I Can't take this Paranoia Any More!!!!!!!

[strawberrywhip]

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Good luck neirbroth ..we went throught he same thing MIL is now in a home ..thank goodness!
At the start we wrote a huge list of all her symptoms and all our concerns ..she was referred to the old age mental health team, and a nurse called round to the house (we arranged to be there) just for an informal chat ... which started the ball rolling.
Luckily she liked her GP so was prepared to go to her ..and we took her to the memory clinic for assesement . didnt warn her before hand ..and got a diagnosis which helped.
Could you take your ma out of the situation for a break and let the GP and social services know what you are doing ... keep a weather eye on the situation dont step in but phone the professionals if he is failing miserably ..and insisit they ake action. Sounds like you all need a break
Good uck

 

[Nebiroth]

Yes dad is already taking Quietapine - 175mg a day which is quite high for someone his age.

This appeared to hold off the obsessions and paranoia for a while, but I guess as changes in his brain happen it;s no longer fully effective. Although it really did take the edge of his agressive behavior.

The consultant psychiatrist and CPN know what dad is like. Last time the psych. interviewed him on his own, they know exactly how to trigger people off, all she said was "I understand you are worried about the man next door...?" and oh! my! out it all poured, all the stuff about damage to the house, listening at the walls, laying poison on their law because they hated the cat, how Mormons are terrible people out to get you, etc. She confirmed what I though - paranoid delusions of persecution. Whilst she was talking to us, dad dragged her poor assistant out to "see the damage to the house" (and afterwords insisted that the assistant was in fact a policeman!).

Sadly aside from this, dad is relatively "well". Of course this means that he would be totally aware of what hospital, assessment, respite care implied and would absolutely refuse to go anyway. He of course thinks there is nothing wrong, and that his behavior is normal...

in a way his behavior IS normal, I guess I'd react like that if I believed the things he does. It is his beliefs that are the root of the problem.

 

[Canadian Joanne]

Another thing

You mentioned your dad has diabetes. If he is not eating properly and not taking care of his diabetes, uncontrolled diabetes can cause extreme mood changes & all sort of behavioural changes. Apparently one of the diseases they rule out on the way to diagnosing AD is diabetes, because the symptoms can mimic AD.

Just a thought. Sometimes behavioural problems can be caused by something other than AD. We have to try to look at every possibility.

 

[Nebiroth]

No my dad doesn't have diabetes. It's a miracle he's alive though - he smokes, does no exercise at all, and when he was eating stuffed himself with biscuits, sweets and chocolate!

Sometimes I have the guilty thought that it's so unfair that other people in sound mind have looked after themselves and end up in wheelchairs or housebound, they'd give anythiny to have dad's relative bodily health.

All dad does is sit around all day and moan about how old and ill he is..

 

[panda]

I had a lot of the problems you are having with my Mum lat year, she thought the neighbors were trying to murder her. She called the police on them they had thier house searched as the police can not ignore a complaint, even though I had rang them. I had to take her into the assesment centre myself and the doctor there managed to persuade her to stay (they have much more expierience at these things). She did have to go back again after because she was let out too soon and it started again then they changed the medication. Sadly I have had to put Mum in a home now and I am the evil person that is out to destroy her, but she can not remember the neighbors. If you could get your Dad to the hospital maybe say to CPN he is now a risk to the neighbor , you and your Mum may at least get six weeks rest. Also I was so driven mad by Mums behaviour, she was drinking as well and not eating when I got her to the hospital the last time I was given a very stern telling off by the Doctor for letting her get into such a terrible state. Weight loss and bruises all over her from her falls. The other thing is your Dad sounds like he is afraid of being harmed by the food do you think he knows he is ill on some level.

 

[Nebiroth]

He's always had weird ideas about food. It's a laugh really, he's a heavy smoker who wouldn't eat beef because of the risk from Mad Cow Disease! Like I;ve said "at least it doesn't have THIS WILL KILL YOU written on the packet like the fags" but of course he's in denial over that.

Lately he;s developed this idea that he's going to get a "blockage" from food, so won;t eat anything hard "because it stays hard inside". He barely eats and then takes not going to the loo as a sign there's a blockage and wants laxatives, well you can't put out more than you take in! I think some of this is from our friend whose wife died from an obstructed bowel, caused by cancer I think.

So anytime he hears panic stories about any food on TV he stops eating it, chickens=bird flu, chocloate=salmonella etc etc!

We don't worry about it it is his choice to eat or not, we have told the CPN and GP, it;s in his notes, as they have said, we can't force him to eat if he doesn;t want to.

 

[Nebiroth]

Joy. He's now starting to think that his GP is in a conspiracy with the Mormons.

I had to go for my asthma check yesterday, and he worried the whole time that the surgery would be full of "foreign people" (which in his mind makes them all potential suicide bombers).

Then he said today "I always thought Dr X was English, but he's not is he, and anyway, I think in the background he's in with those people like next door".

Our Gp is a lovely man, is very obviously of Asian extraction, and his office is decorated with pictures of Hindu deities!

 

[Grannie G]

And Nebiroth, did you discuss your father with the GP?

 

[Nebiroth]

The check was with the nurse, and my GP wasn't there that day.

I wish our CPN had an email address, as it's impossible to phone anyone without dad listening in.

I think the linking of the GP with the general neighbour/Mormon thing is a worrying turn of events.

 

[Grannie G]

Nebiroth, do you have a mobile phone.

Before my husband was diagnosed and I was very worried about his behaviour, I `went for a walk` and phoned the AS helpline on my mobile.

 

[Nebiroth]

Sadly not.

 

[Margarita]

I Sorry i do not have any advice , in how to help with the paranoia , my mother has had it , but not as bad as your father .

can you not just pop in where the CNP work and talk to him/her about your father , that's what I do with my brother CNP , when i can not get hold of him on the phone , normal he just take me into a room and we chat and he advices me what i can do , i even talk to him about my mother he tell me the way around the system in getting support