It is to understand that your brother never was who you thought he was. Although when he was younger he may have mirrored social behaviors or social responses, he has never been able to make the abstrct leap to understand the true meanings we attatch to them. He takes them literally and as fact and believes that people will do literally what they say. That is why the older he got the more socially awkward he would seem, not because he was losing ground, but because everyone else was understanding what the intended meanings were. Because of this, he has had many negative interactions, that have left him feeling that he is really picked on. It is to try to help him understand the intended meanings in very straight forward language that has literall meaning.

This is a hard post to reply to for me. My ex-husband had many of the same behaviors that you are describing in your brother. We think my ex's symptoms began with anxiety attacks in his teens, that continued through his 20's and on into his 30's. Then, he started doing odd things. One day the rearview mirror came off of his truck (a very old truck) and he called me at work to tell me that someone had been "messing" with his truck while we slept. He called the police and they came out and made a report. I didn't think much about it at the time. Soon after, he began to believe that someone was after him and began sitting up in the dark, all night long, watching our front yard. If he saw any type of personal ad in the paper, which run on the front page of our local paper, that had a word in the text like, truck, our town, his first name (very common) or a word that he had used that day (lunch, food, drink, sun, cloud, etc.) he believed it was a message to him. He finally had to be hospitalized when he said that he had to kill himself to stop it, and he believed that all of the ceiling fans in our home contained listening devices and that god was listening to him, among others. There was only one room in our home that he felt wasn't bugged. I looked for information everywhere and finally figured out that his symptoms mirrored something called major depressive disorder that has paranoia with it, although it is not schizophrenia. After some fool psychiatrists, and we went through a few, I found one that my husband felt he could talk to and would listen to me when I described the things I was seeing. My ex was put on 3 medications, and after about 3 weeks, long enough for them to get into his system, he became like his old self. Unfortunately, he then believed he didn't need the meds anymore and quit taking them. I didn't stay for part 2. I did see him after our divorce and he now watches no tv other than religious programming and he writes to the television preachers. (the ex never was concerned with religion in his life and loved trash tv in his "other life").

As for your brother, there may be times of the day or week when he is more receptive to talking "sanely" than others. If you can find that time, talk to him about seeking help. It is available. If you really believe that he is a danger to himself or others, you can call the police and he can be involuntarily committed under the "baker act". If it comes to that, do not feel guilty like I did. My ex actually liked the structured environment of the hospital and he was safe. The more information you can give the doctors about previous anxiety attacks, family mental health, etc., the better.

Plese read step on and if you can somehow get your brother to read it. If you take this approach to heart, you will see it work.