itisatruth

Not sure where to start this. Guess I should start by saying I'm looking for guidance and/or wisdom for my brother, and my family while we try to support my brother. Let me also say that he has only been diagnosed with ADHD and depression.

Over the last few months, his behavior has become more & more erratic, he has been delusional at times, and physically and verbally threatening to family members and others. We've all been urging him to get to a doctor to get help because it doesn't seem that the Ritalin and Zoloft he's taking is helping with these issues, plus he forgets to take them half the time & drinks also. My brother refuses to believe he has any problem other than the ADHD and depression.

During this time, my dad, who blames himself for so much of everything that has gone wrong, tries to "fix" everything for him. My parents joined a family support group for families dealing with mental illness. They told him a lot of similar things to what families dealing with addiction are told: not to enable, not to try to control, that the family member needs to "hit bottom" & face the consequences of his actions so he can be ready to get the help he needs.

I understand these things, and I agree that the enabling needs to stop, but I guess I'm not as sure that a person who is delusional or erratic, learns from consequences and/or "hitting bottom" in the same way as an addict, or anyone else might. I mean, if he's not seeing things in a realistic way, will he see that it's time to finally get help? He is in jail right now on assault charges and I can't help but hope that this will help him finally realize that he needs help.

This has been hard for all of us, but especially my brother and my dad, and I'm trying to learn more so I can offer more support.

Any thoughts or experience?