Should I have my brother sectioned?

[AWorldGoneTopsyTurvy]

This isn’t really an AIBU issue but I don’t know how much traffic the MH boards get, especially on a Saturday night. It’s a hell of a back story but I might as well be thorough. I’ve NC’d for this but parts of the story might ring bells for people who’ve read my previous threads.

My brother is really starting to worry me. He has a variety of MH problems including Bipolar Disorder and schizophrenia. He’s been prescribed lithium and was having CBT sessions with a CPN. He also has a bad alcohol problem and a history of self harm, and has overdosed a few times in the past.

We aren’t particularly close, he lives a few hundred miles away from me and I haven’t seen him since the day of my Dad’s funeral which was almost 3 years ago. He’s NC with my Mum and her side of the family (that’s a whole other story), and as a result ended up not coming to my wedding in the summer.

He has 4 kids with 2 women, and split up with his gf (Mum of the youngest two) about 6 months ago, after almost 9 years together. The Mum of the elder two got married a few months back.

He contacted me out of the blue today- he’s still been living with his ex since they broke up, and he told me that he’s got a new place to live and is moving at the end of the month. He’s stopped taking his meds and has stopped seeing the CPN.

His messages are really worrying me. I don’t think he’s been drinking as usually when he has they’re a bit more rambling and messy. Some of the things he’s said-

“I started self harming again. Only once. Haven’t done that for years.”

“I’m not wired right”

“I’ve got lost in life I think”

“Pretty sure I’m destined for a life of fucked up, it hasn’t been easy for either off us. So so sorry I don’t come to your wedding, just couldn’t handle it. My bad for not being strong”

“I’ve created another broken home”

“I don’t handle stuff like you. Damage could be the outcome from this. It’s all fucked”

“I’ve tried to have faith for years, I have suicidal thoughts every week and no matter what meds I take the voices are still there. What more can I do?”

I really don’t know how to help him. I don’t drive and don’t have any money at the moment as I was made redundant two months ago and don’t start my new job til next week. I really do think he could be a danger to himself. I don’t want to speak to his ex about it as he’ll see that as me going behind his back, and anyway they’re not together anymore so really she shouldn’t have to be involved. Should I have him sectioned? Can I do that from so far away? And how would I go about it?

The police are not the ones who assess people for sectioning, that can only be done by doctors and mental health professionals. It’s a horrible experience but what this man told police would not cut any ice with the people assessing you - they decide the case on the individual.

Emergency GP appts can be made on the day if you phone first thing in the morning.

OP I think you’ve had some good advice, contacting his GP, CPN (if he still has one) seems the best way ahead. Or social services. Or police if you feel the danger to your db or others is urgent. There does seem a bit of an issue as you don’t know where he is? Are you I’m contact with the mother of his children? If she has seen him more recently than you, she may have a better handle on his state of mind. Tbh those texts don’t seem to point to a huge crisis happening right now, but that’s reading them in isolation. With those two diagnoses it means everything should be taken more seriously.

Squirrel that sounds absolutely terrifying.

Because of the cultural history of sectioning, where relatives could get someone sectioned for all sorts of spurious reasons (like inheritance, disagreements, pregnancy and abortion etc), people still do believe that they can be sectioned / get someone sectioned according to lower criteria than is actually the reality.

Being abused by someone in a position of authority who has the power to influence the community in general, and who can influence specific police officers... well, that must have been absolutely terrifying. In that situation, it would feel very likely that this person could indeed get his victim sectioned.

Luckily the system worked and he was unable to influence the mental health person whose word was needed to take it further. And I’d hope that if he had managed to get to that first mh professional, the next person along that journey towards sectioning would have picked up on the reality of the situation. However, for the person going through that it must have been absolutely horrific and the outcome not at all certain.

All it takes for a sane person to be perceived as ‘mad’ is to invalidate the reason that person is scared/ upset/ traumatised. Someone being abused & in crisis by a person of influence in their community may well look like their emotions and reactions are ‘not normal’ as long as the abuse is not thought to be true.

It’s terrifying having your word and every reaction doubted.

I can empathise from having had a smaller but vaguely similiar experience to you Squirrel, I had the misfortune to come across a (very senior and powerful) mh professional who decided to doubt the traumas I had been through, which was the reason I’d asked for mh support. He had no reason to doubt these things, other than his own prejudice, but he decided to discount anything I said, and so out of context I looked pretty mad actually, paranoid, overly distressed etc. And yes, if you refused to believe the last 5yrs of my life has actually happened, I can see how I’d look like that. Except of course I had gone through those experiences and could have proved it given a platform to do that (I just refused to go back). It was shocking and I had no way to counteract it in his eyes, as nothing I said could be trusted. And I’m still trying to shake off the effects of his proposed (mis)diagnosis. Anyway, complete tangent to the OP, but trying to empathise a little bit with Squirrels experience.