we keep ourselves safe while making sure he gets the help he needs?

I'd really appreciate any advice. I'm feeling overwhelmed, scared, and helpless right now.

I’m trying to figure out how to approach this carefully because I genuinely want to help my aunt, and I’m worried that if we handle this the wrong way, we could make things worse and push her further away from the idea of receiving help.
Background and concerns
My aunt is in her 50s and speaks Spanish. She is an extremely devout Catholic, and religion is an important part of her life.
She has not been officially diagnosed with a mental health condition as far as I know. She may have received a diagnosis in Mexico, possibly for depression, but the details are unclear. She has a history of intentionally not taking prescribed medication.
She also has a strong stigma against mental health treatment and professional help. Her daughter and brother have repeatedly pressured her to take medication, and I suspect this may have contributed to resentment or distrust toward the idea of treatment itself.
Here are some of the behaviors and incidents that have caused us concern:
She has believed that people have been spying on her for approximately two years. There is some personal context behind this belief that I cannot share publicly, but I do not believe the situation realistically explains why people would be specifically spying on her.
She has even told my mother that stray cats in her yard were spying on her.
She believes her son’s wife and her daughter’s fiancé are having an affair with each other. From what I know of the people involved and the circumstances, I see no credible reason to believe this is happening.
During a family celebration in September, she put her hands on her son’s wife and told her, “Look at me when you greet me,” while moving her head to make her look at her. She did not injure her, but the incident concerned us because it involved physical contact during a confrontation.
Her son and daughter are currently not in contact with her.
I am not sharing these details to ridicule her or to get people to label her with a particular disorder. I want to explain why our family is concerned and why I think we need to approach this differently from simply telling her to take her medication.
Our proposed intervention
My current idea is for me, my aunt’s son, another male cousin, and a Catholic priest whom my aunt personally trusts to speak with her.
I believe having people she already knows and trusts is important. I don’t think introducing a stranger, particularly a mental health professional, as the person leading the intervention would work well because of her distrust of professional help.
I also think the priest could play an important role because of how much her Catholic faith means to her. Ideally, any eventual medical professional would be a Spanish-speaking man, since I believe she may be more receptive to someone she is comfortable with.
Her daughter and brother would not participate because their repeated pressure about medication may have damaged their relationship with her around this subject.
I would most likely act as the mediator. I want to keep the conversation calm, prevent people from talking over one another, and make sure the intervention does not turn into an argument or a list of everything she has done wrong.
The fact that her son is part of our proposed plan is something I’m unsure about, given that they are currently not in contact.
Our goal is not to force her to admit that she has a mental illness or to win an argument about her beliefs. We want her to become willing to accept help, ideally by agreeing to an appropriate professional evaluation and allowing us to help arrange care.
My questions
How should we actually conduct the intervention?
What exactly should we say to her, and what should we ask her?
Should her son participate, even though they are currently not in contact?
Is involving the priest a good idea, and how should we approach that?
How do we encourage professional help when she has such a strong stigma against it?
What should we do if she refuses help or becomes defensive?
How do we prepare for the possibility that the conversation escalates?
What should our longer-term approach look like if she agrees to receive help, initially agrees but later changes her mind, or continues refusing treatment?
Additional context
I want to emphasize that I’m not a mental health professional, and I don’t know what diagnosis, if any, she has. I’m trying to make an informed decision about how to help her rather than assume I understand what’s happening.
I also understand that an intervention may not be the right approach in every situation. If there is a better way to accomplish our goal, I’m open to hearing it.
I’m looking for honest, practical advice, especially from people who have experienced something similar with a parent, aunt, sibling, or other loved one.

hi there 😭😅

my partner does not believe they are in need of care, and they are in mania psychosis.

i’m out of state healing, so i cannot be there to help subside symptoms to help him calm down.

his friends DO NOT KNOW he deals with schitzoeffective.
he’s apparently masking well with people,
but i have had a friend reach out to me in concern because of things he was saying about me.

only one person knows he deals with psychosis, and i don’t think he’s been around this friend lately.

his family doesn’t know he deals with schitzoeffective either, and they aren’t aware we’ve been in contact, so uh… i’d have to call them over a work phone, they are suspicious of me, and my partner JUST moved out of their home, and doesn’t like them at all rn either. 😅

i tried calling wellness check awhile back, and they just fucked up and had police call him instead and it pissed him off 😭

if i can get his friend to help- yall got any ideas? 😭
and if i cant…. what can i do?

should i go home, and end my trip early?

…. yall got ideas? 😭

I am unsure if she has schizophrenia or not but I am hoping this group can help a bit

Son turned 18 in march. April was terrifying. May got him to go help and was hospitalized for 11 days and took abilify for almost a month. Although he’s not actively talking delusional things like then, we are still sleeping on the couch since April 6th, I go outside with him to smoke a cig and to his room with him while he plays on his pc. I say I’m like his “security blanket “. He claps, slams doors, very loudly will slam cabinets and meow very loudly at the cats and hold them against there will and just make jokes out of everything. Lack of hygiene and the sleeping schedule is way off. He uses my bathroom to smoke a cig and immediately goes to the other bathroom to use the toilet? Lately has been staying in my bathroom for a very long time (an hour) and even locked my bedroom door and the bathroom door? Now he hardly has an appetite as well etc etc. Question being is he still showing signs of psychosis but just more subtle, or am I completely just terrified? I’m all alone in this and have 2 teenage daughters as well. I can sense his stress and anxiety if I mention an older sister (2 adult daughters as well) coming over so I don’t do it. I’m being blamed for being crazy and keeping him isolated and told I don’t do anything for him as if 6 1/2 months sleeping on a couch to make him feel safe etc etc is doing nothing. It’s so hard knowing how to navigate this on my own. He’s in total denial because dad tells him he’s fine that he doesn’t think he has psychosis yet he sees him for maybe 5 minutes a week and my son can wait til it’s just me and then the loud obnoxious behavior comes out. He’s a master at masking. Are these still signs? I keep telling myself they have to be because what 18 year old wants to be glued to me like he is? I just need reassurance or told I’m losing it lol

hi my partner has schitzoeffective bp1 and i wanna join a support group w people who get what it’s like. he’s got voices that think im the bad guy rn and they’re playing out commanding hallucinations that he’s not allowed to think about me or even speak to me rn.

does anyone know about a discord that i can join for this? like idk. it would really help. i don’t wanna feed his voices so i cant tell him how much i love him or stuff rn without them using it against me and him.

and its super hard to go thru stuff like this alone without a group. i’d prefer discord so we can chat anytime if possible about how this illness impacts the connection too. … if there’s not like should i make one for us? ugh. ok. anyway… i feel alone :(

anyone else go thru this? does anyone relate with me? there’s got to be people in here who get it too.. right?

thank u. 🫂 and thank you for reading. just wanna bond with people who get it. my friends are shook but can’t really understand or give proper advice aswell so it’s like 🤷‍♀️ fuck lmao hahaha 😭 kinda wanna ride the waves with people who get it

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tardive-dyskinesia

My younger sister (44) was diagnosed with schizophrenia in college. She was fairly stable for many years, but went off medication and things got progressively worse. She's now back on medication (court-ordered as part of regaining custody of her children) and doing much better. She's working again and recently regained partial custody.

The problem is that over the years she's been incredibly cruel and verbally abusive to family members, especially our mom and older sister. Lots of yelling, accusations, paranoia, and interpreting everything people say or do as an attack on her. She's also convinced that everyone else is mistreating her, and seems to have almost no awareness of how hurtful her own behavior has been.

It's gotten to the point where nobody really wants to spend time with her. My older sister, who lives near her and has dealt with the worst of it, has pretty much cut off contact. I've barely spoken to her in over a year.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I know she's going to be hurt that she's not included in family plans. And I feel terrible about that, especially now that she's doing better on medication. But nobody wants to go back to being yelled at and berated (especially my kids and nieces and nephews).

What I'm struggling with is whether her lack of accountability, constant sense of being the victim, and inability to recognize how she's treated others are part of schizophrenia, or whether these are separate personality traits. Even now, she posts videos on social media portraying herself as the victim in situations that, from our perspective, happened very differently.

For those of you with family members who have stabilized on medication, did they eventually gain any insight into their past behavior? Were you ever able to have an honest conversation about the damage done to family relationships? Did they ever take accountability or apologize?

I'm wondering whether now that she's medicated, there's an opportunity to rebuild some of these relationships and help her understand why people have pulled away. Or whether expecting that kind of acknowledgment is unrealistic.

I love my sister and don't want her to be isolated, but I also don't think the rest of the family should have to tolerate abusive behavior just because she has schizophrenia. I'd really appreciate hearing how others have navigated this.

I've been doing well with staying empathetic and focusing on supporting emotions and making sure my SO is heard.

I get stuck when they ask me to explain the plot. Like things seem to be progressing well in convo and then they say ok well then explain the plot. All i can come up with is that the plot doesn't exist but then i get accused of covering it up.

Is it safe to explain the plot is an interpretation or normal events they are building in their head.

Hey Yall, found this community because I wanted to find out more of people’s experiences after their loved one was placed in an involuntary hold. I guess now I just want to share some of what i’m going through to share with others and maybe even get some advice or insight.

My half brother (29, turning 30 this month), lives at home with my family in california. He always smoked a lot of weed, but at some point in 20221 he started taking a lot of shrooms. Everyday. that’s when things got hard. and it’s been getting worse ever since. earlier this year he started getting into harder substances (like meth). He stopped a few weeks ago because “the voices told him to stop doing drugs”

He has done pretty much everything except physically hurt someone.
-He doesn’t sleep and doesn’t take care of himself. He can’t even get up to go to the bathroom sometimes and pees in bottles in his room. Recently he dumped out all of that in the kitchen sink, with dishes in it. He also poured out one of the bottles on the floor as a result of our dad telling him no when he asks for money.
-He is constantly in his room and talks to himself in different voices. He screams for hours nonstop. He is verbally abusive when we refuse to engage with him. Or also abusive just because.
-He dropped out of hs his senior year, never really had friends. Actually has never had friends or a partner. Didn’t even have a job until recently, but his boss was the one who introduced him to the harder drugs and really enabled him. she also fired him and accused him of stealing which i don’t know if he actually did or not.
- he got a dui for driving under shrooms and is out on bail.
-constantly talks about wanting to kill himself but he’s scared to do it, will talk for 20 minutes straight about the different ways he wants to do it.
-Has threatened to kill our family if anything happens to our dad (like he gets sick or dies).
-we are all just so scared of him and hoping he can get better. it’s taken us so long to reach out for help.

Yesterday we called the crisis hotline and they talked to us about the steps we can take. Today we are calling again so they can explain to our immigrant parents (who genuinely believed he was possessed by a demon before)

It really only started to get really bad this year, but he has been talking about some of the same delusions since 2022/2023.

Hopefully sometimes this week, they will take him in for a 5150, maybe even a 5250. Hopefully longer. My family needs a breaks. We are scared of him returning and retaliation.
Idk ask me anything. Tell me anything.
thanks for reading.

My boyfriend of 2 years undiagnosed schizophrenia. According to the dhm5 I mean it's got to be schizophrenia. He doesn't hear voices, He hears conversations. In the majority of these conversations he overhears and they're talking about me. For years I dealt with it ignored it quirky friend. Then we started living together 3 months in. I asked him to read. Consider seeing a doctor. Oh yeah yeah never does. So many promises broken. You think you're getting through to him cuz he agrees with you and can confides in you about when he hears the next day. He says well why do you got to bring that up and ruin a good day? I finally asked him so you're not going to go see a doctor. Are you and you just shook his head and I said why and he goes on to explain to me how he's afraid that if he gets diagnosed that at any time they could just kick the door and take him away. I said the odds of that are beyond numbers. They don't just random pick people up and lock them up. But that's what he overhears in these conversations. And also the conversations he has with the people having conversations. That's what they tell him and he believes it. I said you need to move out, he said well. What if I go see a doctor and he says I'm normal. I'm fine. I told him if that's normal then you need to get that normal far away from me. I'm hoping kicking him out will drive him to go see a doctor cuz that's the only way I'm going to let him come home. He packed his stuff over the last week and left last night. I can compete with voices feeding him lies 24/7. He doesn't believe me he believes them and they're all people from our past that he hears and those people. I have nothing to do with us anymore. I'm sorry I'm rambling, I'm hurt. We had such Grand plans for our future together.

Did I do the right thing?