DivineDiva

A little background: My brother is diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. He originally was diagnosed with manic depression with psychotic features in 2001, but when he relasped in 2005, they diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

Usually when he is about to have a psychotic break, there are very noticable personality changes. He starts talking out of the side of his head, he becomes extremely paranoid, and the longer it goes on the more enraged he becomes until I can get him to a hospital. Last time I had to call the cops to pick him up.

Over the last month or so, he's been going out and lying about where he's going. There is this one friend that he uses as a "cover" for EVERYWHERE he goes. Half of the time the friend says he hasn't talked to him. Last night, he went out and didn't come home until 5am. I asked where he was, he claimed he'd only been gone an hour and was at the Waffle House. He NEVER eats out, especially at 4am. He had no WH with him. I am completely baffled as to where he's going.

In a normal situation, this wouldn't bother me because he IS 25, and he can go anywhere he damn please. The problem is that this is very very uncharacteristic of him. He never goes out - ever, and it doesn't make sense that he'd lie to us about where he's going. To say he's going to X house or to take X to do this that or the other makes no sense if what he's doing is on the up and up. My fear is that it isn't. I don't know if drugs are involved because like I said, his personality is the same.

So I guess my question is to those who deal with those who are schizophrenic. How do I get him to tell me the truth about what he's doing? What CAN he be doing? Another odd thing is that a couple of months ago he was calling a friend of the family and hanging up on her. When I asked if he was doing that he said no... but she has no reason to lie. This is just all bizarre to me...

Background on Meds:

He's not on his medication. When he first got sick, he was on his med's only a year and a half.. But it took another 2.5-3 years for him to relapse. After his relapse, he was on his medication 2 years. He stopped January 1, 2007. He's been behaving "normally" up until a couple of months ago, with the phone calls to my friend.

There is another story there, re: family friend. He doesn't trust her. Our parents passed away about 9 months apart and during one of his psychotic episodes, he mentioned the thought that this friend killed them. Our parents died from complications with pneumonia and a massive heart attack. He wasn't really the same afterwards and another 9 months after our dad died, he was admitted to a mental hospital.

I know this is long, but I figure the more information you have the better. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.