Psychosis, Mental Breakdown?? What is this?

[WorriedandStressed2026]

Hello everyone,

I need some advice please. I’ve name changed so it’s not outing.

My brother 40 years old, no previous mental health history - high flying career, very intelligent and always advising us on matters, has since last week suddenly changed!

He started by saying to me in confidence that he has suddenly figured out that his best friends (since his 20s and who he regularly socialises with) are out to get him. He has since blocked all of them. He says They have hacked his devices and they are listening into his conversations. He is very paranoid.

He says he can’t sleep. He can’t eat. He doesn’t go out anywhere incase “they” are tracking him.

He’s left his work.

We don’t know how to approach this. I called 111 and sought advice but they said he needs to be in the room. He doesn’t think he has a problem and that everything is real.

I’ve advised him to go GP. But he thinks he doesn’t need to. He just wants justice for being hacked. Today he was saying the Russians are involved as he checked the IP address and it was a Russian location.

I am so desperate to help him, I am worried what this means for him. Does anyone have any idea how I can access help please?

Thank you.

If he will listen to reason tell him the physical stuff that could be going on inside his brain that will make him not sleep. Head injury, inflammation etc.

What’s a UTI? Undiagnosed Trauma Injury?

So sorry to hear you went through this.

It’s really all consuming isn’t it?

There’s no clear cut path to help. We are holding onto the fact that other people have managed to get through it so will my brother. Just need to hang in there until he gets the help he needs.

He’s been off for 2 weeks. He has private medical health insurance through his work place but I don’t think he is accessing it. When I say “left” I don’t mean he’s quit but he’s not attending work and I advised him to get a sick note/fit note and speak to his manager about what he’s going through until he gets better. Maybe work could give him some special leave or even unpaid leave until he feels better.

He is adamant he doesn’t want anything like stress/anxiety on his record so I don’t know what he’s told his employer.

A UTI is a Urinary Tract Infection. Sometimes UTIs can be associated with psychosis or delirium.

https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/urinary-tract-infections-acute-psychosis/

I'm sorry it's so difficult to get help for your poor brother OP. It's very challenging if he doesn't want to engage with the GP or any services but also isn't deemed to be at a high enough risk of imminent harm to himself or others for an intervention.

This ⬆️

Urinary tract infection. It can cause some quiet severe psychological symptoms very like you describe (a lot of elderly patients will experience feelings of paranoia, things being bugged/hacked, mentioning listening devices and spies etc)

Thank you. I called the early intervention help team yesterday and the nurse said that he’s not presenting any danger to himself or others so they can’t help. If he wants to talk to them then they can help but he’s not at a stage where he feels he needs help.

Oh! I might be completely uneducated about this then… I didn’t know men could get UTIs! I’ve previously had UTI issues to the extent I had to seek private help from Harley Street. I had no idea that this could cause psychosis 😦

I’ll be offline for the rest of the day as I need to cook lunch and then sort out DS’s stuff for his residential trip next week. I’ll also be seeing my brother so won’t be on Mumsnet.

Will keep everyone updated as to what’s going on.

Yes it really is, and I know how drained you must feel too. I found the like mind website really helpful in the early days, they have a good leaflet for family https://www.likemind.nhs.uk

I really hope you get the support your brother needs soon, it really is so frustrating that there’s nothing they can do until he accepts that he needs help or if he does something to danger himself or others - sorry you are all going through this

Mental health services are unwilling to provide any help nor is 111 but you’re suggesting (busy) A&E staff would be willing to concoct an elaborate plan to get him there whilst lying to him about the reasons for doing so. And he’s just going to be happy to trot along and go with it.

Depending on his employer, his medical insurance might well cover mental health as well (usually including inpatient treatment). Most big companies go for policies that do now.

I wonder if this is the path to getting him to see someone? His employer will not know he has claimed, and you don't have to give your NHS GP details. If he needs a GP referral it can be done by the insurer's GP, keeping it off his NHS record. But often for mental health you don't need one.

Maybe frame it in terms of "look, if we're going to take this to the police we need to prove you're not imagining this. So I reckon the best thing to do is go through your health insurance and not give them your NHS GP details. Then we can always get the private doctor to talk to the police for us once they have satisfied themselves this isn't in your mind".

This must be so frightening.
The two things that occurs to me are:
1)Does he have a long-time doctor he knows and trusts?
2)Could you maybe get better answers in the Mental Health forum?

Wishing you and your brother the best OP 🙏

You are allowed to email his GP. I’d do that. I would also be concerned that the knock to his head in the fall (I think you said he’d hit his head but ignore if I’m wrong) is connected with this sudden onset of mental illness. I’d include that concern too in the email to the GP. They won’t speak to you but it does not stop you speaking (via a written email) to them. It’s on them then to get him to the surgery, maybe that he needs to go in and get his BP checked or something.

Sounds terrifying @WorriedandStressed2026 …have you been able to get your brother any help yet?

Hi, he was fine over the weekend - I wasn’t able to go over yesterday as I had work and then migraine but will be going over tonight after work.

We are gently telling him he needs medical help. My other sister is with him until I go and will ask her if there’s any progress with him getting help. As far as I know the paranoia is still there but he’s masking it.

You firmly need to say that his knock on the head needs to be checked out again. Tell him it can lead to problems with sleep etc. Show him this is common by showing him online. If he wishes he could get to sleep, this may help.

There’s also a possibility that auto immune antibodies or a virus has lead to inflammation. He needs to be checked over to rule this out. I wouldn’t be so gentle with him. (Whether he would sit still for an mri or a lumber puncture is the doctors problem).

You need to frame this as a physical problem that doctors can fix.

Just going with what we’d suggest to our patients (the NHS severe mental health service I’ve worked in for many years as a senior clinician) under these circumstances. But people can feel free to denigrate and sneer at all the advice I’ve tried to give to OP on this thread, or to use it as they see fit.

ps: we’re not ‘unwilling to help people’. I’ve worked 40hrs this week assessing and treating v psychiatrically and sometimes very challenging / hostile / traumatised people, in windowless rooms with no air con. It’s a myth we’re ‘unwilling to help people’. I myself have a v severe MH issue (bipolar) and am a user of Servs too. I tried to help & advise based on personal & professional experiences.

Going to hide this thread now and wish the OP all the genuine very best. Good luck and take good care of yourself. Remember: you can’t pour from an empty vessel. Xx

I agree it pisses me off too as a psychiatrist when people say we are unwilling to help people when we are trying to do that day in and day out.

No. This guy himself is unwilling to be helped. That’s a bit different.

In any other area of medicine would you expect the person to have no right to refuse care and for the diabetes team or the rheumatologist or whoever to toddle around to their house and inflict medications upon them on the day so of family? No you wouldn’t. So guess what mental health patients have rights too. Mental health services can only treat people against their will under a very specific and limited set of circumstances where the criteria for detention under the mental health act are met.

Think it through practically? What are MH services supposed to say to explain why out of the blue they are calling or going round when family don’t want to go on record as raising concerns? ‘I just thought I’d pop round??’ How is that going to go down? Is he magically going to agree to speak to us or slam the door and get more suspicious?

It is a hard situation when a person cannot recognise they are ill and might benefit from treatment but MH services can only act within the law. There is a process and that process needs to be followed and it starts with asking for the persons consent and then trying to persuade them to consent and that can only really come from the family or people close to them to do the persuasion as strangers will have no leverage. If those things have been tried AND the symptoms are serious AND associated with risk only then can actions be taken against their will under MHA.

If you feel it should be different then vote to change the law don’t demonise people doing their best within the law as it stands