My sister was diagnosed with PTSD...

Because she had a psychotic episode following a horrible accident where her entire arm and parts of her side and breast were burned. During the episode she had auditory and visual hallucinations and thought that people (including myself and my family) wanted to kill her. She spent two weeks in a psychiatric ward before they said she could go home. She was prescribed a bunch of different stuff for a while but now has only been taking a very low dose of Seroquel once per night. She has continued having some psychotic symptoms since...mainly thinking that she is unsafe in perfectly normal conditions and believing that strange patterns exist with numbers she sees. At times she thought that people close to her were vampires.

The Seroquel seemed to help but now her behavior has become increasingly strange. She is now acting like a rebellious adolescent and she has stopped taking the Seroquel (which I think is worsening the symptoms). She is lying to everyone about everything. She claims she can't find the Seroquel but we believe she threw it away. She cut off a lot of her hair and then biked around town with very revealing clothing on. She told my mom she was doing this on purpose to make her upset and chase her and try to get her to stop. Her behavior has become so erratic that we are unsure what to even do with her, and we are not getting much guidance from her psychologist. She hasn't slept in days now (which was a big problem for her after the accident) and she often disappears...walking around aimlessly for hours or driving around in her car aimlessly for hours.

I personally think that the accident exacerbated problems in the past that she had - before the accident she was behaving strangely and we later found out that she was very depressed during this time in her life. She mostly had problems with forming normal, adult relationships with boys and often acted like a kid when in her late 20s. She was very hurt by a lot of breakups she had by boys in the past as well as friends who turned out to not be very good friends at all.

Anyway, does anyone have any advice for what we can do regarding dealing with her? We are trying to stop giving her the attention she craves but we worry that she may do something really bad (possibly even harmful) to get attention. We just want her to get to the point where she has a happy, healthy life and healthy relationships with others. Now, due to her behavior, she is forcing the people who care about her most to start distancing themselves from her.

TL;DR: My sister was diagnosed with PTSD. She is refusing to take her medication and is getting worse. Looking for any advice you can give.

He BlueEyedPop,

I am sorry your sister struggles so much and makes the whole family struggle. Unfortunately, I don't think that anyone can do anything to change her attitude and behavior. She is an adult and you won't be able to force her take meds or see a therapist or do anything she doesn't want to do. If she gets actively suicidal, I guess, you can initiate her involuntary hospitalization, but that is just as much as you can do. However, if she is not violent and doesn't try to harm herself, no one can lock her in a psych ward, at least not in the US, and I don't know where you live. I am afraid, the only thing you can do in this situation is to try to convince her to take her meds and see a psychiatrist or some other therapist and try to let go if she doesn't listen to you. Adult people will make their choices that we may not like, but there is nothing we can do about it.

WM

WiseMonkey wrote:He BlueEyedPop,

I am sorry your sister struggles so much and makes the whole family struggle. Unfortunately, I don't think that anyone can do anything to change her attitude and behavior. She is an adult and you won't be able to force her take meds or see a therapist or do anything she doesn't want to do. If she gets actively suicidal, I guess, you can initiate her involuntary hospitalization, but that is just as much as you can do. However, if she is not violent and doesn't try to harm herself, no one can lock her in a psych ward, at least not in the US, and I don't know where you live. I am afraid, the only thing you can do in this situation is to try to convince her to take her meds and see a psychiatrist or some other therapist and try to let go if she doesn't listen to you. Adult people will make their choices that we may not like, but there is nothing we can do about it.

WM

Thanks WM - that's pretty much what I figured (btw I am in the USA; East Coast). She is 27 now and very much an adult (although she acts, on any given day, around 12-17 years old). I am currently living with her (I am 2 years older) have found her to act like a completely different person from day to day which I find very disturbing. Fortunately she is currently seeing a psychologist who she likes and seems to trust (she tends to make very rash judgements about people and lose trust with them very easily). She definitely has big trust issues with everyone she comes in contact with. You mentioned suicide and that is something me and my mom have been worried about. Although she hasn't showed any signs of wanting to hurt herself or anyone else directly, she has done things which ended up causing harm to herself. In her initial psychotic episode, she was so freaked out she spent the entire evening (until the police showed up), wandering around the neighborhood in 20 degree F winter weather with nothing but pajamas on. We had to call the police because she wouldn't listen to us and there was nothing to do to calm her down. Fortunately, after speaking with the EMTs she was voluntarily committed which I still find amazing.

We are also concerned about suicide because two of her close friends growing up have committed suicide. One guy, who was basically a town hero and football star, shot himself due to depression. Another girl she knew hanged herself because of depression and also another guy we were both friends with met an untimely death drowning in a swimming pool during a night of heavy partying. On top of that, three girls in her class were also in bad burning accidents. Her class was a tight knit group of people and I think it's disturbing to her (and many others) how many of these incredibly bright and talented kids met very young (in their 20s) deaths and/or experienced traumatic life-altering accidents. I know that it also bothers her how some of these people that are still around that she was very good friends with, either had a falling out with her or just didn't really keep in touch.

I initially moved in because she didn't feel safe living by herself (but due to her PTSD she often doesn't feel safe in very safe places, for reasons only known to her). However this is all affecting my personal life to a large extent and I think that I will have to move out soon. It worries me though, because she really doesn't take care of herself anymore. Although she cleans and buys toiletries, she never buys food and I have found that she doesn't eat regularly at all anymore, often skipping meals entirely. She still has her job luckily, because her boss is very understanding of what she's been through and is continuing to go through. I say luckily though, because her behavior at work has been erratic - she often has random uncontrollable laughing attacks in front of other people, even during staff meetings. Sometimes someone will tell her something completely serious and she will laugh right in their face. Her grasp on reality seems to kind of come and go.