My brother is schizophrenic. We have a few mutual friends and I asked one if anything has seemed off with him recently (he’s going through an episode), and she said he’s been “having a hard time” but didn’t express concern otherwise. Is it possible for people to somewhat hide their psychosis to certain groups like friends and coworkers, so not much seems wrong, and then act absolutely manic to family?
New to having a family member with schizophrenia. Is it common for them to only want to talk about things that THEY want to talk about and calling you emotionally abusive if you don’t want to? My brother literally screams at my dad for not being “deep enough” with him. My dad is the strong silent type and has never been the greatest communicator, so I can tell this is hard for him. Any advice?
In need of advice. It is believed that my brother may have paranoid schizophrenia. That is what his therapist told him, but he completely rejects it. He’s always struggled with his mental health (depression, anxiety, suicide attempts), and he was recently diagnosed with level 1 autism, but this feels like so much more than that. He is not himself at all.
Since my grandma died ~1 year ago, he has spiraled into an ungrounded reality. He’s always been somewhat of a liar, but recently he’s been inventing completely false narratives and twisted stories from the past that never happened, and gets aggressively defensive if anyone states the truth. For example, he is claiming that he was abused by my parents as a child. That is not true, we had a very happy childhood.
He's also mentioned hearing my deceased grandma telling him to do things he doesn't want to do. Despite all this, he uses high-level "therapy speak" and academic articles to intellectualize his behavior and accuse everyone else of being in the wrong. He’s very intelligent and currently getting his doctorate, making him impossible to reason with.
The final straw was when his false narratives escalated to calling the police and getting CPS involved under completely made-up pretenses of my two youngest siblings being abused. This has happened 3 times in the last 10 days, and it’s starting to affect my siblings who he claims he is just trying to “protect.”
I’m completely exhausted, can't sleep, and my family is constantly living in fear of what false story he'll create next, and that he will continue pushing us away until he reaches a breaking point and hurts himself again.
For those who have been through this:
to be reasoned with or seek
Any advice or shared experiences would mean so much.