My brother isn't taking his medicine.

Hi everyone, I was hoping someone could help me out.

I have been on the internet for a while trying to find a solution, but I couldn't find anything that was exact to my particular problem.

I have a brother who is 26 years old who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and ADHD about 4 years ago.
Recently he decided to stop taking is medicine and I know he's seeing/hearing some type of delusions by the way he is acting.

I tried to find someone who might have a similar problem, but as far as I've read from people who stopped taking their medicine, they are either aware of their delusions, or had put thought and consideration to not taking their medicine. High functioning schizophrenics.

But my brother is different. He was always different even when we were younger, he was always (I don't know the proper word for this so sorry if offensive) slow. Much more than everyone else but was never diagnosed with anything until he was an adult.

He's too smart to be considered retarded (sorry also don't know if there is a proper word for this either) but too slow to be an efficient adult, so often times he gets treated unfairly by others around him because they just see him as "stupid' and understands what he's doing. (I admit myself for wondering why he's doing some things he does because I KNOW he knows.. but at the same time I know he doesn't know..it's complicated)

He doesn't understand what he's doing..I think?, and doctors think he's coherent enough to make his own decisions(in their mind he is, but my mother and I know better) and he is an adult so no one can "make" him do anything.

He also puts himself in situations where most "normal" people (and I use the word normal in the most general way) He would go hang out with people who constantly abuse him.. i.e. have stolen from him, made him use all his money to buy stuff, beat him up etc. but he just keeps going back to these "friends" I've asked him why does he wanna be around people like this but I can also understand that he just wants to have friends. I want to know why he keeps doing this to himself.

I want to also add he is always high on something. He spends ALL of his (SSI?) money on weed and alcohol. Every single day. He has no desire to ever get a job or get "clean" He's also on probation and has to make clean drug tests which he keeps failing. I don't know exactly the circumstances surrounding this, but it's obvious he thinks nothing is going to happen to him and he can just keep giving up dirty urine.

I blame my mother sometimes for the way he is too. She is an enabler. She will drive him to these "friends" where she knows what happens to him and what he does when he leaves. But at the same time, I know if she doesn't he will just scream and please please please bug her all day and night until she breaks, can't get a moment of silence and just does it. I've told her, just ignore him but I know she just loves her son so much and just wants him to be happy. Even if it's on his drugs, at least he's acting happy and not crying from the side effects of his medicine or bugging out in the middle of the night from nightmares.

She's often asked me.. What do I think is better? Should he just do whatever he wants just so he is happy? Or should she somehow force him to take his medicine and never drive him to the places he wants to go and he will go on to be miserable for the rest of his life.

Okay, I'm sorry for writing too much I just wanted to give as much backround on him as possible in hopes someone out there knows someone else similar to this.


My main question is.. should we somehow force him to take his medicine? The doctor said my mother should grind it up in his food but 1: she can't bring herself to do this (I have no moral problems with this though, so I will if need be) and 2: if he finds out he will probably flip a $#%^ and that will be bad for everyone.

P.S. The medicine he takes is Zyprexa, depacote, benztropine and I think maybe something else though I can't be certain of tat atm.

Thank you to all who take the time to read my story.

i have a similar issue as well. My sister is in her mid 30's and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. She stopped taking her meds a year ago and started to take herbal meds instead as her abilify and zyprexa were causing weight gain. She is now relapsing and is back to her paranoid self. Very sensitive, easily agitated, doesnt trust anyone, cant sleep and very difficult to deal with. She is even having 2nd thoughts of seeing her psychiatrist. I am having issues trying to commuincate with her, long way to get her to see her doc and restart her meds. Also looking for answers

I think the best thing you guys can do is hope that your relatives can somehow realize that their medications are necessary to their well-being. I attempted to stop my meds at several points after being diagnosed with schizophrenia and each time I did, I relapsed really badly. I would say sit down and have a talk with your relatives in order to tell them how much safer they can be if they just stay on their meds.

Remember: It IS possible to live a happy and fulfilling life, even on medication.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with me.
At the moment he is being taken back to the hospital again by my mother. He's having another episode. Someone from the group therapy he goes to "stole his neck and his heart from his chest"
He was actually doing "OK" for this whole time he wasn't taking the medicine. He just started back on them again on Saturday.


I wish he was more like you Ichi_Darake. You seem to understand what is going on with you and able to think when you are on your medication.


The problem with him is even when he's "normal" he's not actually "normal" He is and always be slow and socially inept. He is unable to understand the simplest of things often, even when he's not in his schizophrenic episodes.

He understands but he doesn't understand. I really.. It's so hard for me to explain. I never met anyone like him before, and I've met other schizophrenics before.

It's the slow thing that's more debilitating I think. At least when he's on the medicine he doesn't have his delusions. When he's back to "normal" he will still never be a productive member of society.

My parents are old. They can't take care of him forever and he can't take care of himself. My dad is fed up and has quite a few times said just leave him in the hospital.

But like I said in the my original post, he is too "smart" to be "retarded" and too "slow" to be "normal"
So I'm not even sure what will happen to him in life since I don't think anyone will care for him for free. This worries me the most.

LostSister wrote:I'm not even sure what will happen to him in life since I don't think anyone will care for him for free. This worries me the most.

In that case, it may be better to have your brother find a permanent resisdential program to live in within the hospital since he's not able to care for himself. You could also consider caring for him yourself if you are able to afford it. Just a suggestion.

Schizofrenia is a constant battle...He's on some pretty hardcore meds...do you know the dosage?

@Ichi

If he was one of those introverted people who wasn't a drug addict I wouldn't mind taking care of him. He is constantly out and wanting to be out somewhere around people. Which is fine, I wouldn't mind taking him anywhere if it's with decent people or something he needs but he only wants go go be with other junkies. And he is a thief.. even now my family has everything from credit cards to car keys locked up and on watch 24/7. Look away for a minute and that cigarette or quarter you left on the table is gone.

Plus I live with my boyfriend too. Once my brother punched him in the face because he thought my boyfriend was "putting electricity into his body" I don't want to be in fear and constantly locking everything up for the rest of my life either.


Is it possible to find a permanent home for him? My mother has been everywhere and doing everything and we haven't found anything like this. Do you know if there is any in the Northeast area of the United States?

@Da God
No I'm not sure of the dosage he takes.. the pills are huge though. And the last medicine I forgot in my original post I just remembered was Staterra. He takes those too and a high prescription of Vitamin D3

LostSister wrote:

Is it possible to find a permanent home for him? My mother has been everywhere and doing everything and we haven't found anything like this. Do you know if there is any in the Northeast area of the United States?

In the Northeastern United States is Friends Hospital. They have a program that offers residential housing for people like your brother. It's located in Philadelphia, PA. Hope this helps.

I wouldn't so much focus on medicating him, he may have a good reason behind not taking them. Keep in mind he to can reason, maybe not like we would expect him too, but its still there. I however would focus on both of (you and your mom) getting involved with him especially keeping him away from bad influences like your friends.

My theory as to why he keeps going back to these friends is solely from wanting to be accepted by people and the fact that they might be promising him things that they obviously don't intend on giving (loyalty,honest ect) . The "friends" know that he is lonely and so forth and are using that against him so they can get what they want, money and whatever at his expense. For lack of better words they are brainwashing him into putting up with what they are doing to him. Hes falling for it (really anybody could in that position) trapped in a cycle where he for what ever reason knows no way out of. In the end, the constant hurt from them is making his issues 1000x worse.

I would recommend trying to get him involved in Adult community acclivities where he is valued and feels like he himself is in charge. Before that can happen he must trust you first. Once he feels you can offer more than others he will listen and be open to ideas. Keep in mind that there will be slip ups, but its feasible.

As for him being "slow", he may just be withdrawn and depressed. People who don't feel respected or are made fun of others for being different become this way. They get depressed, and then picked on more and more depressed and worse and... it repeats itself next thing you know. Im saying this because im venturing to say he was probably made fun of at some point in time for being different, and a lot more than you may know about. Most people are. And many, many people are different.

As a final thought maybe you could talk him into joining a forum like this? there are people here who help rather than judge.

I am not sure if I should be posting this here or not, but here goes. For the past several years I have been in and out of Psych wards for suicide attempts. I am a recovering alcoholic, and have since (been just over a year sober) quit drinking.

That is the background info. Relevant to this post (I hope) is that everytime I have come home from the hospital I have gotten regulated on meds (usually an antidepressant of some sort) done well, then for no specific reason decided to "take myself off" said meds. Everything seems fine until my wife and start having ridiculous disagreements that evolve into catastrophic fights.

It takes thes 'little episodes' for me to realize that hey, maybe I should still be taking my meds. I just wish I had some little story or quip to remind myself when I decide to stop. Not sure if this will help anyone in this thread, just thought I'd share my experiences over the years.