Hi everyone, apologies if this is unclear or difficult I’m trying to make sense of everything.
My brother is 30, a cannabis smoker of around 13 years.
Recently he has been saying that people think he wants to sleep with his friends girlfriend. He thinks that people in the town are talking about him, and are plotting to beat him up. He has no evidence of this, his only evidence is that people are posting on social media at certain times and minutes. He has himself convinced that someone phoning him at 7 minutes past the hour 2 days in a row is because he wants to beat him up. He has also been having grandeur, he said that one of the reasons people are after him is because all the women in town are in love with him. We’ve said there’s no problem and he can’t believe that we don’t believe him, and says we will all apologise when he gets beaten up. We’ve explained to him there’s no evidence for it and he says ‘there doesn’t have to be’
@mrotbc that’s only paranoia and the grandeur could just be cockiness. If he was showing more symptoms like hallucinations, talking without making sense, paranoid delusions, etc. then he should see a therapist. But the weed use can be part of what is going on in his head. I personally only smoke weed about 3 times a year and I have schizophrenia and when people with schizophrenia get high off weed it can trigger schizophrenic symptoms. So next time you’re with him and he is high ask him if he is hearing voices or sounds that you yourself don’t hear. Also ask if he’s paranoid about anything. Cause when you’re high you’re more honest, at least that’s how I am. Best of luck.
I had no visual hallucinations my first episodes and my audible hallucinations were so real that the only reason I knew I had them was I called 911 about a delusion . They played it back in court and I accused them of cutting things out of the tape that the operator said. I had no clue I was having audio hallucinations. I had some loud thoughts but denied hearing voices. But delusions and paranoia were extreme they diagnosed me in 2 days with paranoid schizophrenia. My speech was normal. I got arrested and got help through the courts. But that can easily go bad. A had a brief window were I thought I might be loosing it but someone told me I was fine, she had a sz husband but not a doctor and his sz had different obvious symptoms than mine. Take any opportunity to get him in to see a doctor even if you have to make a deal with him and he feels he’s just doing it for you.
I was diagnosed on my 40th birthday spent 2weeks in the nutter I was seeing and hearing things I was a heavy pot smoker at the time I did give that and the booze up and my symptoms got worse the Drs said they mask the symtoms
There is something called drug-induced psychosis that is totally curable. If he wants to get better, he should stop doing all drugs and see if that helps. If it doesn’t stop the paranoia, he may need medication for a while just to break him out of his destructive thought patterns.
Usually, when someone develops psychotic symptoms after doing a lot of drugs, that is the first diagnosis a doctor will make. Then, if the symptoms stick around longer than a certain period of time, the diagnosis is changed to schizophrenia or some other closely related disorder.
Bipolar disorder can also cause episodes of intense paranoia and delusions of grandeur. People with bipolar may or may not have hallucinations. The difference between bipolar and schizophrenia is that folks with bipolar have cycles of mania and depression, and only experience psychotic symptoms during these episodes. Folks with schizophrenia have continuous psychotic symptoms, and don’t necessarily have mood cycles.
To qualify as schizophrenic, a person must exhibit at least two of the following:
Delusions
Hallucinations
Disorganized speech
Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
Negative symptoms (flattened emotional expression, poverty of speech, lack of motivation)
