Help me navigate the situation with my partner
My bf (28M) always had depressive tendencies and what I would refer as social anxiety.
Within the social anxiety realm, he always made small comments of "that person on the elevator look at me weirdly", "I think when your friend said this it was referencing me indirectly" etc and would have certain behaviors like pulling the car to the side while driving if the car behind seemed to be following him for too long or avoiding public spaces near his house (e.g., not going to the nearest supermarket but always choosing a far away one where he would feel like people wouldnt know him).
These kind of small behaviors happened for years prior. But nothing major controlling every aspect of his life.
He is also struggling to keep a job for long in the past years, he always ends up feeling bullied and that everybody at work is mocking him or treating him differently on purpose.
In the past 2 months, after some triggering family problems, the situation got wayyyyyy worse. He believes there's a plot with a big group of people to ruin his life.
He started to watch the people on the street from the window to see "if someone looks suspect", started saying he kept seeing his ex coworkers following him by car whenever he left the house, started to see small things as "signs they are watching me" like a paper that he found on the mailbox which apparently was similar to something he used at work. None of this were visual delusions, I would see the cars or the paper, he was just creating a plot around them.
Then it continued to feeling like we're being watched and heard at home and believing firmly the mastermind of this plot is our neighbor. He feels like he listens to us for years and its the one who spoke with his ex coworkers and told them personal stuff about him - and now "it all makes sense" like he finally understands why all the conversations from his ex coworkers felt directed at him (i.e., ideas of reference). He started to look for cameras, look for trackers in the car, changing all of his passwords, checking what's connected to our wifi, etc etc (kind of getting obsessed with that).
Then it continued to escalate. Past month he started to be obsessed with sounds. Like a police siren going outside he would say "that sound doesnt seem normal, it is someone with a speaker to annoy me and not let me sleep". He started to pick up on sound patterns and feeling like it is all targeted to him. Sirens, dog barks, beeping sounds from trucks, etc - and creating patterns between his movements and the sounds (i.e., when they see Im trying to fall asleep they make them louder). But again, I would still hear all of those sounds.
Then it continued to escalate. Past 3 weeks he started to be seriously disturbed by what he calls "frequencies". He started to say he hears high pitch frequencies and that it must be someone with a type of machine sending those frequencies to him. He said he hears them through the headphones or without, at home, in the car, and some places outside. He believes people follow him with the frequencies. The same kind of statements for "flashes" in his eyes, he says they are flashing him and his vision gets white. These are the bits I believe are not based in reality. He started to not be able to sleep due to this and become seriously desperate.
We went to a psychiatrist (disguised as "you're anxious you need something to calm down and be able to sleep) which gave him lorazepam and olanpanzine but after one week taking them he tried to self exit. The frequencies and flashes were being unbearable and he felt like he had no option because "they would just follow him everywhere".
He is at the hospital now but the doctors said this might be schizophrenia. Does these symptoms look like it? Im just worried they don't diagnose him well (I don't trust the health system here a lot) as I feel like schizophrenia it's a bit different? And besides the frequencies and flashes the rest was just paranoia based on reality?
If you have any advice on how to properly support someone in this situation, please help me. It's been a rough 2 months, Im just so tired and stressed, but I want to be his best support to get through this, but I just dont know what's going on.