My Mom just tried to commit suicide, what do I do?

This gives me so many flashbacks to when my housemate had his first serious psychotic break. It sort of crept up over a few months of him acting more and more irrational and weird, and then he started being convinced that there were gangs in the neighborhood after him and he started sleeping on our floor with a sword in case they tried breaking in to his room overnight ... and he was talking to God, and the Devil. He made Satan lunch a few times. Satan liked Sriracha sauce. And then he became sure he was the antichrist and had to sacrifice himself to save humanity, and he was looking for pieces of wood to make into a cross and nails to hammer in, and that's when we called 911 and he got committed for a few weeks.

Meds help. For him, they don't make it totally go away, but they make it controllable, make him able to realize it's not real. It's been 5 years now and he's doing a lot better.

 

It's good that he's doing better.

 

And I guess my message to you with that is: there are things they can do, there are medications that can help, and while it may have lasting effects, they can make her a lot better than this.

 

And that is a really good thing to hear, thank you.
Main problem is keeping her on her meds.

 

Mom says you usually can't stop the rambles, you just have to ride them out. Be comforting, let her know you're there and you're going through things together. When she's worried about you or her or someone getting kidnapped use strength in numbers- "nothing's going to happen, there's too many of us" and similar. Keep calm, remind her that she's not alone. There's going to be a lot of pacifying. If she gets manic remind her to breathe. Mom found that the phrase "air is still free" makes my aunt laugh without fail, and that helps.

You have to try to be tactful because there is the chance that if she thinks you're not taking her seriously she'll shut you out. Mom suggests getting her to therapy and on meds asap, also suggests an outpatient program if she doesn't want to actually be in the hospital.

 

Okay, I can do that.
She's going in tomorrow, fortunately.

 

Good!
Mom also said that if you have a good relationship and she knows her brain is screwy (whatever the diagnosis ends up being) sometimes reminding her that she's having an episode can help. Do not use "crazy" or "insane" though I don't think I really need to say that, but remind her that this isn't her. Mom's found "chemical imbalance" works well on my aunt. "Things are OK, you're just having a chemical imbalance. You're safe." things of that nature. That's a ymmv though.

 

:)
I may try that, but when she's convinced she's convinced, so.

 

Yeah it doesn't work for everyone's situation. If she can access long-term memory of not being symptomatic, or not being sure if what she's experiencing is real, then you can use that. But if she's unconvincable then just be comforting and calm. Dad suggests trying to steer the conversation towards happy thoughts if she can, see if breaking the anxiety cycle can help. Some people are stubborn and get stuck on the paranoia, but some are distractible.

Sorry there's not a lot of one-size-fits-all advice.

 

Distracting her seems to work a bit.
That's fine, any advice helps.

 

I don't have much to offer in the way of advice, but I'm glad I logged on today and checked this and saw that you're okay. Hopefully your mom will get the help she needs, and don't forget to take care of yourself too.