Is this Scizophrenia?

[danascully7]

What kind of mental disorder is this?

My little sister of 18 years old has a mental disorder but we are not able to figure out what it is. Unfortunately, the city we live in does not have psychiatrists and it breaks my heart that we don’t know how to help her. Any help in identifying what she has.

Background:

My sister is the youngest of 7 children. Each year or so, one of us (her siblings) had to leave the country either for work, college or marriage. Last year, we all had to leave for some reason and just her and my father were left in the house. That’s when she had what I think is her first manic episode.

She was:

* extremely irritable

* in some rare cases she was detached from reality (where she would just stare at a wall)

* says things that don’t make sense

* hard to have a normal conversation with

* rude

* lost 20 pounds

* became extremely religious (prays all the time, prays for everyone else, thinks everyone else will go to hell if they don’t change, tell people to stop doing some things that anger God (like backbiting, white lies etc))

* would hate someone, then really like that person later

* had weird dreams that she describes in details

* Cries a lot for no apparent reason

This was last year and lasted 4+ of weeks. At that time my mom and two of my sisters went back to live in the house. Then she was completely normal, stopped being super religious, gained back the weight and some more, went back to school. We even took her to a trip to London on her dream vacation. It was all okay! Nothing wrong at all.

Until last week. What we think triggered it is that both my parents had to travel and she had been living with a relative temporarily for a couple of weeks. It’s all back and I would say even worse. On top of all the above symptoms above she:

* Cannot stand to see her face in the mirror, we had to remove all mirrors

* Would scream very loudly in an empty room

* Talks to herself out loud

* Very hard to make a conversation with her

* would not leave mom or dad alone even for one second

* breaks or hides her phone

* says unintelligible things.

* sobs uncontrollably

At first I believed this to be bipolar disorder since it runs in the family (my grandmother's sister and my aunt), however, I am not so sure anymore. Perhaps this is some sort of anxiety or personality order? Help in identifying what this is is very much appreciated.

[drifter0213]

this might be Schizoaffective combining SZ + Bipolar disorders I am not a professional I help with my experiences and how I coped with it try support groups and the pills of course anti psychotics anti depressants meds for anxiety + panic attacks anxiety attacks psychotic disorder mood disorder hope this helps

[drifter0213]

and of course SZ PTSD

[Fanika]

Sounds like you and your family need to get your sister to a mental health clinic for an assessment! Back, in 1985, my family lost my 18 year old sister to suicide. She suffered from multiple symptoms that you described, and then some! She was diagnosed with Schizophrenia! In those days, the wonder drug Clozapine, also known as Clozaril, was not readily used for the treatment of schizophrenia. She did not do well with all the meds that were prescribed to her, she was not given the opportunity to try Clozaril. Today, it has truly helped many people who suffers from this terrible brain disease, like my brother! Go to Wikipedia to learn about this medicine. If your sister has schizophrenia,  be very proactive regarding her treatment, but most importantly, educate yourself on all the different meds out there. Clozaril is only given to patients that are resistant to all other anti-psychotic medications! My very best wishes to you, your family, and most importantly, your sister!