Younger sis has always struck me as the more successful of the two of us, although she's had wicked bouts of anxiety and had a borderline phobia about stairs for awhile. Recently she landed a *really good* job. Very competitive interview process, kinda high profile at least locally, serious wages and benefits. And at first it seemed like a dream job and she was very happy. But then, like three months in, things started... going downhill. At first I thought she was right, that there was some kind of employer abuse going on. Our parents both thought she was getting under the weather in a brain way but I didn't. But things kept... escalating. Her suspicions, and the things she said she was hearing and experiencing. It went from initially believing she was being wiretapped somehow, based on office gossip she had heard, which seemed unlikely but not impossible. To believing we were *all* being wiretapped. To believing that she was being judged on everything she and her family did, both on and off work hours, and someone was sneaking around in the neighbors' yards to watch her with infrared through the walls, and random people in public places unconnected to work were calling her fraudulent and accusing her of egregious sexual misconduct and claiming there were plans to put her in jail, to believing she was being tailed accross the country when she went to a family reunion and people in *another state* were gossiping about her based on some internet alert involving a numeric code that she couldn't confirm using Google, to thinking her friends and her church were being investigated because of her.... she finally lost the job, Dad says because she was distressing her coworkers by trying to confront them about things, and she's still certain she's being bugged and about to be dragged off to jail or hard labor and that nobody will want to hire her again in her field because her reputation was destroyed. I'm frightened. I've tried to reason with her and she just gets upset she isn't being believed. Dad's worried she might try to act on her suspicions somehow and get in real trouble, possibly for libel. She does have a therapist and meds at this point. But she isn't willing to work with the therapist because she believes somebody in their office leaked her sessions to her ex employer, and it seems like they're kind of spitballing her meds without being sure what's wrong with her? I don't know how to be supportive, or how to do-- whatever I should do in this situation. Also I had been counting on teaming up with her to get out of my parents' house, and I am frightened that it seems increasingly unlikely to be viable for... a long time in the future.
She's still hearing and believing unlikely stuff, but she's acknowledging there's something wrong she could use help with and starting a voluntary inpatient assessment stay soon. I hope everything works out for her.
I'm sorry I may not be much help, but from my turn on the other side of this I'm glad she's looking for help and that you are being supportive, it means more than you might think in the long run. It's okay to be scared as it's a scary thing for everyone and I hope for both of you that things'll eventually smooth out. It looks like hell right now and it may be a long journey but there's hope still to find something brighter, there really is. I really hope I don't sound condescending or anything, just speaking from past experiences
