And “Heartbroken,” I feel your pain. Reading your post makes me realized that not alone in this nightmare. I don’t know what else to say or do anymore about this situation. I just feel so emotionally drained and tired.

He’s been in-patient psych a few times, but it’s useless. They lock him up, bully him, medicate him with some useless SSRI, then put him back on the street. He has no job (due to mental AND physical health problems), no health insurance, and no family. THERE IS NO HELP FOR HIM. What kind of a country is this?

His friends do everything they can, but we never know exactly what’s going on or why, and we can’t keep pouring money down this particular drain. I think we’d give him all the money in the world if we thought it would make a difference. But when he’s broke and on the ledge (literally), you could give him $50,000 and it would be useless. He’d spend it in a week on gifts for people, books for himself, drinks for everyone in the bar. Then he’d be twice as depressed that he “screwed up,” wasted everything, thinks now nobody will ever help him again, etc. It’s exhausting.

He is not violent, nor dangerous to others. Although he does have his angry outbursts, there is no harassment, no threats, he’s never been arrested. He’s a wonderful, brilliant guy. But he simply can’t take care of himself and threatens suicide over and over and over again. I have made a million phone calls to every agency you can think of. If they bother to return my calls, the answer is always NO, there’s nowhere for him to go. I have helped him again and again, but nothing changes. Without consistent funds, medication, and some kind of ongoing psychiatric care, he cannot manage his life. I’ve been dealing with this drama for 20 years and I am exhausted and without hope.

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.