Friend slipping further into schizophrenia and paranoia. No help.

I live in Asia. He's from Europe. He's 38.

This lad is week-by-week just sliding more and more into the realm of just "mad". I'm his best friend right now but he tonight said he doesn't trust me enough to tell the truth about his recent "abduction".

48 hours apparently. He couldn't tell me where he woke up afterwards etc. but he knew it happened.


This lad was getting paid serious money but quit. He also for some reason cancelled his rental contract but now sleeps in that landlord's basement. He went to another country on a holiday in the last month and came back with stories tonight of MI6 talking to him and he managed to get away.



I don't know what to do. I really don't. No sense or perspective works. He needs some meds or something. This was the most distressing night I've had in years. I don't know what to do.

qm1bv4p8i92aoj

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I live in Asia. He's from Europe. He's 38.

This lad is week-by-week just sliding more and more into the realm of just "mad". I'm his best friend right now but he tonight said he doesn't trust me enough to tell the truth about his recent "abduction".

48 hours apparently. He couldn't tell me where he woke up afterwards etc. but he knew it happened.


This lad was getting paid serious money but quit. He also for some reason cancelled his rental contract but now sleeps in that landlord's basement. He went to another country on a holiday in the last month and came back with stories tonight of MI6 talking to him and he managed to get away.



I don't know what to do. I really don't. No sense or perspective works. He needs some meds or something. This was the most distressing night I've had in years. I don't know what to do.

With none of his family around you don't have many options.
Not an easy thing to do but you should have him sectioned for his own well being and health before he hurts himself or someone else.

alchemist33

If you were in Ireland, I would say

a) get him to go to his GP for assessment/medication/referral to a psychiatrist. As well as illness there could be a drugs issue
b) if he won't is there a family member who could convince him to do so
c) you could talk to his GP. The GP can't give you info about him, but they can receive your info and act
d) if you think he's an imminent risk to himself or others and he's not accepting any help, there's the police option. They can lift him for his safety and get the medical help that way.

But it depends on how services are in your area. If you can't convince him to get help, if there is any, then maybe involve family or convince him to come home?

Dominic Cobb and alchemist33, I agree with everything you've suggested. It's just one of those things where the country we're in doesn't have that sort of help. He is a twelve-hour flight from a home he doesn't even associate with.

I need to try and get his family involved and get him out of here. I don't know how because if I even ask him for details, he'll think I'm plotting against him. He only trusts me with some information and we've been friends for six years or something.


This is a rant thread. I'm just extremely worried and it's a third party so what's the point in replies. Ignore.

qm1bv4p8i92aoj

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Dominic Cobb and alchemist33, I agree with everything you've suggested. It's just one of those things where the country we're in doesn't have that sort of help. He is a twelve-hour flight from a home he doesn't even associate with.

I need to try and get his family involved and get him out of here. I don't know how because if I even ask him for details, he'll think I'm plotting against him. He only trusts me with some information and we've been friends for six years or something.


This is a rant thread. I'm just extremely worried and it's a third party so what's the point in replies. Ignore.

I had a very similar situation happen with a friend of mine a few years back. We were able to get the family involved (reluctantly on their part) and he did a couple of months in a mental health ward in the regional. He is doing great now thank God.
Contacting his family is your only option so.
Best of luck with it and he is very lucky to have a friend like you that actually cares.

Camila Gigantic Fauna

Camila Gigantic Fauna wrote: »

I had a very similar situation happen with a friend of mine a few years back. We were able to get the family involved (reluctantly on their part) and he did a couple of months in a mental health ward in the regional. He is doing great now thank God.
Contacting his family is your only option so.
Best of luck with it and he is very lucky to have a friend like you that actually cares.

Thanks and I know you're right. I will try the best I can. He can't be left alone here.

Try track down someone on Facebook. Maybe a sibling he's mentioned in a favourable light before a parent, who might very well panic and get in touch with him giving him warning. What needs to happen is that the contact doesn't give him notice before arrival so his imagination doesn't cook up a paranoid theory.

If he's been taking any kind of recreational drug, he needs to stop. Most of all he needs you to keep being a friend.

Good luck.

Odelay

You could try his old college,
school or work place.
They may not give you direct information but if you leave a message with someone asking if they know of anyone that might know this lads family or friends to contact you as you’re concerned about him.
Is it worth talking to the Irish embassy in your area? They might have had experience of this before?

Odelay

Odelay wrote: »

Is it worth talking to the Irish embassy in your area? They might have had experience of this before?

He's Welsh.

I am taking everything people are saying on-board. Just need to find a good way forward.

Odelay

[Deleted User] wrote: »

He's Welsh.

I am taking everything people are saying on-board. Just need to find a good way forward.

Try the UK embassy. I’d be certain they would have come across this type of situation before.

up for anything

It's a tough one. I know years ago my brother-in-law developed paranoid schizophrenia when he lived in Paris. He phoned us one night and it was clear he'd slipped his moorings telling us that he was hiding behind the couch because his car was on the tv and he was wanted by the Gendarmerie and that he couldn't speak loudly because they'd bugged his light fittings. His mother flew over the next day to see what the situation was and it turned out that his girlfriend was away and her parents had been getting worried about him. His mother found him in a bad way and drove him home in car. He spent a while in the dept of Psych as an inpatient and then was released into the care of his mother. Once he was medicated correctly he improved very quickly.

I'm not sure how you'd manage in Vietnam. That's where you are isn't it if I recall correctly. Does he have any private health insurance/travel insurance that can be called on if no family can be found to come get him? Is he working over there? Perhaps if you contact his employers with your concerns? It may be easier to get him the equivalent of sectioned over there and repatriated home then it would be here.

Good luck. I know how difficult it is to deal with this sort of thing especially when it's an adult and you have no authority except friendship and concern.