Sibling with severe mental health problems - anyone else?

[LovelyLidlGirl]

My DSis has been psychotic (very severely, for a lot of the time) for nearly a year. Diagnosis of probable schizophrenia. I miss her. Or at least I really miss the "her" I used to know. This probably sounds a bit pathetic and melodramatic, but there is so much about her that is so different (at the moment, at least). And, obviously, seeing her so distressed is horrendous. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like for her.

Just wondered if anyone else is going through this and would like a shared thread.

Thanks for reading

Hi I've been through this with family member and an ex. It's completely heartbreaking and some people are Ill their entire life but some people recover, or recover to an extent, especially if they get good help early, early intervention, and if they have supportive family around them. I'd suggest getting some help yourself so that you are in a better place to support your sister, or even just to talk about what is happening.
I think Rethink have siblings groups and try and share with a friend.

My sister too. She's been sectioned on and off for the last 12 years. She's currently sectioned and has been for nearly 3 years.

We've never been told much about what her actual diagnosis is but I know there's been mention of schizophrenia, bi-polar and suggestions of a personality disorder. I think it's probably a bit of all of those things along with the fact that she married an awful man in her early twenties who was emotionally abusive and 'broke her'.

My sister has said she doesn't want our family to be told anything about her mental health and my mum has been told this has to be respected because of patient confidentiality. I think this just leaves a vulnerable person more vulnerable. My mum says that my sister's mental health team change frequently and the next person never seems to have had time to read all her notes. Mum phones them to talk about how she is and they're never available and rarely call back even if she's told they will.

She has had awful psychotic episodes which must be terrifying for her and I'm not sure she ever gets past them in that I don't believe she sees them as psychotic episodes. Sometimes I think she covers up what she's thinking just to be allowed back home again. I don't think she can trust anyone as she doesn't know what's real or not. She can then never cope at home and gets increasingly out of control and always ends up trashing shops or wandering the streets barefoot so that she can get arrested as she feels safer behind bars. It's a hugely depressing cycle.

The amount of drugs she's been given (by the mental health team) have left her grossly overweight and slurring her words. One time they took her off her medication and she seemed so much better for a while. We often think if they stripped the medication back they'd be a better chance of finding out what's really going on and what would help.

I've never really got on with my sister and so I don't miss her in the same way that some of you do but I do feel so sad that she's not able to live her own life and I feel constantly guilty about not doing more to help her whilst feeling that there's nothing I could do anyway.

So sorry to hear about all the hard times everyone on this thread has been through.

Also really happy to hear of those who have learned to live reasonably peacefully with severe MH issues.

Peacock, I'm really sorry to hear you lost your brother.

It's strange how one hears of these things in everyday life. But if 1/100 people has schizophrenia, and 1/100 has severe bipolar, there must be so many people all over the place whose families are affected in some way.

I also wonder about whether the meds do more harm than good over the longer term. When my sister's been on really high doses, it's horrendous to see.

Oops, my post was supposed to say "It's strange how little one hears of these things in everyday life."

orange, I can see why your brother doesn't want to take the meds.

I was watching that John Nash-based film A Beautiful Mind last night, and remembered how the film makers lie that he continued to take medication in the longer term (he hasn't taken any for years, apparently) presumably so as not to "give people ideas". Makes me

Orange we had a similar situation with my dsis, in that she would lie about having taken her tablets as they made her feel zombied out.

She now has a fortnightly injection which has been brilliant, as it is on record if she misses it, and also the injected drugs are much kinder to the system so she feels completely normal on them. Perhaps it is something you could look into.