Is my roommate schizophrenic?

I signed up for this site JUST to post this...any information would be much appreciated. Five months ago, I moved in with a friend of a friend. She was very normal at first. Within these past 5 months, she has turned into a completely different persons. Please note that her previous roommates confirmed that she had some of these symptoms, but not this severe.
Her weird behaviors are as follows:
-Her sleep schedule is very inconsistent. For the most part, she stays up ALL night long until the sun rises, then stays in bed ALL day long...sometimes until 6pm. She is in bed about 18 hours out of every day.
-We NEVER see each other in person, but when we do, it seems as though everything I say goes in one ear and out of the other. Her responses don't make sense. Ex: I told her I had a cold, she then tells me she's convinced that it's because "all of the dust" in our apartment. Our house is very clean...I clean it almost everyday.
-She will do random, erratic things such as baking cookies at 3:00 in the morning.
-I've heard and her boyfriend in screaming matches over the phone..she once claimed she would "die without him."
-When her boyfriend comes in town, they will NOT go in public. They order food to go and eat it at home.
-She only buys groceries at drug stores..I think she is scared to go to grocery stores such as Walmart.
-She has basically cut herself off from all of her friends at this point.
-She never goes to class anymore and ended up failing most of her classes this past semester.
-She has terrible hygiene but will pick random days to be a "clean freak" and clean the apartment up and down
-She smokes marijuana almost constantly when she's awake

These are just a few of the things that I have to deal with on a daily basis. I'm scared that something is seriously wrong with her but none of her friends want to step up and say anything. From what I can tell, she isn't very close with her family. I've never dealt with anyone like this so I am very unsure what to do..

Hi lsu2020 and welcome

Sorry to hear about your situation. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to diagnose people over the internet let alone someone who is not posting themselves. Sure, we can theorize all day long but we just don’t have enough direct information, experience and education to say. She may have a psychiatric condition or not. So much sleeping can be a sign of depression but than you say she is sometimes up baking at 3AM and goes on a cleaning spree which sounds more like bipolar, again assuming there is a psychiatric condition present at all. She could even be taking other drugs you aren't aware of that are causing some of these things.

Have you talked to her about this? I think if you approach it in a non-judgmental way, just that you are concerned that she is failing her classes, concerned about her health even just in a physical way (ie, all that smoking is damaging her lungs) and wonder how she is doing. Let her know you care and are available to talk and listen. If your school has some kind of counseling services perhaps you can encourage her to avail herself of those to help her get her life back on track and have more success with school. I’d just be careful how you bring up the mental health angle, as she might take it the wrong way or get defensive.

Best wishes and take care,
Jan

I think it is alot wiser to consider if she has psychiatric problems rather than specifically schizophrenia. You could suspect schizophrenia more strongly if she clearly shows signs of delusions and/or hallucinations as these are the major symptoms of the illness.

she is clearly not living her life like a typical person and it sounds more like this is because of mood/anxiety and personality problems. if she is socially arkward maybe she could fit into illness like asperger's syndrome or borderline personality disorder or maybe she has some social anxiety.

It sounds very thoughtful of you to be so concerned about her to post here so sounds like she has a nice flatmate. if you are unsure what to do, all i would suggest really is just to be nice to her

I think it is very good of you to be concerned and seek help. However, we are not doctors and even a doctor couldn't diagnose her without examining her.

But that said, I will try to provide some general information, which is just my understanding and in no way a professional opinion.

You have not mentioned any symptoms which would point towards schizophrenia in particular. Specifically delusions or hallucinations. Schizophrenics can have bizarre behavior, but the behavior you mention - while it is worrying - doesn't sound so bizarre that you would necessarily presume a psychotic process. Baking cookies at 3 AM sounds on the bizarre side, unless you consider the fact that since her sleep schedule is reversed, 3 AM is like the middle of the day for her. Worrying about dust that you say isn't there? I would tend to think more anxiety - I've known a few people who feel like their environment is somehow toxic who suffered from anxiety.

On the other hand, the sudden dramatic change in her behavior is a big worry....for something. But it could be almost anything. The fact that she's smoking pot all the time when she's awake? That's really the first thing I'd be thinking of. Right there you have a potential explanation for all of this. And god knows if she's taking anything else on top of it.

The prodromal (precursor) symptoms of psychosis can involve these sort of nonspecific changes in behavior - like withdrawal, anxiety, depression, failure at school and so forth. Also the one behavioral risk factor for schizophrenia (in teenagers at least) is marijuana use. But again, the fact that you're not describing any symptoms that sound like delusions or hallucinations make it impossible to know if that's where this is going.

From my personal experience, I did go through a period in college that sounded something like this. What was going on with me was a combination of drug use, depression, social anxiety and - more than anything else - extreme immaturity. The lack of structures or controls on my behavior, or immediate consequences for my behavior, made me behave more and more self-indulgently and irresponsibly. Drug use made me more behaviorally and emotionally erratic, and depression and anxiety made me want to withdraw completely from the world and my responsibilities. As you can imagine there was a lot of "vicious circle" stuff going on from all that. The depression and anxiety fueled the drug use, the drug use fueled the emotional and behavioral problems, the behavioral problems created real world problems (like failing school) which fueled the depression and anxiety. I did go to counseling, but because I refused to take responsibility for my behavior I made no progress at all.

So maybe something like that - some dynamic involving a number of factors - is going on for your roommate. Or maybe she's suffering one more severe MI that could be successfully treated. Which gets back to - she needs to be examined by a professional. That doesn't guarantee that just going for treatment will get her out of this situation, but it will make it more likely than if she doesn't.

Good luck.

I appreciate everyone's effort to provide insight/advice. I have come to the conclusion that I need to just stay out of it and that it isn't my place (at this time) to intervene in her life. The replies have really helped me cope with the situation and honestly I've just managed to stay away from her and flourish in my own life.

Thanks again, everyone. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a solution at this point and I'm counting the days until I can move out.