Parents are loopy

[hoomaeyya]

Not really sure what I am expecting from this thread but does anyone else have parents who have gone absolutely bat shit?!

My Dad has always been very paranoid (if he heard me and friends laughing he would scream up the stairs saying he knew we were laughing at him), pinned me up by my throat because he thought I'd told him to fuck off when I didn't.

Anyway, my Mum now seems to have turned just as loopy. When they come over they tell me that the government is watching them through the streetlights, they they are watching them because they know what the government are really up to and that they are going to expose them. They think every single thing on the news is a conspiracy (I'm all about questioning things but why would every single thing be a conspiracy?). They have claimed back their birth certificates (whatever that means) and apparently they don't have to pay their electricity bill because of this. They think their electricity supply can't be cut off if they answer their door and pretend to be different people.

They are constantly telling me how they are going to sue the government and that they know the legislation really well and they have massive files of information that they have printed off the internet in order to sue them when they need to.

My Mum says some really odd things as if she is "god-like". My uncle is ill and my Mum says she can get the hospital in trouble because they gave my uncle medication to make him better. He wasn't in a position to give consent as he wasn't "with it" and she is absolutely fuming about it. She thinks the doctors are out to harm everyone. She tells me how the doctors have diagnosed him incorrectly but that SHE knows what the diagnosis should be. She genuinely thinks she knows better than the doctors. She tells me that counselling doesn't work, psychiatrists don't know what they are doing, but that she knows how people can heal themselves.

The whole thing is really fucking odd. I don't even know what to say to them any more because their behaviour is just becoming more and more weird.

Anyone else got some nut job relatives?

Sounds very familiar! My dad was always a conspiracy nut with a chip on his shoulder and my mum would try to mediate or minimise; but since lockdown she's gone full tin foil hat too. Both are totally lost in conspiracies about global cabals controlling everyone, think covid is made up, think the vaccines are poisonous, think the government has concentration camps set up across England and is committing genocide against the UK population ... they live their lives increasingly in fear, paranoia, hate and isolation.

Mostly it's lack of critical reasoning. My dad believes anything he reads from anyone he perceives as authoritative (so essentially any older white male who is critical about the mainstream/"the man"), and is regularly taken in by really obvious clickbait type fake news. My mum increasingly just believes anything my dad believes.

They get very defensive if you disagree with any of it, using all sorts of aggression or emotional manipulation to try to get us to agree with them. It's been horrible and I've gone no contact over the last 12 months.

They actually sound ill to me OP.

Oh my, not compared to you OP!

Not a lot you can do until and unless they are clearly a danger to themselves or others.

But I've seen stuff like this - just either at a lower level, or a level so completely obviously 100% batshit that even in the UK they were treated.

Sorry you're stuck in the middle. My take is just concentrate on living a happy life yourself. If only because it doesn't hurt to look extremely well adjusted, when you're calling out the services on your parents because it finally HAS got to that point :/

Loopy or abusive? You grew up with a violent father! Has he ever behaved like that to your mum as well?

Gosh I wouldn't say loopy. Your father is abusive and your mother suffering a mental health crisis.

@ToffeeForEveryone I'm glad I'm not alone. My parents believe nearly all of the things you have written. They are the same as your parents with the internet - anything they read by a conspiracy theorist or on some odd website, they take it as a fact.

@DenholmElliot1 I think they seem as if they are ill as well. I have mentioned it to my brother as I am particularly worried about my Mum. My Dad has always been a bit like it but my Mum just seems to have come out of nowhere. Suddenly so opinionated on everything, and she HAS to make sure that the world knows what she "knows" about the government. My Brother is also worried about her.

They have never had any friends or hobbies. My Dad goes to work, comes home and they don't do anything else except look on the internet and try and "save the world".

I don't know whether to ignore it or whether I should be taking some sort of action.

So sorry OP for what you have gone through, particularly at the hands of your horribly abusive father. They both clearly need intensive psychiatric help - this goes beyond being 'quirky' or 'weird'. Not sure how you would go about this, until they prove that they are dangerous. If there is any more physical abuse, please report it, and then if police get involved at least they will be assessed by a doctor.

@Basilbrushgotfat he has always been very verbally aggressive (although I don't recall him being this way with my Mum).

The only time I can remember him
being aggressive with my Mum is when we had to hide in a bedroom as my Dad threw things at the door and screamed about how much he hated us. That was a one off incident though but yes, he was always very quick to fly off the handle and scream and shout at us (again, very rarely my Mum).

@titchy perhaps she is having a mental health crisis. Because she is so adamant about how she knows better than absolutely everyone, I have no idea how I would even begin to bring this up. She completely believes that she knows better than doctors, teachers, psychiatrists, the law.

I'm at a loss to be honest.

Folie à Deux.

@thecurtainsofdestiny

Oh wow, I have never heard of that.
Just googled it quickly & will have a proper read about it after.

Thanks.

Mine are the same since lockdown.

That behaviour seems very characteristic of paranoid schizophrenia, to me. I would suggest that your parents might both benefit from a psychiatric assessment and ongoing treatment.

Oh my goodness, I was thinking the same thing. It can happen in families, husband and wife, mother and daughter (think Grey Gardens) where a 'madness' of one can rub off on another member. I saw a documentary about Folie à Deux, it can be quite scary.

My dp is like this although for the sake of the children he is no longer allowed to make his thoughts known so I’m not up to date with his latest theories.

not a lot you can do - no point sending them for assessments as they won’t believe there is anything wrong with them. Best you can do is keep your distance and leave them to it.

Tbh that sounds like schizophrenia