I wish we can create a support group online somewhere, maybe on FB or something?

Now that my brother is an adult the whole family is beginning to experience the distress that comes with a mentally ill relative who is not treated or housed. He is turning to drugs and alcohol to self medicate. We are almost hoping he’ll commit a crime and be required to be treated. This will be a long journey and all we can do is pray that he survives. Unfortunately my family can no longer stand the physical and verbal abuse that comes with housing and supporting him.

I also have a mentally ill brother and I feel a sense of loss, like I loss my brother to the illness :(. There is not one day that goes by that I don’t worry about him. Everytime my brother is hospitalized it breaks my heart because it means that he had relapsed. And my brother was also in and out of jail starting when he was in his teens. He wasn’t diagnosed with schizophrenia until he was in his mid-20s.

I feel so much sadness and sympathy for him because he cannot take care of himself. And this has affect me so much because I love my family so much and I am an extremely sympathetic person. Ever since my brother was in and out of jail when he was in his teens, I would sent him money every month and I would write letters to him every week to keep in touched with the outside world. And when he was finally released from jail in his 20s, I took him to the hospital and did everything that I could.

The part where you said, your brother walked so many miles barefooted made me cried so much, because the same thing happened to my brother. When my brother was released from a 7 years sentenced, according to my brother, the official people dropped him off in Illinois (and we live in Wisconsin) and so, he walked into the freeway and got hit by a car. The police picked him up, dropped him off in Milwaukee County Jail, from there they let him walk home barefooted (around 6 miles). When he got home, he was unrecognizable. It was in the middle of the night in a very cold Wisconsin weather, with only a t-shirt on :( . He weighed on 90 pounds, standing at 5’9″ tall. My whole family broke down in tears just seeing the sight of how unhealthy he was :’(. The next day, I took him to the INS office, (because they told him in a letter that he had with him that he must report to the office as soon as he gets home). He was extremely disoriented even the next day, so, after the INS office, I took him to the mental hospital.

I’ve been so desperate in trying to find some ways to help him but I can’t. I am at my last string, I have no where to turn. The internet is my last option to turn for support from others with similar situation.

To make a very long story short, my family and I are refugees from Laos. My father worked for the American CIA in Laos during the Vietnam war and we were granted a refuge to America. Since my brother is not an American citizen, his Green card and Social Security card was taken away from him because he was a criminal. Since his green card was taken away from him, he did NOT qualify for any kind of medical care or disability income. Last November 2010, he moved to Fresno, California and is now living there with no medications and no health care, and no income. My family in California try their best to help take care of him financially for so many years. But he is considered more than a handful since he is not on his medication. No one really wants to deal with him because of his fits and tantrum and delusions and hallucinations. He was hospitalized recently and was released two days ago.

Of course, the issue with my brother in recent years is that he stops taking meds when he has the choice. He becomes adamant about not taking meds and ends up becoming obnoxious and destroying property and being incarcerated. I would hope that if and when he has enough insight to take his meds and is not incarcerated, he will choose a treatment such as the one you suggest.

I am a student at the University of Pennsylvania and I am moved by the story of your brother. I have worked in clinical and biomedical research on schizophrenia and have made it my goal to enter medicine to help though suffering from this disease.

I have browse through some of your posts and have seen that risperdal has been effective for your brother. If that is the case, has your brother considered or have been presented with the option of an injectable long acting risperidone treatment? Though I’m not a psychiatrist I have worked in a clinical setting and have seen the effectiveness of long acting treatments in preventing relapse.

I wish you the best and hope that you continue to support and advocate for your brother.

Best,

Tony