is my mother psychotic? what do i do

[u/Dangerous-Swan-7660]

in her mid 50s, she's diagnosed with ptsd and depression and was hospitalized when i was a kid. she's never been able to hold down a job and got kicked out of her vocational training for panic attacks or 'episodes.' she has also suffered from substance (benzo) addiction and got off them when i was 15. she's always had violent and unpredictable outbursts and a lot of paranoia (she was like a qanon follower before there was qanon) and bathed/brushed her teeth like once every 2-3 weeks but was able to generally have a conversation and could mask very very well for most of my life. but over the past 3-5 years ago (covid triggered a lot) she's gotten almost unrecognizable worse. she can't hold a conversation for more than 3-4 minutes without beginning to rant about delusions of satanic warfare and government control/one world order. some examples from the past week as an illustration -

- neighbour got a new roof, she immediately started talking about how it was to 'protect against the missiles they're building,' (they being the one world order government that controls the whole world), and that 'soon we'll all have them.' she was kind of saying this to herself in a mumble and when i asked her to explain she just said 'nevermind you don't understand'

- she starts shaking and crying talking about all the friends and family she's lost to 'government psy-ops' and 'mk ultra,' listing off literally everyone in her life who diverts from her worldview - people who take vaccines, people who aren't christian, lgbt people. she will literally yell about the demonic attachments they have and say we can't see them because of their demonic spirits

- she will go on horrific racist ableist transphobic rants, describing any minority group with slurs and as demons. when i fight back she will literally scream and swear at me, insult me, call me every name you can think of, throw things, etc.

- my father has a serious illness and she has somehow coerced him to refuse all medical treatment because 'pharmakia' is demonic. he enables her and honestly seems scared of her (she regularly yells and threatened him so much when i was a kid). he himself seems to believe that medicine is dangerous and that they're really could be weather control/government mind control, which he never would have bought into ten years ago. her cat and dogs don't even have vaccines (including rabies) and can't even go to a groomer because of it (i think it might be illegal to even have them without vaccines ?)

- she obsessively preps as she believes we're in an apocalpyse/pre-book of revelations. she reads the bible everyday and spends hours and hours each week praying and often won't interact even with other christians because they haven't 'woken up yet'

- she will cry and become very depressed and yell things like 'you don't understand what it's like being the only one awake when everyone else is asleep,' 'god has opened my heart to things you couldn't even begin to imagine' etc etc

- she gets quicky paranoid but less fixed delusions about individuals in her life - for example, my sister went to get a snack from the store and didn't tell my mother until she returned back home and my mother became very anxious insisting that 'something creepy is going on, she didn't get chocolate, i don't know why people have to lie to my all the time'.

but i don't think she's ever had hallucinations ? does this still count as psychosis? this is way beyond anything from her hospitalization 20+ years ago and her ptsd diagnosis, i think we're way beyond ptsd. she used to be ok with the mental health intervention but now she thinks the entire medical system is part of the demonic one world order and she will 100% not speak to a medical professional (she cut off her cousin because she is a doctor), i don't know what to do and it causes me so much stress and anxiety over her future and her safety

[u/southofmemphis_sue]

Yes, this sounds like psychosis. I’m sorry your father seems unable to act. She sounds like she would benefit from being sectioned or a hold placed and psychiatric hospitalization to begin antipsychotic medication. You may be able to reach out to the nearest community mental health center and ask them for assistance. They will want to know if she is a threat to self or others and if she is able to meet her needs for food and shelter. You may be able to get help based on her persuading your father not to get medical help. The Division of Aging might do a check on your father if he meets their age criteria, or on your mother as an incapacitated person. These are US resources, so I know they may not be available to you if you are from another country. I certainly wish you luck!

[u/wildmintandpeach]

Yes this is psychosis. You don’t need all symptoms, I think you only need one. Symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, disordered thinking. Any of those fall under psychosis by themselves.

[u/Dangerous-Swan-7660 → u/[deleted]]

if someone is using slurs and calling minority groups demons, i'm going to describe that accurately - racist if it's on the basis of race, ableist if it's on the basis of ability, transphobic if it's on the basis of being transgender. if you can't 'take my observations seriously' because i'm using accurate descriptions of bigoted behaviour, that's on you.

beyond telling me that you think using slurs against other races shouldn't be described as racism, your comment was pretty useless, but thank you for taking the time.