my dad (see whole story in this thread: ) on top af all his other problems, now has seemed to have lost his mind. The doctors think he’s bipolar. He’s totally paranoid and afraid of germs. He also thinks my mom is making him and keeping him sick.

We’re at a loss of what to do, because my mom is the one who takes care of him. I think I might take family leave off of work soon.

thoughts on managing this?
There’s not much you can do besides hope his therapy/medication works out.

You have to detach yourself as much as you can from the situation if it’s taking a personal toll on you. This isn’t something you can solve on your own, if he’s starting to go off the deep end, looking at people who love him as threats, and obsessing over miniscule things (germs), that’s a sign he needs professional help. You can be there for him if it doesn’t bring your life down, but if it does, detach for awhile and hope the best for him.
He needs some inpatient therapy, not sure where though.

Most Hospitals have an in-patient Mental Health Unit. There’s at least one Hospital per County (in my experiences) that have a MHU right there. This sounds like the place that your Dad needs to be. They need to see the behaviors and just how bad it is for themselves, so that they can adjust his medications accordingly. He should probably be there until the medication situation is under control.

Good luck.
my 17 year old roommate, who’s basically like my little sister since their family pretty much adopted me, has schizophrenia. her older sister and i are her support system, and for about a year we dealt silently with her psychotic breaks, moodswings, habits, and the voices. she ended up in the emergency room after having a psychotic break at school, and as at the time her sister and i were her temp legal guardians, we had to deal with the situation. we moved her back home, got her into therapy and on medication, and she’s doing miles better.
My aunt was bipolar, but bipolar to the point where she went completely insane. When she was manic, she’d run around the house urinating on everything, and she’d throw things everywhere and move furniture — her house was a mess of piss-covered junk when everybody finally found out. When she was depressed, she’d attempt suicide. She ended up having to be put in a home, and died eventually because she would refuse to eat or get up at all (her meds took away the manic but so much the depressive part)…

It worries me, because I exhibit all the signs of a bipolar person and my doctor has expressed that he thinks I am. I’m resistant to all anti-depressant medications I’ve ever tried (and I am still having withdrawals from SSRIs years after qutting them. Brain zaps anybody?). I get completely hopeless and depressed at times and won’t get out of bed for days and then other times I run around like a crazy person happy and doing things and catching up. I don’t want to end up like my great-aunt. But I certainly feel like her. So far, I don’t have many unreasonable thoughts or weird paranoias (after the years I’ve grown extremely capable of keeping reasoning and logic and it’s saved my life). On that same note, though, I’m incredibly anti-social and have no desire whatsoever for any real-life human interaction. I isolate myself from my family by living 3000 miles away and we don’t really talk a lot. So I don’t know. Maybe I’m crazy like her. It really wouldn’t come as a surprise at this point.

Related posts:

1. shitty family situation so, this past january my younger brother (he’s 17, i’m 21) committed suicide, but my mom found him and called...
2. Girls Are Crazy and I’m Stupid. Hey all, Okay, so two months ago my SO broke off a two year relationship. Basically because she doesn’t want...
3. mother plays family members off eachother for the sake of drama she’s been doing this forever now. is this a problem that can be cured?excellent details. very thorough description of the...
4. ok, so my life is officially crazy v.random girl for my vacation I was not excited about going to the wine country for a week alone, but suddenly I’ve found myself in...
5. Argumentative family? So today I woke up in bed. Told myself I should just stay there until my mom leaves from her...