Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[pablom]

First time poster. A long post.

My sister is 32 and lives at home with my mum & dad. She suffered her first episode of psychosis at 21 to a point where my parents did not feel safe and called the emergency services (I was living out of home at this stage) and she was hospitalised for a period of time. Since then it has been a long time for recovery. She slowly progressed from being extremely abusive phsycially and verbally to my parents and I and many hallucinations/paranoia of a sexual nature, or just general paranoia. She was under medication and it has taken approxiamtely 10 years to stabilise to a point early this year where she was doing well and had full time work.

Recently she has developed signs again of another onset of pyschosis. She is not nearly as bad as she was last time, and is still attending work but we don't know what her behavious is like there. She has started with paranoia and minor verbal abuse to my parents. I do not live at home anymore. We have discovered she has stopped taking her meds for at least 1 month now. She has taken a sharp turn in the past week.

I can see that my parents are exhausted and stressed and are basically a sounding board to her horrible words. I have come over several times now and checked in with her. She says she is fine, but will often rant on about one thing or another. I directly asked if she has taken her medication, she said she had. We checked and she had not. I told her I though she needed to see her psychiatrist as she does not seem well. She disagrees.

How do I convince her she needs to see the psychiatrist, or take her medication, if she does believe it. She doesn't remember her most recent severe verbal attack on my parents. Is this something i can tell her she did, as a way to convince her she needs to check in with the psychiatrist?

Thank you for any advice.

[Blackbird11]

Hi @pablom 

Welcome to the forums, glad you're here. Sounds like a difficult situation. It can be hard to point out to others that their behaviours are warning signs to poor health. Here is a fact sheet for Families, friends & carers (sane.org) Hopefully it has helpful information in there for you. Look after yourself, you matter too.

[tyme]

Hey @pablom ,

That sounds incredibly scary and hard. With paranoia and psychosis, it can be quite tricky. I'm sorry to hear she has stopped taking her medication. I wonder if you can try telling her gently that you can see the recent change in her? Let her know you have seen how far she has come and the last thing you want is to see things end up as they were a number of years ago.

I hear your family is tired too. This is totally understandable. 

Would she go with you to the GP?

[cherryblossom8]

Hi @pablom,

Welcome on the forum and good on you for reaching out. This is a great community for you to be engaged with. I am so sorry to hear that your sister has stopped taking medication. I assume she was taking anti-psychotic medication prior to that and I am so happy that your family found it effective to the point that your sister could take on a full-time job. It's a really positive step. My husband had two major psychotic episodes and was hospitalised twice in the lasy 2 years. To be honest, we could have avoided a second episode if my husband had agreed to take medication the first time. At the moment, he is on a very low dose and has resumed part-time work which is a happy medium for him. He knows that he may need to continue taking this low dose of antipsychotic for a while and he has reconciled with that idea. 

It's really great that you are carefully watching your sister right now, as it's generally not best practice to stop taking medication cold turkey. Ideally, she should speak with her GP or psychiatrist if she wants to wean herself off gradually. She needs to be supported by professionals during this potentially volatile period. You could start the conversation gently with your sister by asking your sister to tell you what the potential barriers are for her to follow her treatment. She might be worried about certain side effects that could be avoided by switching treatment. Try to maintain dialogue in a positive way, it's important that you do not take over and make her feel that she is in charge of her own life. However, it's okay for you to voice your concerns and suggests options (like taking her to a community mental health centre, speak to a peer support worker, etc...). Also, you may find this article helpful for you to deal withthis topic and watch for warning signs:

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/drugs-and-treatments/antipsychotics/coming-off-antipsych...

Stay positive and keep being an awesome sister! Let us know if you have any other concerns or if things change. We're there for you. Take good care of yourself 🙂

[hanami]

Thank you @cherryblossom8  for your wise words of support. 

I hope you found this helpful @pablom 

Thinking of you

Hanami

[cherryblossom8]

Hi @pablom,

I hope you are having a good week and that you have noticed improvements with your sister. Please feel free to connect and send updates. If it's too much at the moment, just know that this community is sending you positive energy 🙂 Hang in there 🙂

[pablom]

Thanks @tyme.

I did tell her but she disagreed. Fortunately she talked herself into going, but also asked my parents they they go as 'they need help'. This a part of her slightly distorted reality when she is coming close to a psychotic break. In speaking with my parents she is taking her medication again which explains why she is now ok to go to the doctors. I believe she is slowly coming back on track.

Thank you for your words of support, i really appreciate it.

[pablom]

Thanks @cherryblossom8.

Sad to hear about your experiences but glad thigns seem to be going ok!

I did tell her but she disagreed. Though
i do take your point re weaning off the medication and maybe this is somethign i can suggest she talk to her doctor about - I have no doubt he will advise she does not do that and she does need it, but I think this is better coming from him than me.

Fortunately she talked herself into going, but also asked my parents they they go as 'they need help'. This a part of her slightly distorted reality when she is coming close to a psychotic break. In speaking with my parents she is taking her medication again which explains why she is now ok to go to the doctors. I believe she is slowly coming back on track.

Thank you for your words of support, i really appreciate it.

[pablom]

@hanami - I did, thank you for this.

[pablom]

Thank you @cherryblossom8