r/SchizoFamilies

Hi lovely people,

Just wanted to vent in a place where people might understand. My long term boyfriend is going through hypomania / the prodromal stages of psychosis. This is the first time it’s happened since we have been together (previous episode of stress induced psychosis before we met) He’s receiving support in the community (I.e antipsychotics) which he is taking (at the moment - it hasn’t been consistent). He’s been unwell since March.

I just really miss my boyfriend. Most of the time It doesn’t feel like him at the moment. He can be very irritable, scatty, get confused easily and just not seem himself. I know all of these are symptoms and I know logically this will end. But I find myself worrying it never will or wondering when our relationship is going to go back to how it was. I just want him back. I really miss him. It hurts seeing him not himself…

Can anyone relate? X

Hey y'all, so you might remember me from this thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/SchizoFamilies/comments/1t3x7os/honeybunches_in_the_hospital_for_first_time_since/

My wife came home escorted by her dad last night. I greeted her with flowers and some jewelry. She was so happy. We got onto the subway and she started telling me some of the wild stories, how she got to spend some time researching my own mental health issues (bipolar disorder), and how they're now suspecting that she's schizoaffective and not regular schizophrenia. We went over her new cocktail and all that. We get home, she takes her early evening meds, and then I say "are you up for maybe a quick bite to eat?" and she says sure.

We go out for dumplings at a nice traditional Chinese hole-in-the-wall spot near our house that recently opened up, and she begins to look more and more sullen as we eat. By the time we're paying the check, her eyes are darting around nervously. (To quote Scooby Doo: Ruh roh.) We're walking back home and she keeps stopping and looking at me cautiously. I keep gently reminding her we're going home, to the kitties, and everything will be safe. Nobody can hurt her there. She keeps being hesitant, but finally get her back home. Well she gets in there and she just goes OFF on me, hooting and hollering about how everything's out of place and things are dusty and I should've gone grocery shopping before she got home, talking about what a horrible, irresponsible husband I am yadda yadda yadda....

I finally get her to take some Xanax and put her to bed. She sleeps the whole night through. The next morning she's back to her old self, a chipper little goofball as ever. Still saying a few weird grandiose things like "we are gonna make SOOOO much money in the next few years, I just feel it!" but I'm accepting she's still on her way. I head off to work to teach my sole Friday 10am-12pm class on campus. I get home and LORD HAVE MERCY for like 3 hours I get screamed at about every single thing under the sun and I finally have to leave the house and go for a walk. I come back home and she's taking a nap. After her nap, she seems back to herself and we make dinner together. We watch Frasier and have a good laugh. But then she snaps at me over not doing the dishes right and packs her bags, storms out to her parents' house across town, and uhhh... now I have the house to myself for the night. She says she'll see me tomorrow but she needs to be with "people like my parents, who understand that good housekeeping means good fortunes which means good money and ENTREPENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY CAN'T WAIT FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!"

Sigh. I mean, she's not in round-the-clock psychosis, she's sleeping now, and she's taking her meds, and the thing is she's conscious that she's still in recovery (when she stops wigging out, she profusely apologizes to me immediately.... like I just got a text message saying "I'm sorry for that. Let met stay the night with Mom and Dad and cool down. I'll be over later in the afternoon tomorrow. Remember, I love you even though I'm still sick right now")

But this is STILL bad for my mental health, you know? The walking on eggshells, I can't take it cuz I grew up in a home with a father who had Bipolar-I and NPD which was exacerbated by alcoholism and cocaine use, so I'm a bit... jittery about such things.

She was in the hospital for 16 days, compliant with meds whole time. She is currently compliant with meds. How much more time until she's back to normal? I don't like this whole living-in-an-emotional-minefield situation.

Wife (F29) and I (M29) have had our share of hardships, have been together 7 years now, married for 2.5. Her psychosis after our wedding was shocking to us. She was admitted to inpatient with SI and was compliant with care and meds. Eventually went off meds only after maybe less than a year. Went through several educated jobs but quit each one saying people were saying things about her at each one. Now she can’t work at all. We got pregnant earlier this year in the middle of some downs through this past winter. But things got bad in her depression, stress, not eating. We decided to terminate the pregnancy because she wasn’t eating or sleeping. That was traumatic for both of us but her moreso. Then the hallucinations and psychosis came and she was admitted again but this time she’s a different person. Hardly talked throughout the hospital stay and was uncomfortable and scared, noncompliant with meds. Never signed a release of info so we were left in the dark about most of her care. How can they keep information from her husband when she’s confused/302? Doesn’t make a lick of sense. She’s been home a few weeks now and will not go see a psychiatrist/therapist and believes her prescription is fake and won’t take anything. It’s been extremely difficult and frustrating for both of us. Her delusions include both our families conspiring to make her feel crazy. The voices in her head become unbearable sometimes and she gets very upset. What can I do? Shes told her family and I several times she hates us but still loves us. I don’t want to let go of this, in sickness and in health is what I swore no matter how much she doesn’t believe me. I just want her to be okay. I need support so that I can continue to support her

I’ve posted on here before but TLDR, have an online friend who’s schizophrenic but medicated, and had enough insight during their episodes to help me navigate them alongside them. Their psychiatrists randomly decided that because they have insight they’re faking it and wanted to take them off of antipsychotics. This sent my friend on a spiral, and now they stopped talkinh their meds and don’t have any insight anymore.

They are posting extremely concerning things on their Instagram story. Three hours ago they posted, quote, “I need to be reborn to go back to my original dimension
I am not going back on meds and I'm not going to the hospital. I told them l'd overdose and they essentially said "do it then and we'll treat it when you get here" as if im going to call the ambulance in the first place”. I fear that they will, or might have already done something to hurt themselves and I don’t know what to do, who to call.

I don’t know where they live, besides the fact that they’re from Norway. I only know their first name, and their social media accounts. If I called the emergency number I’d probably get directed to my own country, and even if I somehow managed to reach the emergency system in Norway, I got no information to give them. I don’t know what to do

My 33F brother 24M is diagnosed with shyzotipal personality disorder. He has a terrible sleep schedule, lives with our parents. After school he went to uni, struggled because he slept too much and skipped classes, dropped out in second year. For almost a year now he's been "studying for exams" to get into another uni.

Since school, our parents have woken him up every day, nudged him to study, hired tutors, did everything they could. They did the same for me, and I learned their overprotection made me passive and unmotivated, so I wonder if it's harming him too.

Recently dad found out he's been skipping classes but still leaves the house like he's going. Sleeps all day, awake at night. Doesn't take his meds regularly. If you try to talk about his sleep schedule or studying he shuts down, gives short answers, lots of "I don't know" to things like "how are you going to pass?", "what will you do if you don't?", "what do you want?".

He tried a low payed job and hated it, so in theory he's studying to get a better one — but he isn't studying. We all feel awful because he's clearly struggling. My parents find it impossibly hard to be strict. They can't say "uni or work" or tell him to find his own place, because he's shyzotipal, not ready for adult life, and has no other support system. Even with us he barely opens up.

How do we help him?

I am on clozapine and noticed that if I take my med at night I dont produce a lot of semen (ejaculate) however if I take my med later I produce more semen not much though. I hope it's enough to have a baby. Is anyone on clozapine or another antipsychotic and managed to have children ?

People upload police bodycam footage of what is clearly a person who is not well/having a psychotic episode and they get millions of views. To make things worse they get torn to shreds and joked about in the comment section too. How are the schizophrenic people in these videos supposed to go back to living normal lives when these videos are uploaded forever on the internet? And it pisses me off the channel owners are profiting off of them.

My bother (30m) has been sick for about 15 years. In various ways but more recently he has periods of psychosis. He currently is incredibly paranoid and believes he is completely well, even though he thinks people are coming into his home at night (security camera footage being wiped etc.) and doing things like ripping his clothes or moving things around.

Now he wants me to get a security sweep of his house for bugs and spy cameras.

I'm so exhausted by this. I'm having a second kid and I just feel so drained and hopeless this year. He relies a lot on my parents (while also treating them like shit a lot of the time). I feel so fearful for when they aren't here any more and I have to manage him as well as my own family.

I don't really know how to help. He lives in sheltered accommodation and we are in a country with a lot of social support, but so much is reliant on him seeking support himself. He's been sectioned a few times but only when he's at immediate risk to himself.

I just really wish I had a normal brother some days.

My friend is schizophrenic and recently went through a psychotic episode. I was in the middle of finals when this was happening, and while having an episode, a friend was hitting his hands on furniture and yelling (which I found triggers my PTSD). I planned on moving in with him, but ended up telling him that it was hard for me to give 100% to both of us and that I also didn’t know how to help him with his schizophrenia. I would often end up at his house later at night, helping him solve his issues when I didn’t really have the time to. I tried to set boundaries by letting him know that I had things to do, but instead of relying on his partner for help lately, it’s been me, and now our relationship is so exhausting. He is extremely erratic, and when I told him I didn’t think I could live with him, he said that he knew he was erratic, but he wasn’t a danger to himself, that he wasn't schizophrenic and it was just CPTSD and he just needed support. He said that he was there for me and basically that I needed to be there for him. But I need support too, and yet I’m always taking care of him. Yesterday I came home from a really fun day out, and he said he was feeling upset and suicidal and that he wasn’t happy. I kept trying to talk about things that we could do to improve the moment, but he didn’t want to hear it and started having a tone with me. I think I asked if he talked to his partner, and he said with an additude what do you want me to say to them? He refuses to get a therapist and says that bad things just keep happening to him. He doesn’t want to go and get help for his depression, takes no meds for it, and doesn’t want to see a therapist, and I don’t know how to help him. It’s hard to live my life when I’m parenting him. I feel stuck and am unsure what to do. 

I joined this group thinking I’d find people who have experienced similar things but the first few posts I’ve read are people saying oh my family member got better and went on to do x y x.

My older sister became unwell at 18. Went from running track at national level and doing well in school to a completely different person. 15 or so years on she’s under the mental health act and landed in supported accommodation (thank goodness). I.e. not living independently. She has had long stints in hospital too (a couple of years total probably). Never worked or successfully studied since diagnosis. The whole journey has destroyed a part of my mum. My dad died by suicide a couple of years after my sister became unwell. The worst part, we were at home at the time and were so desensitised to chaos, it was a shock to hear he wouldn’t make it. Obviously there was some neglect of the younger siblings in the house (including me) while my sister needed the support. This impacted my relationship with my mum and took a long time to rebuild.

Idk. I don’t resent anyone for having better outcomes but it’s also not a case of “not being supported” by family. My mum has almost destroyed herself supporting my sister. I honestly think it’s genetics and shit ass luck.

Im a 27F and my brother 33M was diagnosed about 8-9 years ago when I was in college. Since then, he's been back and forth when it comes to taking his medication, jobs, relationships, etc.

This past year was particularly tough for him bc he lost his job about 3 months after moving out of my parents house (lived there for 7 or so years). My parents are loving but are immigrants, so communication is hard and since hes been sick, one of his main delusions/paranoia/fear is that our parents and family are out to control him for negative purposes (ie. Put him in the hospital, steal his soul /energy, etc).

It came to a peak last month when he was violent with a family member (although we did talk about it, the stories were confusing and not aligned). He's increasingly experienced more delusions and erratic behavior.

Last week, I went with my second brother to express our concerns and offer anything that could help. Im the only one in the family 31M trusts, so Ive taken lead on organizing my family (all neurodivergent). When I asked, he said he just wants to find a job so he doesnt have to move back in with my parents when the lease runs out next month.

We told him that our goal is not to have him in the hospital but to support him being healthy, supported and not moving back to our parents.

He seems to refuse (idk why, it seems fear based ) :

1. Social security/disability payments

2. OUTPATIENT programs (this one really gets me bc i assume its better than inpatient, but idk )

3. Case worker help

I want to help pay for him to live while he gets better and finds what works for him but im worried that im focused on the wrong things. Its hard to work when your mental health is not there and im worried that I will be ruining my finances bc he hasn't been consistent with meds while finding a job is hard enough even for neurotypicals.

I have faith in him, I dont have faith in my pockets and I don't want to look back and think that I should've committed him.

Any advice?

I know I posted twice already in the last two days, but I don’t really have anybody to talk to about this, and it’s nice to have people outside of my family to tell this stuff to. My family is in the same boat as me and are also tired.I feel like I’m being gaslit whenever I have to talk to her and she resents her own family anyway she recently decided to be mad at me again for whatever reason and is still asking me for help but at this point I want nothing to do with her but I am basically her only tie to the family she said this in a voicemail she left where she also repeatedly stated that I don’t care about her WHEN ALL I FUCKING DO IS WORRY ABOUT HER I LITERALLY LOSE SLEEP OVER IT I WORRY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, it’s pissing me off and I understand she’s not all the way there, but she still needs to take some responsibility, right? She does the you don’t care about me shit when she doesn’t get what she wants.I'm waiting on a case worker or a doctor to call me instead of her, but I can’t tell who’s calling, and I really don’t want to talk to her AT ALL.

My sister was diagnosed with negative schizophrenia 4 years ago and unfortunately has never been the same :( it breaks my heart, she was my best friend. She has a very severe case of this illness…. She is a completely different person.
She had so much life ahead of her. She is withdrawn and is in her room 24/7. I can’t get more than a few words from her at a time. I try to plan things and get her out of the house but never have success. It truly is painful seeing her be a shell of who she was. She chain smokes a pack of cigarettes a day. No friends. No life. She lives with my Mum and is under mental health but there is nothing anyone can do. I don’t know what the point of this post is. Maybe for some support :( I worry about her constantly.

Posted about this a little while ago and surprisingly got a number of people who joined our Discord. I've always wished there was a space where people like us, who care for a loved one living with schizophrenia or any form of psychosis, can get support and just be able to lean on people who get the struggle we have to go through that most people fully don't understand. We often ask questions and can get some answers online, but then the help and the camaraderie ends there.

And since it's been over 10 years of hoping someone would step up beyond the conventional NAMI and MHA groups that never worked out for people like me, I finally went for it. So far, we have a great group that's messaging each other and really stepping up and sharing. We will start meetups soon too. We already feel less alone, that's for sure.

More people can join our group. We want you to feel seen and for you to make friends and acquaintances that are consistent.

If this resonates with you in any way, I encourage you to come chat with us!

EDIT: here's the link https://discord.gg/kn9BDm7eEf

He is 34. Been having thoughts that people are hunting him and making his life miserable for more than 6-7 years now. There are phases where he lives alone, rents and works, and phases where he is at my parents' house for months, sometimes even 1-2 years.

Now, he is at a phase where he is living with parents again. He insults, speaks bad, accuses them/us of helping his hunters etc. He has never been violent physically or made any threats, but verbally he sometimes loses it and insults badly.

We have tried speaking to him, partnering with him. Even though partnering is hard when he considers everyone against him.

He is functional and does stuff, even though for the past 3 months he is living with my parents despite the fact that he has an apartment of his own. My parents have asked him to go back to his apartment but he refuses to.

Should we - at this point - just try to call the health services on him? It is not an easy procedure, however, because he has never been violent, never made threats, and in general he is not a danger to himself or others. They even told us that, many psychiatrists and the police.

However we can try. I am afraid of the following however...

-What if they don't take his situation seriously and don't give him the meds he needs?

-What if they instantly release him and he comes back to the house with even more distaste towards us? (he already dislikes us)

I am afraid it might backfire as in, he might think his own family is doing harm to him. He is already suspicious of everyone and us, now imagine how he would feel if this happened.

What is your opinion? For the record, I live in Europe.

Hello everyone, I’m up to here with living with my mom, she has paranoia, bipolar, and high functioning schizophrenia. She’s not safe to live with she’s mentally and physically abusive, and she’s always burning food, “cleaning” but just making it worse, and she takes everything that doesn’t belong to her. She’ll wake us up at ridiculous hours, it’s not healthy. I’m scared living with her, I don’t feel safe at all.

Recently she got arrested for violating a restraining order and was ordered to go to mental health court, they said they were going to get her into a program where she would be forced to be on medication. But of course, they didn’t and they just released her from jail instead. We’ve tried and she’s had multiple visits to the mental health ward when she has break downs, but somehow we’re still not allowed to put her into medication because she doesn’t consent. I truly don’t know what to do anymore, I feel crazy, living with her makes me want to die🤕

does anyone know what I could possibly do? I’m so tired of this, she keeps saying that I killed our dead brother, and that he’s still alive and our neighbors kidnapped him, it’s so hard hearing this every single day.

That was missing from her closet that she bought by stealing my mom's savings months ago. She talked about how other perfumes she had were missing and thinks I hid them in storage, but I didn't because I sold them. The thing is she said she stole my mom's savings because if I can get away from stealing my sister’s money before she got sick then she can too. I do take the blame for stealing her money back in 2024 and my mom had to tell her what I did and she said nothing about it because at the time her schizophrenia was developing more and more severe day by day so that issue wasn't even on her mind much. I did feel so bad about doing it that I told her that I was sorry and she told me not to worry about it. I still felt so bad and guilty that I told her that I would repay her for everything that I stole from her once I get a job or I get accepted to earn general relief payments monthly little by little and she said “okay”. She didn't threaten to call the police on me at that time to report what I did to her. Nothing.

So when we found out she stole my mom's savings months ago, my mom threatened to call the police and my sister said, “You wouldn't want to do that” because she would tattle on me to them as well so we’ll both go to jail and my mom doesn't want both of us to go to jail. But since she stole over $14k from my mom (excusing it as my mom letting me get away with it so she's punishing my mom for my wrongdoings) then I don't have to owe her the money I stole from her anymore and have to now pay it to my mom.

That's why when I posted on her earlier this year about the whole ordeal and a lot of commenters were bashing my mom for her decision not to call the cops on my older sis is because I left this info out. After all, obviously, I am ashamed of what I did 2 years ago and I cry every time I get reminded of it or when my sister gets into arguments with my mom.

I even confided in my therapist about what I did and cried that it’s sad that my sister wouldn't have done this if she weren't schizophrenic and I’ve done what I did as a person who doesn't have schizophrenia. I'm not writing this to gather your sympathy for what I did because it was so horrible what I did to my sister at the time.

I know right, what a mess of a family we are….

I'm tired. I genuinely am tired trying to convince my sister to keep taking anti-psychotics. I'm the only caregiver and I'm so done already with everyday BS that I've to deal with.

Her mood has definitely improved but due to the side effects she doesn't want to continue. She also thinks that the doctor is prescribing her wrong meds and doesn't believe her stories.

My life is getting ruined everyday and she's unable to see that. I'm trying my best every single day and I just want her to comply and rest?

I posted yesterday about my sister calling me from the hospital for the millionth time ranting and raving about nonsense and calling me names I ended up just hanging up in her face because fuck that. I’m sick and tired would it be evil if I just said I’m done and moved on because I’m really close to doing that there’s no helping her I’ve accepted that at this point. I’ve given her my clothes I’ve bought her stuff and the other day I didn’t even get a thank you just a hissy fit because she thinks she can just survive off of fruit and nothing else after I brought her some groceries it wasn’t much but it was something. If I just up and blocked her number would that be bad? I’m her last point of contact with the family and I know I’m going to get a call while she’s in the hospital I’m honestly considering telling the doctor not to call me about her. She’s got a case worker and gets social security every month and ebt for food. It’s not a lot but it’s enough to survive on barely. I have my own fucking problems. There’s a bunch of other shit I’m too lazy to type up and I’m sure nobody would want to read all that anyways. I know my sister is mentally unwell and can’t help it but is it my responsibility outright to have to take care of her because I don’t think I can she needs to be put in a facility if I’m honest.