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ladyislingering · 08-18-2015, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exo

So my brother had an incident on Sunday. I had no idea until about two hours ago. My parents did't want to stress me out til they knew all the details.

Spoiler for important stuff you wrote, but I don't wanna stretch the thread too much:

My brother has had a lot on his plate the last month and a half. The following are what he's had to deal with...

1. Week stint in county for back-talking a counselor.
2. His girlfriend breaking up with him for the above reason.
3. A new job that while only being a pizza employee, still requires him to work five nights a week.
4. Along with work he has to go to Out Patient sessions three times a week. They last three hours each.
5. He also has to go to drug court twice a week to be drug tested.

6. To top it all off, a friend of his who he has only known for a month is having family issues and is currently homeless. My brother has a good heart and has been helping him out by buying him lunch and ferrying him to shelters to spend the night.

All of this stuff must have caused him to have a mental breakdown on Sunday because he was at a local convenience store where he started to remove his clothes in the parking lot for an unknown reason. When the police eventually showed up my brother tried to avoid being captured by jumping on the police car and shouting that the mafia was after him and that he's had three guns put to his head today, and that if he goes to jail he's a dead man. The police finally got him and handcuffed him but they thought he was on drugs so they sent him to the hospital first.

No drugs. Tested negative. That is awesome and frightening at the same time because it means he will most likely not go to jail but it also means his mental health issues have gotten pretty severe.

He's still in the hospital and is still stark raven mad. He still thinks there's people after him and he still is spewing out nonsense. The nurses and doctors say that it's one of the longest mental episodes they've seen in a while.

I'm tired of this. I'm not mad at my brother. I'm tired of this countries metal health providers constantly failing my brother. I don't know what he has, but it's serious, and doctors haven't been able to find out what it is in three f*cking years. My family doesn't have a history with schizophrenia otherwise that'd be my first guess considering his behavior. I have no idea what's wrong with him and neither does anybody else.

I feel horrible. I want to help my little brother but I don't know how. I feel helpless. What's worse is that during the episode my brother lost his necklace. It's a pennant with my grandfather's ashes in it. They were close. I'm going to give him mine. He needs my grandfather more than I do.

This is why I'm a bit of a c*nt today.

There are a few things I need you to know right now.

I'm sorry this is happening to your brother, you, and your family. Mental illness is a terrifying, unforgiving, indiscriminate beast.
With the right testing, medication, and care, I'm almost completely certain his condition can be brought to a manageable level. Not "cured", but stable.
During your brother's time of recovery it's important that he knows that you love him unconditionally. Remind him of this daily in direct but different ways.
I fully admire how considerate and compassionate you are toward your brother, despite his illness. You're a kind person and you should be proud of that.
It took me almost half an hour to write this because I was looking for the right words. I hope you'll have some good news to share with us soon.