Re: My Diseased Brother

Dear Doctor;
I'm writing you to ask about what could be done to help my brother. First he is 37 years old and he is a police officer and he lives with me, 25 years old and my mom, 64 years old, in the house . 3 or 4 years ago, he started to develop strange behavior like turning on and off the light many times, opening the door with keys and closing it again many times. Yet his state had worsened a year ago and more recently, he could stay for an hour or two in front of a running tab and doing nothing. And when we want to go the bathroom, he says ok but he doesn’t leave until mom calls on to him several times and ends with a yell. He could also stay for hours outside the apartment's door walking aimlessly until he decides to open the door and when this happens, it takes him around 30 minutes closing and opening the door. He does strange things as in making some strange gestures with his hands, opening the closet and shutting it again, jumping from a place to another in the house. He does such actions whilst at home and sort of became isolated as he evades any contact with his friends. Most of the time, he is either silent and just sitting in front of the TV set and the usual action accompanying TV watching is constantly switching between channels as if he is playing. He isn’t married and has no girlfriend. His actions sometimes persist for long hours and with him loosing time all over the day. Me, my sister and my mother had talked to him as regards this issue many times, but he believes that he is a little bit stressed and nothing more. We don’t know what to do to help him out as he totally refuses the idea of a therapist and he even was violent with my sister when she talked to him calmly about his case and that he should seek medication. His state is pathetic to all of us and especially to my mom whom I fear for her health and emotional state as she gets depressed seeing him like so. Also this state of his, makes me stressed and tense all the time to the extent that I’m loosing sleep and becoming constantly exhausted. I really don’t know what to do but his state is driving us all insane especially that he lives with us in the house. We will never be able to convince him of psychotherapy as he is obstinate. If there any help that we could offer or any solution that could help eases his state. He is still in his job and acts proficiently there but I believe his job is so tense and is causing him this state; especially that he wants to change his job. Please provide me with any help you can or even any medication that could help. I'm upset for him and primarily for my mum and I'm really developing severe stress of what he does.

Thanks for your help
Minouche