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brother hearing voices

becksull

becksull

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
13
My brother recently came out of prison. About 3 months ago, they sent him to a mental hospital because he was hearing voices and thought people were trying to kill him. He was released and was okay for a while. But the voices came back and he tried to cut himself and was sent back there. He was released again only two weeks later. He has been in and out of jail for the past 3 years of his life and he has changed significantly since.

He was previously using ice and crack. He is hearing voices constantly, they are saying very aggressive things to him and he is always yelling at them and swearing making him really angry and hard to be around.

It is making it very hard for him to sleep, hold down a job and get along with people in general. He has lost all of his friends including his girlfriend who just had his baby. It's horrible to see how miserable he is. Especially not knowing how I can help him, all he has is his family who are really struggling to deal with it. None of the family can live with him and he may be on the street soon. I cannot take him into my home as I live with my Dad who is not his father and refuses to have him in our home.

I have suggested he stop drinking alcohol as he drinks a lot. I have no idea if he is still using drugs still but he can't afford it so I don't think he is. He is only 22 years old.

Has anyone had a similar experience with hearing voices? What helped to get rid of them? We are desperate to help him and want the old happy person he used to be back...

Any help would be great.
Thanks
 
bump (cos u can't bump your own threads) :P

Sorry i don't know how to help..

I'm guessing he is on medication and seeing someone? If not i'd strongly afvise taking him to see a professional.. atleast untill he is stable (got voices under control etc)..

Best of luck.
 
Has your brother been diagnosed with a mental illness? If so, was he like this before he started using drugs? It's possible that, since he's been abusing crack and meth, that the drugs are what is causing him to hear voices and have other psychotic symptoms. If he does have a mental illness and he is still using drugs nothing but trouble is going to come of it; he'll just keep getting worse. The best thing that he can do for himself right now is to stop using drugs period, including alcohol, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen

Unfortunately, the only person who can start to help your brother is himself. He has to choose to change his ways and he has to realize on his own that he has a serious problem and needs to stop.

The only other thing I want to mention is that if your brother is mentally ill then mental illness runs in your family. You may eventually develop a mental illness down the line if this is so and he is directly related to you. Just something to think about.

Can you have him committed to an inpatient mental hospital? It sounds like that would be the best place for him to be right now. They can get him on medications to end his psychotic behavior and possibly try to get him other help that he is in desperate need of. If your brother is mentally ill he's going to need to see a psychiatrist and a psychologist/therapist regularly and take his medications.

I hope that things work out in the end. I can only imagine how hard this must be on you and your family.
 
Hearing voices with a tendency to think people are out to kill you plus a history of self harm is an emergency. The most reliable way to arrest psychosis is anti-psychotics. A person in that situation needs a Doctor and most likely a secure environment.

Long term therapy, less stress, a medication regimen and abstinence from amphetamines will all be a part of the plan-but in an emergency all you need to worry about is getting to an ER for stabilization. Sorry this thread slipped through for so long and thanks to rickolasnice for bumping.

das_feuer said:
The only other thing I want to mention is that if your brother is mentally ill then mental illness runs in your family. You may eventually develop a mental illness down the line if this is so and he is directly related to you. Just something to think about.
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Genetic components are proven for some psychoses, not all. Amphetamines and release from prison are involved here and this could be toxicity, brief reactive psychosis, or many other things. Do you really think it was helpful to bring that shit up now? You seem to be a recurrent evangelist for everyone to get a diagnosis and live the straight and narrow. That's OK, but ask yourself once in a while if its really being helpful in the given situation, please.
 
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^Psychological Trauma(Prison?) and previous crack use can bring on these Psychotic episodes ...however, Im not a Professional and they alone can hopefully properly diagnose this.

Wondering why he was released from the Hospital, has he stopped taking his Meds/Anti-Psychotics?

Is there any possibility that he has been hiding his Hallucinations for some time, in an effort to stay out of the Psych wards, and now they are gettin worse?
My Partner Experinces Auditory Hallucinations from chronic Alcohol abuse, and an old friend about 6 yrs ago had suffered prolonged, Psychotic Episodes from Alcohol and Drug(Amphetimine, MDMA and LSD)abuse , she is presently doing very well and on a very low dose of Anti-Psychotic meds. Getting a good Psychiatrist is important, do you think you could scource one for him, I understand expense may make this difficult so maybe someone else could offer some valuable routes to help for him here?
Rehab may offer a solution to help, as substances are exhasberating/causing the situation, also since he will also have nowhere to stay in his present condition?

This must be a horrendous Experience for him, and you and your Family my heart goes out to you!:( However he is lucky to have a Sibling with his best interests at heart. People do get better from these situations. Do take care of yourself as well BeckSkull!
Sorry I cant be of more help but keep posting here it is a great place to get advice and support<3
 
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Hearing voices at this level is pretty much emergency room material. You might feel like a total bastard doing it but you need to call emergency services and make sure he gets there pronto. Once he's there the docs can at least give him something that will make him calm down and see sense enough so that you can at least talk to him and explain things from your point of view. That's an incredibly strong option and it will probably damage your relationship pretty seriously (at least in the short-medium term): sorry but you don't have many other options at this point.

He sounds like he's damn lucky to have someone like you as a brother though, I'll say that.
 
Yeah, seems like the most logical option would be to have him see a psychiatrist and get on some good meds. It seems to me that he is perhaps suffering from schizophrenia, but the psychiatrist will be able to tell for sure what mental disorder he has, and then can get him on the best medicine for his disease. Best of luck, and PLEASE don't let him live on the street, that will only make his illness much worse!
 
Yep. This is a psychiatric emergency, well beyond the capacity of non-professionals to handle. First of all the psychosis needs to be brought under control and then future management needs to be looked at. If your brother has a history of both psychotic episodes and non-compliance with meds, there are depot injections available of some of the older style psych drugs.

Drugs can certainly precipitate psychotic episodes even in people who have no history of mental illness but both his age, the history you've given, and the nature of his hallucinations strongly suggest an underlying major mental health disorder (probably on the schizophrenia spectrum).
 
becksull, there have been a lot of helpful comments in this thread so far, if you could possibly give us an update on your brother's situation we'd love to hear it. I hope everything's okay <3
 
Certainly sounds like it could be schizophrenia, make sure he goes and sees a psychiatrist and psychologist (yes there is a difference)!
 
^^^ Schizophrenia is not the only mental disorder that causes you to hear voices which is why he needs to get this diagnosed if he hasent already. Granted the drug and alcohol abuse will cloud the diagnoses abit maybe because i sure as hell felt out of contact with reality after detoxing from alcohol. Also coke use really makes me crazy especially if i IV it so yeah all this shit can have a effect on your mental health.

I have bipolar disorder with some psychotic symptoms and i do here voices though i don't think they are ever real. I can tell the voices and weird hallucinations are not real at all unless i have totally lost the plot. Anti-psychotics help a hell of alot and at the dose im on i don't even get any side effects unless you would call sanity a side effect :\ . I like your brother sometimes makes things much worse on myself by taking coke or dextroamphetamine both of which are not good for mental health at all. Alcohol is maybe the only drug that actually makes me psychotic though to the point where i completely lose it so he should most certainly quit that.

He needs to see a mental health professsional ASAP because hearing voices to the extent that he is hearing them is a medical emergency that is treated with anti-psychotics.

Give us a update if/when you can would you?
 
I'm sure he has had psychological evaluations done if he's been in the psych ward.. twice.

I would help to know what prescriptions he's given, and whether or not he takes them as prescribed.
 
If he's at risk of being homeless then he may be eligible for help from Adult Protective Services in your state and placement in an assisted living facility or some other type of assisted living, but the absolute priority at the moment is getting him assessed and stabilised.

When he was previously discharged it's almost certain that some kind of follow-up would have been arranged and that he would have been hooked up with a caseworker whose role was to help him access support services like psychosocial day programmes, ongoing counselling, income support, etc. If you know who that person is, contact them. If not, contact the facility from which he was discharged and tell them what's going on - they may have some kind of crisis or outreach programme for former patients.

While it's not uncommon for people to be non-compliant with their meds, it's also possible for people to decompensate even when taking their meds exactly as directed.

It's really important that you hand this over to the professionals ASAP - command hallucinations place your brother at high risk of a bad outcome.
 
Im sorry to be brutally honest but i think some form ofv detention through the mental health act.Theres more than just your brother that needs to be considered theres your and your familys safety to consider and strangers who he comes into contact with.Its pretty obvious your brother is suffering and i feel for him i do but to continue using drugs in the situation hes in at the moment is a indicator that he is oblivious to how bad he is and his thought process must be all over the place.!! DONT! leave things act sooner than later as the saying gos cruel to be kind.This really is the best course of action and shall i tell you why because ive been there i wish you well PS excuse the spelling i have adult A D H D and DYSLEXIA!! GOOD LUCK :-)
 
Prison is not a substitute for a mental health care facility. Police officers and security guards are not substitutes for doctors and psychiatrists.

Have a psychiatric disorder is not a crime. It's sad that we have to lobby to "decriminalize" mental illness.

When a mentally ill person acts out due to a delusional state, they need a bed, not a cell.
 
Cyc said:
Prison is not a substitute for a mental health care facility. Police officers and security guards are not substitutes for doctors and psychiatrists.

Have a psychiatric disorder is not a crime. It's sad that we have to lobby to "decriminalize" mental illness.

When a mentally ill person acts out due to a delusional state, they need a bed, not a cell.
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Ya don't even get me started on that shit. Pigs here love to pick on mentally ill people so yeah people with psychiatric disorders should be treated like anyone else having any other kind of medical emergency not like a fucking criminal.

One of the reasons i have never gone to the ER while manic is because of the stigma attached to it and the fact that you get fuck all care. Society has a long way to go in treating people with mental disorders.
 
^^ Sad, but so true.

All I can do is echo what most others have said here: this is the mental equivalent of a gunshot wound. He needs urgent medical attention. Any chance of an update becksull?
 
These could help they hellped me.. I have more if you would like

http://ayahuasca.tribe.net/thread/1d70479e-7d2b-4956-84ad-b908164269be

^ with this one I think its the 12th post, its long, but Dr Hampejs is well know and has written a few books, I think they are available free of charge but only in german and spanish

http://jungianschizophrenia.blogspot.com/

http://www.jungcircle.com/exile.html

http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/recovery-from-extreme-states-psychosis-etc/

http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n3/07318fis.html

^ this last one would have to be one of my favorite articles iv ever found on d net

I know from my own pychosis/schizophrenia the whole story is not just brain chems, I cant explain what happen to me nor any Dr or so called scientist coz nothing makes any sense..all I know is this Sufi sheik helpped me without drugs/meds. Im not 100% well and it was a long road.

some shamans/medicine/healers say that even depression and anxiety is cause by spirits..we let them in and they work on our subconscious negative vibration and once we let go of the pain and restructure our beliefs our sublte body vibration changes and they leave.

The guy that helpped me said some ppl just have a chem in balance that can be caused by many things and some times its hard to find what the cause of the problem is

The most important thing as a shaman once said is faith, you must beleive you will get better, the strength lies wihtin each of us as do the answers

I hope this can help someone
 
Its a sensetive issue but i feel what i said was .Correct but its hard to gauge just how serious this poor fellas symptoms are!!. But i know i was told the things i were doing i would have ended up without interv ention in a graveyard or inside for murder. So i belive what alot of the abouve have said esspecially poster he needs a HOSPITAL BED AND NOT A PRISON CELL!! couldnt agree more!
 
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