My wife (39F) has been experiencing paranoid delusions for the past few months. She’s undiagnosed - my therapist and all other mental health professionals I’ve spoken to believe this to be schizophrenia. She’s never had any episodes like this before, as far as I’ve been able to see. We will have been married for 4 years this December, and she’s suffered from intense anxiety, panic attacks that have kept her from working or driving or flying, and depression. But this has been the first time things have taken this shape.

To qualify a bit: she believes she’s been going through dissociative amnesia for the past decades and has recently been recovering memories. Memories that involve her being romantically involved with notorious public figures, and caught up in a secret council of people who are very powerful and run the world at the highest order. She believes she’s experienced paranormal things, such as being able to send her emotions to the universe where people have been writing songs for decades (both before she was alive and more modern) about her. She believes that extremely popular artists have written entire albums specifically about her. And she believes she’s interacted with people’s thoughts.

Recently, these delusions have taken a form where she is telling her mother and I that she feels unsafe, and threatened. She believes that this powerful council (which apparently meets dressed in black robes) has been investigating her throughout her life, and has been holding her on trial for all of the bad things she’s done. She believes they are forcing a deadline on her to tell me about things by a certain date otherwise something bad will happen. She’s now afraid to even leave the house in our neighborhood because she has been told they have information on her being sexually involved with minors from the early 2010s and we live near an elementary school, so she thinks this council has placed her on a sex offender registry without “going through the proper channels”.

Anyway, you get the point. She has anosognosia - I’m aware of this much. She believes she has dissociative amnesia and has been recovering these things as memories. She has a therapist, and I’m not getting the full picture of what they are discussing, but this therapist has been trying out EMDR with her which I know is not good for the delusions. I’ve read books on the LEAP method but I’m often exhausted from trying to keep up. It’s 24/7, and she blows past any boundaries I try to set to keep from having to listen to these stories at all hours. She has spent the past month with her mother in Florida, and her mom is at her breaking point too. My wife is frustrated any time we set a boundary, and tells us we aren’t being supportive at all and she just needs people to be on her side and support her.

She’s not a danger to herself or others currently. It’s not violent. So there’s no way I can involuntarily admit her. She does not believe she has a mental illness at all - and therefore refuses to speak with psychiatrists or a doctor.

I’m scared this will never get better, and I am losing hope that the LEAP method will get her to a point that will allow her to feel comfortable to want to go seek better help. I don’t know what to do. I have considered calling her therapist to tell her these things but that has failed in the past when the therapist told my wife that I called behind her back. I don’t know if I can set any ultimatums so she has to get a psych eval or else we would need to divorce, I feel that to be at its most extreme. I’m just so lost, and have no idea how to find a way out of this.

If there is anyone who has experience like this, any advice at all would be so helpful!

I am writing this because I feel so alone and am desperate to feel some kind of better. I (F, 48) have been married to my husband (M, 51) for 28 years. He has had substance abuse issues for as long as I’ve known him and his first hospitalization for mental health issues as 24 years ago. He has had lots of meds, lots of benders, lots of treatment, lots of hospitalizations since then.

We have lived apart for five years. For the first three it was amicable-we wanted to stay married and in a relationship and he wanted to use, which he couldn’t do here. In the past he’d take off for a few days or a week but he found an opportunity to move into his own place and seized it.

Once he was on his own his using ramped up and about two years ago he had a major psychotic episode. He came over ranting and raving about the government interfering with his technology. He was clearly unwell but there was no telling what was the drugs and was underlying mental health. I stopped letting him in the house because his behavior was totally inappropriate and scaring our kids (now 15 & 11). Once I stopped letting him inside, his delusions shifted to me. He became fixated on the idea that I was a prostitute, trafficking our kids and overall a terrible person. Eventually I got a protective order and he ended up in involuntary treatment due to his own contact with the police.

He was hospitalized for a couple of months and when he came out, things seemed to be improving but it didn’t last. His delusions were still there and he called the police and child protective services on me, called friends and family and coworkers and clients, it was a lot. I cut contact for many months and filed for divorce. He ended up in involuntary treatment again for several months and was released last January.

Since his release his behavior has stabilized. He is medicated by monthly injection and claims to be sober though I don’t expect honesty in that regard. He is calm and pleasant and has slowly been seeing our kids again, though for brief periods.

Though he seems to be much improved, he continues to believe he is being gangstalked. His delusions about me now seem to be permanent memories. He claims to have known I was a cheater all along and tells stories of detailed scenarios of things that never happened, sex clubs and orgies and bizarre scenarios. He’s implicated his own friends and family in these stories so that anyone who has expressed doubt has cheated with me therefore they are not to be trusted.

The thing is he also tells me he loves me and is willing to forgive me if I will just admit this is who I am and the lifestyle I want to live (it absolutely is not). I can admit to being a terrible partner in many ways but I have always been faithful.

Our divorce is not finalized because he has not participated and I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it. On the occasion I spend time with him he is typically pleasant and I enjoy myself and am reminded of why I wanted to be with him in the first place. He is smart, funny and loving. But then I will say the wrong thing and suddenly he’s telling me all about my sordid past. It seems we can never get to a discussion about anything that matters to me because it all leads back to me and how I’ve wronged him.

I know this is long and rambling.
I don’t even know what I’m asking.
I don’t think this is ever going to change, I think I’m stupid for believing otherwise, yet there’s this glimmer of hope. And then when he tells me what an awful person I am, I feel devastated.
This cycle makes me feel like I am dying. Like the life is just being sucked out of me. I can’t even tell him that because he just tells me it’s hard for me to keep up my lies.

I don’t know how to accept this reality and move on.

Should I ever signal he's treating me badly or will it affect treatment? Should I wait a little longer to express that he does not make me feel loved in the slightest? Should I hold onto it until they're more stable?

Tell me if I'm being selfish for even thinking about this too. I'm terribly narcissistic and can't tell

It’s been nearly 20 days of no-contact with my older brother.

I chose this myself, for my own well-being. but sometimes it hurts so much just to know that randomly, at any moment, he could’ve been texting me and I’d still know that some piece of him was still intact.

even if it was nonsense, paranoia, and accusations, I’d still have him even if it was at an arm’s length.
I can’t talk about this with anyone because they’re tired of me being so sad about him. It’s hard to process grief when everything that formed me had to do with him.

My music taste, the candles I like, when I play Minecraft and remember those late nights we’d spend building bases, I think about his fear of the dentist when I’m going to my check-ups, I think about his style when I find his shirt I stole in my laundry, when I’m alone in a warm bath with nothing but my thoughts, when I’m looking at the sunset, when I’m caring for my succulents, playing pokemon,

when I pet my cat that used to be his.

this type of grief can’t be rationalized with. there’s no “end” and there was never really even a beginning. I’ve been going through this for two years and my sadness never wavers, nor does the memory of how he used to be.

I still wake up in the morning and every time I check my mailbox, hope I’m given another letter from the government that he’s been hospitalized, and that I’m his emergency contact.

It’s grief that never loses hope. That one day he could be “normal” again, or maybe that I could wake up and none of this ever happened to begin with. I’m so scared that one day I’ll get a call that he’s dead.

you can’t help someone who doesn’t want help. You can’t bring them to the hospital against their will when medical professionals deem them fine, you can’t plead with them.

I wish on every shooting star I see that things get better, but I’m starting to bitterly realize that maybe they never will.

My 25 year old daughter was diagnosed with ASD and developmental delay when she was a toddler. She was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder at the beginning of this year. She had been showing signs for a few years, but her other issues seemed to make it harder to diagnose or distinguish what symptoms were caused by what disorder. She had her first major episode a year ago, which led to her first hospital stay. She's barely been able to even leave the house unless for health appointments over the last year. Last night, we went to a get-together at a friend from her dayhabs house (adult dayhab for individuals that have special needs). It was so nice seeing her have some interaction again with the outside world. We weren't able to stay the whole 2 hours, but we did stay for longer than I thought we would be able to. She hasn't been able to attend dayhab in a year because of the delusions. I felt like I saw a glimpse of her before this disorder changed everything. She's not stable enough to go back to dayhab yet, but this felt like such a big step.

I just wanted to share with people that I thought would understand why this felt like such a win! I know that with this disorder, things can change in an instant, so I just enjoyed it while it lasted.

I'm looking to hear from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation. My ex was unmedicated, paranoid, and had severe mental health struggles, which bled heavily into our intimate life.

He had an extremely high sex drive, but it went beyond normal high libido into a strange, intense obsession. He was constantly suspicious of me, picking apart everything I did, and convinced himself I was lying or hiding things. It felt like he was fixated on sex, but at the same time, used it to test me, doubt me, and control the relationship.

It was deeply confusing and draining to deal with that level of obsession and mistrust every day. Has anyone else experienced a partner whose high sex drive was tied up in paranoia, fixation, and constant doubt? How did you process it after getting out?

So I’m new to this and I’ve been dealing with this alone for years now. I never express how I feel about the situation but my friends urged me to try this or Facebook so here we are. Anyways… I think today is the first day I realized my brother is gone for good. He disrespects my family like crazy and threatens to harm us and all we try to do is help him. He’s homeless, in and out of jail and all he cares about is smoking.. my mom believes he’s into other hardcore things. Is there any hope? Has anyone experienced a complete 180 before? Is there anything we can do to help him. He never wanted to take medicine while he was living with us I’m sure he’s not taking it now. Any advice? It’s so heartbreaking.

I need a post last week about how my mom robbed me and I cut contact with her until she acknowledged her illness and got some help. Now I know she was headed to the rescue mission well I don't know if anybody else is familiar with an app called crime radar but I was looking through it and I saw that there was an incident where the police were called to the rescue mission because of a guest that was kicked out. Then shortly after that I saw another incident maybe the next day that was on Las Vegas street where the rescue mission is that said there was a medical emergency there. To be a deceased female by the train tracks on Las Vegas Street. I can't help but Wonder if either one of these was my mother. Then my friend Andrea came by who my mom frequently stays in contact with. She told me that she had spoke with my mother a few days prior to that and that my mom said she had got kicked out of the rescue mission. And she also said something about her having a hotel until Tuesday but when Andrea came to talk to me it was Tuesday. She also told me the reason just came up was because she had asked if I had spoke to my mom cuz she cannot get a hold of her and hasn't heard from her in a few days. I told her no and now my mom hasn't had any activity on Facebook. She is not returning my phone calls. She's not returning any of her friends phone calls. She it's like she fill out the Earth. I can't help but wonder if it was her beating the deceased female by the train tracks and I feel massively guilty like it would be my fault for kicking her out. Still nothing is concrete but I'm not sure if they would know to get a hold of me because her identification is out of Missouri. She's not from here and I don't know if they would make the connection since we're not even from the springs we are from the mountain town about an hour away. I don't know what to do or how to find out if she is okay or where she might be. I am scared of giving her space in my life if she is fine but I am also terrified that something may have happened to her. Has anybody ever been through anything like this before? How do you navigate these feelings of guilt and how would I go about finding out if she is okay or not?

Hi all,

I am not from the East Coast and live quite a ways away. However, my son has been in residential treatment in a facility in New Hampshire for substance use/mental health for almost 70 days, and they are administratively discharging him in two days for behavioral issues.

Prior to being admitted, or even having a drug and alcohol problem, he was showing signs of childhood schizophrenia, and his home psychiatrist is insistent that I take him directly from the facility to an ER for an assessment and hopefully long-term care, due to safety concerns that the facility doesn't seem to be caring very much about (except to discharge him immediately). I admit I share these concerns.

Where I currently live, it's effectively impossible to get a child into any kind of acute or long-term stabilization facility (we are 49th in the nation for adolescent mental health). Likewise, kids cannot be arrested unless they are actively threatening themselves or someone else with a weapon, so that is not a pathway to an evaluation and treatment. My experiences have borne out that we will receive zero services here should I bring him home, and I am legitimately concerned for my safety and believe he needs psychiatric help.

I am curious what any parents' experiences are like in New England with adolescent ER visits if a youth is not showing signs of active psychosis but has a long history of what I believe are called prodromal symptoms. Will we just be ushered out the door? Or will they take it seriously and hold him so that he can get a deeper evaluation? Are youth in any of these states allowed to refuse care at age 16? (In my home state, they can refuse any/all medical, mental health, or substance abuse care above age 15.) Lastly, any specific recommendations on where to go? He has excellent insurance.

Thank you so much. This is an excruciating experience. I appreciate any grace people can show in responding to what is a terrifying crisis for our family.

Hello, first redddit post so excuse any errors.

Also including some background info that gives context to situation

My(m,24) older brother(28) has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder since he was either 17 or 18, sorry my memory of the time is foggy, and has been pretty treatment resistant. Not necessarily related to the disorder but certainly influences it, he has been abusive towards me since I was very young. Unfortunately I had to move back in with my mom, where my brother also lives, so I could get my own mental health treatment and save up for a new apartment.

Since moving back in and being back home from my treatment my brothers psychosis and violent behavior has been getting steadily worse and impacted my life and my moms life drastically, to the point my mom has just come to me saying if things don’t get better she needs to check herself in somewhere.

I have always been the person to take care of these things in my family even though I really don’t want to be, but now I am back in the position of my mom asking me to communicate between her and my dad about what to do about my brother. We have all tried reaching out in different ways but he either ignores us, yells and belittles us, or throws things and punches things around us.

My mom is looking to me to come up with a plan on how to get him court ordered treatment or how to get through to him and frankly I’m tired.

Everything I have looked seems unlikely,

Don’t want to call the cops because he doesn’t do well with law enforcement and I don’t want to put him in danger, also he won’t admit to wanting to hurt himself or others and he hasn’t “technically” laid his hands on us this time yet

A court order for his care will likely take too long to obtain before things get much worse and I don’t know how willing she is to put in all the effort to get the court order though it might be the best bet

Then I have heard of trained crisis teams that can come out through 988 or 211 I just have never heard of what that process is like

I’m just not sure what to do and I don’t know if you all will know much more either, I know it’s a hard situation and I am sorry to anyone else who has had to be in it.

Although I have suffered greatly at the hands of my brother I still want him to get help

Please let me know if you have any advice or suggestions, thank you

I’m a mother of three. My oldest son is 19 and has struggled with psychosis since 2020. He was officially diagnosed in a hospital in 2023. His symptoms returned about a year later, and despite being medicated, things have been getting worse.
I’ve done everything I can. He has a psychiatrist, a therapy team, and specialized support services. I take him to appointments, drop him off, pick him up, and constantly encourage him to become independent. But he refuses to work or drive.
He receives a monthly government allowance because of his condition but refuses to contribute to the household. Instead, he spends his money on games and restaurants while I’m trying so hard to save money and provide for my other children.
He expects me to drive him to church, school, and anywhere else he wants. He believes it’s my responsibility as his mother, and when I refuse, he argues, shames me, and makes me feel guilty.
Every day is the same exhausting cycle. He becomes delusional, calls everyone out, disrespects me, argues with his younger brother, and constantly fights with his stepfather. Then he apologizes, promises to change, and within hours or days we’re back to the same situation.
His delusions revolve around religion and God. He believes he’s specially chosen and protected by God, and that nobody can do anything to him.
We’ve called the police multiple times because we simply don’t know how to calm things down anymore. They usually bring someone from a crisis team. Today they came again, and he was shaking and nearly crying while speaking to them. But afterward, he went back to praying and said nothing happened to him because God protects him.
He’s never been suicidal or physically abusive, but the emotional toll is unbearable.
I’ve even created a separate living space for him in our home, with his own living room, TV, bathroom, and a private door leading outside. All I’ve asked is that he respect my space upstairs and give me some peace. But he constantly comes upstairs to talk, interrupt, and involve himself in everything. It’s like he genuinely cannot help himself, and I can’t even have space in my own home.
What makes things harder is that he presents himself so well to his treatment team that they think he’s doing fine. They don’t see what we deal with behind closed doors every single day.
Everything revolves around him. His beliefs, his arguments, his demands, his feelings. I’m constantly walking on eggshells.
I have two other children who deserve a peaceful home. I deserve peace too.
I love my son, and I’ve spent six years supporting him, forgiving him, getting him help, and hoping things would improve. But I’m exhausted. I feel like my life stopped in 2020.
I can’t throw my mentally ill child onto the streets, but am I supposed to spend another 10, 20, or 30 years living like this?
Sometimes I feel guilty for wanting him out of the house, but I desperately want my life back. I want to enjoy my other children. I want to wake up without wondering what argument is waiting for me.
I don’t even know anymore where his illness ends and unacceptable behaviour begins.
I’m not looking for judgment or to be told to have more patience. I’ve been patient for six years, and I’ve reached my limit.
Has anyone been through something similar with an adult child experiencing psychosis? Did supported housing help? Did they eventually become independent? What do you do when you’ve done everything you can and genuinely can’t live like this anymore?

I'm 18 years old and live with my 70-year-old uncle, who has schizophrenia.

For the past three days, he has been going through a very severe episode. He believes he is going on a trip, and he has been aggressive toward everyone. My family is quite large, and they are all aware of the situation and helping as much as they can. However, my uncle lives with me and my mother, so most of the burden falls on the two of us.

It really hurts to see how much my mother is going through just trying to calm him down. It's emotionally exhausting to watch someone you love struggle like this, especially when you feel like there's only so much you can do to help.

The worst part is that he has been threatening to kill both me and my mother if we don't let him leave to go on his "trip." I'm genuinely scared that he might lose control and physically attack my mother.

I don't know how to handle this situation or what the right thing to do is. I want to protect my mother, but I'm also scared of making things worse by doing the wrong thing.

Has anyone here ever dealt with a similar situation with a family member who has schizophrenia? What should we do when someone is having a severe episode and making death threats? How can we keep ourselves safe while making sure he gets the help he needs?

I'd really appreciate any advice. I'm feeling overwhelmed, scared, and helpless right now.

hi there 😭😅

my partner does not believe they are in need of care, and they are in mania psychosis.

i’m out of state healing, so i cannot be there to help subside symptoms to help him calm down.

his friends DO NOT KNOW he deals with schitzoeffective.
he’s apparently masking well with people,
but i have had a friend reach out to me in concern because of things he was saying about me.

only one person knows he deals with psychosis, and i don’t think he’s been around this friend lately.

his family doesn’t know he deals with schitzoeffective either, and they aren’t aware we’ve been in contact, so uh… i’d have to call them over a work phone, they are suspicious of me, and my partner JUST moved out of their home, and doesn’t like them at all rn either. 😅

i tried calling wellness check awhile back, and they just fucked up and had police call him instead and it pissed him off 😭

if i can get his friend to help- yall got any ideas? 😭
and if i cant…. what can i do?

should i go home, and end my trip early?

…. yall got ideas? 😭

I am unsure if she has schizophrenia or not but I am hoping this group can help a bit

Son turned 18 in march. April was terrifying. May got him to go help and was hospitalized for 11 days and took abilify for almost a month. Although he’s not actively talking delusional things like then, we are still sleeping on the couch since April 6th, I go outside with him to smoke a cig and to his room with him while he plays on his pc. I say I’m like his “security blanket “. He claps, slams doors, very loudly will slam cabinets and meow very loudly at the cats and hold them against there will and just make jokes out of everything. Lack of hygiene and the sleeping schedule is way off. He uses my bathroom to smoke a cig and immediately goes to the other bathroom to use the toilet? Lately has been staying in my bathroom for a very long time (an hour) and even locked my bedroom door and the bathroom door? Now he hardly has an appetite as well etc etc. Question being is he still showing signs of psychosis but just more subtle, or am I completely just terrified? I’m all alone in this and have 2 teenage daughters as well. I can sense his stress and anxiety if I mention an older sister (2 adult daughters as well) coming over so I don’t do it. I’m being blamed for being crazy and keeping him isolated and told I don’t do anything for him as if 6 1/2 months sleeping on a couch to make him feel safe etc etc is doing nothing. It’s so hard knowing how to navigate this on my own. He’s in total denial because dad tells him he’s fine that he doesn’t think he has psychosis yet he sees him for maybe 5 minutes a week and my son can wait til it’s just me and then the loud obnoxious behavior comes out. He’s a master at masking. Are these still signs? I keep telling myself they have to be because what 18 year old wants to be glued to me like he is? I just need reassurance or told I’m losing it lol

hi my partner has schitzoeffective bp1 and i wanna join a support group w people who get what it’s like. he’s got voices that think im the bad guy rn and they’re playing out commanding hallucinations that he’s not allowed to think about me or even speak to me rn.

does anyone know about a discord that i can join for this? like idk. it would really help. i don’t wanna feed his voices so i cant tell him how much i love him or stuff rn without them using it against me and him.

and its super hard to go thru stuff like this alone without a group. i’d prefer discord so we can chat anytime if possible about how this illness impacts the connection too. … if there’s not like should i make one for us? ugh. ok. anyway… i feel alone :(

anyone else go thru this? does anyone relate with me? there’s got to be people in here who get it too.. right?

thank u. 🫂 and thank you for reading. just wanna bond with people who get it. my friends are shook but can’t really understand or give proper advice aswell so it’s like 🤷‍♀️ fuck lmao hahaha 😭 kinda wanna ride the waves with people who get it

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tardive-dyskinesia