How Do I Respond to a Schizohrenia? Posted: 09-17-06 13:14pm
My older brother (22) has schizophrenia.
He has been hospitilized 3 times. He
seems to have an obsession with the fbi
watching him, but despite everything my
family has went through with him, he
thinks he is perfectly normal. He thinks
the natural noises in the house like
little clicks in the walls are the fbi
trying to irritate him. And everywhere he
goes, they could be and probably are
watching him.
During the past he misinterperated
incidents where he thought people were fbi
agents were on the tv just to let him know
that knew about him and were watching him.
He also apparently believes that they can
read his thoughts at times because of an
incident when he was listening to the
radio: if he wanted a drink, a song about
drinking would play; if his heart started
beating fast the song title would be
"rapid heart beat."
he was been relatively stable since the
last time he was in the hospital. He goes
to school full time and works at night.
But every few weeks he begins talking with
me about how the fbi is watching him. He
tell me to be quiet and listen for the
little clicks in the walls that happen
naturally in the house, but he is
convinced this is the fbi and is absolute
proof the fbi is watching him. When he
does that or takes me through all the
other "coincidences" of his past fbi
experiences I am not sure how to anwser
him. I've tried to tell him that the
noises and coincidences were just
misinterperted which only made him mad and
to him explaining further how they were
absolute proof, even though the incidents
don't really make sense. I've also tried
to tell him that he has schizophrenia
because people with schizophrenia seem to
have similiar obsessions with the fbi, I
even pulled up information about other
schizophrenic's stories that involved the
fbi which were very close to his. He just
said they were crazy and his experiences
were different.
Nothing seems to work and I am no longer
sure how to respond.
Whenever he beings these incidents up he
says he knows that I don't believe or
trust him. And how real everything is.
It seems nothing will oonvince him other
wise. How do I respond to him? He only
brings this up around me and never around
our parents.
Thanks.
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singledad
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 86 Location: New Mexico
Posted: 09-17-06 16:48pm
Paranoia is a common symptom of
schizophrenia, a feeling of being watched
- in fact, he is being watched, but by you
and your family, and it may be easier to
create an abstract "enemy" like the fbi,
rather than deal with the fact that people
are concerned about his odd behavior - it
might stem from denial on his part.
Synchronicity - the thing with the radio
merging with his physical and emotional
state is called synchronicity - sort of a
chain of very eerie conincidence - most
likely due to autosuggestion, but it can
get very strange.
Nevertheless, to him, it most likely seems
very real, and as i've said, his fears are
not entirely unfounded, except that he's
displacing them. I've mentioned it to
others in this forum, but i'll say it
again, do whatever ou can to reduce his
stress, see if you can get him to obsess
about something more productive, yoga was
mentioned by soemone, adn I think it's a
very good idea: buy some books on the
subject, and try to get some on
traditional yoga, there are some very
complex spiritual aspects and rituals:
chakras, mandalas, mantras, etc., to it
that might keep him occupied, and help him
organize his thoughts.
Try to keep up, because any
religious/spiritual system like this is
also, on it's most basic level, a sort of
language, with specific word-concepts for
things that might otherwise be difficult
to describe, yoga is very much about the
mind body conection, and you may be able
to talk about things that you otherwise
have no common symbolic/linguistic
concepts for.
It's a system based on mental/physical
feedback, calming and focusing, all of
which should help.
It's also going to be stressful for you,
so you may actually want to try it
yourself, it can't hurt - try to find some
traditional yoga classes, and investigate
it, talk to the instructor about your
brother and his situation.
Otherwise, about all that can be done is
to medicate. An idee fixe like this is
very difficult to dislodge - in a sense,
his paranoid construct provides him an
anchor for his conscious mind, which would
otherwise be adrift in a very chaotic and
terrifying manner - it's actually more
comforting to believe that the fbi is
after him - it at least makes some sort of
sense.
Don't confront him or try to talk him out
of it, it can actually make an obsessive
compulsion like this worse - unless he
starts really getting agitated - show him
there isn't anybody at the door, and that
at least for now, he's safe - this is an
incredibly stressful experience for
someone to go through, and in some cases,
it better to play along a bit, and
reassure him to attenuate the stress,
without neccesarily reinforcing his
fantasies - then play it down a bit
indirectly (i.E., remain calm, try a
little humor, etc.) after he calms down,
when you can try to subtly distract and
redirect him into more productive areas.
