He was talking about his paranoia last night. He says eye contact is not easy. That he thinks people are laughing at him and that he catches snippets of conversation that he thinks is negatively/threateningly directed at him. Last night he said twice he could hear talking and I said I couldn’t. After a while he said it must have been the radiator. That reminded me of http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024115306.htm
I knew from previous talks he was prone to paranoia but this was the first time he admitted as much himself.
Yeah I used to think I was hearing people talking behind my back but I just treated it like I was paranoid for a while and it all seemed to stop. The mind is capable of misconstruing things
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The thing is compared to me on a daily level he is more functional but also more prone to just coming out with it when he’s got the bit between his teeth. I can just see him thinking someone’s doing something opening his mouth and getting the worst of the encounter.
I don’t know whether he’s been this way for a while or this is an escalation. I do know over the years his conversation has gone from non paranoiac to mild paranoia but I put this down to several decades of cannabis and occasional other substances.
He seems to me to embody the fact that there is no clear dividing line between mentally ill and mentally well.
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hey,
I worry bout my family too! From my dads side we have depression and there’s a younger brother who is very much a depressive who’d do well I think on meds. My dad…one of four siblings…is the only one who isn’t on antidepressants! He sure could use them too…
Schizophrenia, my perfect match is on my mothers side…but hey…it’s indicative of genetic flaws!
What you can do is another thing though…I’d approach with it’s not normal to feel these things go have a chat with someone…better to be safe than sorry! My family knows I suffer from schizophrenia…I advertise that no end but that is to educate them and arm them as well…
Never is any space between those who are ill and those who are not…except the worried well…that is another issue entirely!
A friend in the struggle,
rogueone.
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He has had a lot of dubious acquaintances, into alcohol and/or drugs, over the years who have used him,stolen off him (in some cases hit him) but although he sometimes shows he knows they’re shits he seems to let them stay within his social circle.
At the end of last year one of those ‘friends’ was saying he’d murdered someone and there was an attempt to section him on psychiatric grounds but it’s since been suggested he’s schizophrenic and delusional and that the murder claim was a drug fueled delusion.
Recently he said he overheard a conversation when this person’s christian name was mentioned and they were talking about the person being killed after having a hot iron shoved on his face and repeatedly being stabbed/sliced.
I don’t know whether it’s mishearing things, but in any case the christian name is a common one and, if true,the story could have nothing to do with this person my brother knows.
Currently he’s had another chancer, a Spaniard supposedly doing a phd, hanging around his flat- sitting in his underwear and raiding his fridge etc without permission. My brother will speak his mind with these people if he thinks they’re out of line but they still seem to gravitate towards him/he lets them into his life.
@firemonkey, I’m sorry your brother is suffering. I hope reconnecting with you will make a difference. Being on the outside looking in… it’s hard to gauge just how much is really happening. I hope getting back in contact with you the two of you can help each other out and you can also help him gets some of the chancers out of his life. It just makes getting help that much harder when there are toxic people in our lives.
I also have a brother who is not diagnosed, but he has been going through something dark for a while now. There are a lot of things that just seem too out there to ignore.
But he refuses to admit there is anything wrong with him. The hair trigger temper, the super nice guy one minute and scary off the hook angry guy the next… the disappearing on his wife and kids for days at time then reappearing saying he was out of town for work…
He gets mad at his kids (my niece and nephew) for bothering him and not going to their mother … then he’s mad at this kids for avoiding him and always going to their mother.
There are a lot of things that have been making us all wonder. But he has the money, the house, the middle management job … in his mind… he is superior.
He’s much more “successful” materialistically then even our parents. But it’s been said for a long time, he’s not doing well.
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You may hear doctors speak of the ‘schizophrenias’ , its really a spectrum and highly variable. That being said usually a sz diagnosis will set a person on either contact with the law or contact with health care profesionals by virtue of the severity of the sympthoms. So he may have ‘something’ but it may not be schiz. He is also at an age 45+,(i think) , where severe psychosis becomes less and less likely as he ages. Hopefully he wont have a severe psychotic break
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