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Possible Paranoid Personality

JaleryNew Contributor03 Mar 2017, 8:20 am AEDT

Possible Paranoid Personality

My 53 year old brother (I am 14 years older) has had severe paranoia for about 5 years. He is isolated and very suspicious of doctors. He is certain that people are drugging him. This all started with the breakdown of his relationship after his partner miscarried at 7 months. His physical health has been going downhill since then. We don't have a large family and he includes our brother in the paranoia. He calls me about every 2 months ... I live about 2.5 hours away. He will not tell me where he lives. However recently things are getting worse. He has started asking if he could be insane ... but will not take any suggestion that he might be wrong in the cause. I have no experience in mental issues ... but I decided to see if I could find anything that might e plain what it happening. So I read lots of stuff on Google ... and found Paranoid Personality Disorder which seemed to describe his symptoms. It suggested that this could be hereditary...so I thought this through. We had an uncle in England that also isolated himself from family and ended up having a heart attack and being buried in an unknown grave. His sister, my aunt only discovered he had died because he had paperwork with her address when his flat was emptied .. because he hadn't paid his rent nor had been living there for some time. Then my 43 year old son is starting to show similar symptoms ... However it seems logical to first get a prognosis ... however my brother tells me he is now physically unable to get to a doctor and no doctor would see him. I take it he has had 'run ins' with his local doctors ... he had a heart attack 18 months ago. So I somehow need to convince him this is worth working through to see that he just might have a mental issue ... that there just might be a light at the end of the tunnel other than 'Capitulate or Die' which his his present mind set. So is there such a thing as a doctor who deals in mental health that could talk things through. I could try to find him .. I have an idea of the area where he lives. I think it would help if I was there or could attempt to get him to a doctor. Any solid suggestions on how I should go about this would be gratefully received.

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In response to: Possible Paranoid Personality

Unknown userMember03 Mar 2017, 11:13 am AEDT

Re: Possible Paranoid Personality

Hello @Jalery

Welcome to the forums and thank you for sharing that with us 🙂

It sounds like you are very concerned for not only your brother with his paranoid thinking but also your son who is experiencing distrust with doctors.

It can be really difficult to get someone to see a GP or Psychologist if they do not want help so it can helpful to assist them with help-seeking behaviours, such as supporting them and talking about the feeling behind the paranoid thoughts.

Such as with your brother, if he is constantly suspicious and isolated that sounds terribly exhausting being worried all of the time, maybe talking about his worry with someone might help if he enjoys talking to you about it? Also, ask about him about how this is affecting is health, like his eating and sleeping behaviours, usually if they are affected negatively that can be a good gateway to getting them some support for that as this is something they can agree with you that needs support with whereas the paranoid thoughts - not so much.

A GP can be a really good starting point for mental health, or a Psychologist directly but he would usually need to go to their clinic, a social worker can do home visits if that is something that you think he might be interested in too?

Otherwise, just by you calling and checking in on him is so very supportive even thoough it doesn't feel like much, it helps greatly. They are both lucky to have you looking out for them 🙂

Lunar

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