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Original poster

Can you help me find an idiots guide to schizophrenia?

81 replies

charliecat · 24/10/2004 12:08

My brother is a paraniod schizophrenic and my mum says things thats hes said/done and I say its becuase hes ill...but it doesnt seem to sink in.
Ideally im looking for examples of behaviour and reasons in plain english.
Just so when hes going off on one, well last night he got her out of bed at midnight saying 30 blokes had beaten him up and he didnt have a mark on him...she can relate that sort of behaviour to something shes heard of before.
Thank you.
Hes off his head is what she was saying this morning, and I felt like saying Yes thats the thing, he is...its not his fault its an illness he doesnt take his pills for but youve hit it on the head there.
Any help would be much appreciated.

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Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:40

Does he take his pills...my brohter doesnt even have a gp at the monent...the social services have said they will get a team together to see what they can do....next post

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Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:41

But the thing is, if hes not there for appiontments or doesnt conform to the system and form filling etc people give up, which I dont blame them for, but with his problems someone should go to him and complete form 178304987359843jhgkjfdhg that needs doing.

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Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:42

As hes not gonna go do it himself, me or you or anyone "normal" would but with all the strange things going on his head its not a priority.
My mum slept in her clothes last night in case he came round again GAWD.

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:43

As far as I know he takes no medication and doesn't even think he's ill. Like your Mum, my brother seems to play up for mine yet when my other brother sees him he's fairly normal.

My Dad died last April, 4 hours after he heard about Dad's death he turned up on my Mums doorstep and stayed for 2 weeks. (He hadn't been near Mum and Dads for years). To make him leave Mum said he would have to visit a doctor and he refused so Mum said he would have to go.

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:44

Oh and the reason he doesnt live with my mum is because she had a squiity 1 bedroom flat barely big enough for one and he does nothing for himself, or anyone else but expects everything to be done for him...we both have lived with him and it has nearly sent us round the bend.

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:45

When my brother turned up again this year Mum actually admitted she was frightened as he was shouting at her.

I actually thought when Dad died some of his problems would go away as he blamed everything on my Dad especially the fact the secret police are after him. But now it's my brother apparently sending all these people after him.

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:45

Was he at your mums so soon to give comfort or recieve it or just because he could because your dad was no longer about? Sorry to hear about that by the way, hows your family coping?

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:48

charliecat, unfortunately it is a situation that is totally out of your hands. There is nothing you can do to help your brother as he is a grown man. He is not physically ill and even when my brother was first diagnosed and violent he wasn't admitted to hospital.

He loaded up his car and disappeared one morning and we didn't hear from him in a long time.

When he does show up he's clean, has money and is often going to Thailand (for the prostitutes). So as my other brother says "he's not that ill".

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:49

My brother stole a taxi once and said to us he was working for the company, for the first time ever also offers to take us out to the cinema in it.
A couple of days into it the story changed and the car was bugged etc, he was working for the police but they had turned nasty and were then after him...
The tires were slashed (by him I assume) and then they were gonna kill him...that night having a 9 month old baby in the house I told him if he wasnt in by 10 he wasnt getting in.
He didnt come back till midnight and started going demented outside, I rang the police...he was shouting that my dp was a rapist and my mum prefered a F**ing rapist to him and the neighbours were having a field day...oh it was hideous. he was put away for 3 months in the hospital.......next post..

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:49

charliecat, don't know what was in his head. I do know he drove for 4 hours from Torquay though and talked nonsense when he got there. Probably a warm bed, clean washing and hot food more than sympathy for Mum.

We're OK now, Dad was very ill and had been for some time.

SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:51

charliecat, like you said previously don't think you should have your brother in your home. Is he very intelligent, mine is and I wonder if that had something to do with it?

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:52

Anyway turned out hed STOLE the taxi OMG, that we could have been going out to the cinema in and they knocked him out in hospital as hes a big bloke and they prefer them docile...scary thing was, when he got out the day after he,d had a month/3 month injection he was ill, talking crap etc down the phone and that worried me that the illness had overridden the drugs.

Your brother sounds like he wont let it beat him.

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Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:53

Very intelligent. Used to read dictionarys and law books and medical stuff...mum now things he may have aspergers mixed in there too.
He was diagnosed after his dad died btw the stress of it

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:53

I suppose mine is doing whatever he's doing away from us. Mum is 73 now and doesn't need all this worry. He's 40 now, I can't help him.

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:54

My mums 56, hes 34 but she sees him daily...he wont stay away. Its killing her.

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:55

cc that's interesting. My brother was doing a Law Degree in his spare time can you believe! Then he failed his solicitor's finals and went completely loopy. My Mum said she'd suspected a problem since he was about 14.

We've never ever known him have a girlfriend although he's not gay.

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:56

We used to live in scotland, and he used to live in chatham...we moved to kent and mum sent his a postcard with the address on. He packed his bags and moved in with us all(we were sharing a 2 bedflat as we could only afford 1 deposit) hes never gona away since really, that was 6 years ago. It was manageable when he only used to return for 2-6 months then go again.

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 20:58

CC have you ever known him have a girlfriend?

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:58

Hmmm, my brother has had 1 girlfriend, a prostitute with children...and another, a single mum who was desperate for company....not sure if i would have classed her as a girlfriend he just latched on.
They do say uni students are a prime case for it.

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Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:59

He SAYS he would like a girlfriend, and hes a tasty looking bloke, but we think he wants the cooking the cleaning the cups of tea etc that a girlfriend provides.

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Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 20:59

Like my mum does at the mo.

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 21:01

Very similar patterns then. It will be interesting to see this programme later.

I must admit the last time I saw my brother I ignored him totally as I was finding that I was stewing on what he said and I was also trying to reason with him (which obviously didn't work).

I went to the GP who gave me some advice, he said he wouldn't hurt Mum and there was no point trying to reason with him at all.

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 21:01

Does your brother turn up at your door or is it just your mums?
I am 25 btw and my eldest is 6 my brother cant get it in his head that I am me...he always wonders who I am and thinks my dd is me. i think hes stuck in 1984 or something.
He knows of course, but from one meeting to the next its still a shock for him to see me as a grown woman.

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SecondhandRose · 25/10/2004 21:04

When my brother turned up last year for the first time in years we told my son (age 8) that he stayed away because he didn't like Grandad and now Grandad was gone he had come back.

Probably not the best of reasons but I couldn't think of any other reason your uncle would turn up out of the blue after so many years.

Original poster
charliecat · 25/10/2004 21:04

How could he be so sure he wouldnt hurt your mum?

My brother has never touched my mum but he has scared her, the thought that they are alone in the house together scares me, simply because he is ill.
We were crossing the road one day together and i didnt think he was that ill, he dismissed this bloke walking towards us with his hand and said "Out of my way babyfu**er" and I was walking along next ot his shaking. I knew that he really did think the innocent bloke crossing the crossing was a peadophile and it scaredf me that...I dunno the fact hed done what he had done...showed how totally off this planet he was.

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