Schizophrenia: The Perspective of a Father & Brother-in-Law

When I began this blog I wondered what it would be really like to cope with this illness I knew little about. Well,
today I really got an eye and ear opening experience. My brother-in-law came into the kitchen ranting about
not getting his Social Security check and saying I had it. He was very adamant about it. My wife and I decided
that was enough. She flat told him I didn't have anything of his. He also got these delusions my son and I are
bad for him as well. My wife called her other brother to come down and talk to him. Before he arrived she also told him and my son in no uncertain terms they need to help us with housekeeping, just the two of us are doing
it and we are tired of it. By that time the other brother had arrived. He explained to his brother his benefits come from one source, the VA. He also checked his meds and discovered he was out of one of his pills, which
made sense on his behavior. He had not told anyone which doesn't surprise me, since he is a man of few words. Anyhow he got a month's supply and he has been okay since. I was able to go back to sleep, my wife was able to shower and run some errands. My son went to apply for food stamps and Medicaid, he is in a hold-
ing pattern. My nest task is to help him find some volunteer work, for he has had no luck so far in finding a job. Things are slow, places aren't even hiring for Christmas. What makes this worse is a few years back he
got a credit card with absolutely no way of paying it due to no income. Recently he started getting calls from
a collection agency demanding repayment. My wife, son and I talked to their rep and attempted to explain
why there will be a delay in paying. He wouldn't listen to anything we told him and got rude with my wife, she let him know about it. She eventually talked to his boss and complained. He was receptive, apparently the word got to the rep and he was more cordial when he called back, even giving his name which he hadn't before. More to this story later.-30-