Expert: Joanne - 11/21/2007

Question
Hello Holly,
I am hoping you can help me I suffered from panic disorder and agoraphobia since i was 21 year old , i am now 53.One of my sisters (there are fivegirls all up counting me in our family) also has agoraphobia, but all my other sisters were calm happy people last year the second youngest in the family who was always a critic of mental health disorders and always claimed that panic disorder was a way for people to get attention and that they were weak minded and always pretending to be sick,Became ill, she felt agitated after taking a bloodpressure tablet,she was never one to take meds,(they too were for weak minded people) .Her agitation got worse everyday, and she started to have panic attackes, and kept saying that "noone could possibly know how bad she felt and that she could not sit, stand or relax and that she could not sleep for more than two hours a night, her agitation grew worse and she finally came to stay with me for a week, she did not stop obssessing about her illness and how if she could just get some sleep she would be well again.I had to go away for 4 months and whilst i was away my sister grew worse, she was at a friends place and she swears that she had a seizure after taking ativan . she was put into a mental health ward where she still is to this day I have visited her and i have to say that she is no better even after all the meds they have put her on. She keeps telling me she is never getting out of there and that she is going to die in there,she is so negative and locked in her own world of pain, i do not know what to do The doctors say she never had a seizure that it was apanic attacke but she insists she did and that she has lost a lot of her short term memeory, when i test her memory it seems better than normal, She was such a strong personality, controlling and full of herself, now she is a scared, timid woman who walks the halls of a mental health ward, lost ,confused and so alone, i have tried to reach her, to bring her out of herself(I am a hypnotherapist and pranic healer) but its all to no avail, I do know that a year before all this hell started she was a passenger on a bike and had an accident that punctured her lung and broke a few ribs, she also lost a few close friends from cancer and other horrid diseases at the same time, also she was made redundant from her job, but she swears none of these things affected her She had 6 children but never married (did not believe in it)was and is an athiest, and always felt she was above her family In her defense as i feel i am crucifying her here and i am not, i am trying to tell the story as close to the truth as i can without my sister love becoming involved ,( My sister was molested as a child as was all us girls in our family, and she never talked about it, i feel she blamed herself and us for our dysfunctional family life, she found my dad dead on his 65th birthday and she changed from that moment on, she was always a control freak but after that she was bitter, angry and had no time for her sisters, always putting them down and not coming near us for many years. Now,I am lost, I dont know what to make of this woman ,who is after all, my sister, no matter what, i love her, and i cannot reach her,she is a ghost of angeline(my sisters name) walking like a shadow figure, isolated alone and caught in a darkness that one would not wish on their worst enemy she was 53 when she had this breakdown, she had already been through menopause and they checked to make sure it was not hormonal, she was a vegatarian but now she hardly eats at all and when she does eat she eats like a starving child.I cannot treat this professionally as i am way to close, any ideas would be appreciated hugs Helen  

Answer
Unfortunately, I can not be of much help here.  I'm not sure whether or not this is an eating disorder or a symptom of her other mental health problems.

I think that you need to bring this up with the Drs/nurses/therapists responsible for her care.  There seem to be a lot of possible issues that have yet to be resolved, and only her and her therapist will be able to work to resolve them, when she is ready to.

You mention they have her on meds - is that all they are doing?  If it is, you need to insist on therapy for her, although I would imagine that she should be receiving this.

I wish I could be of more help, but unfortunately this is way beyond me, and she sounds as though she is in a place that should be able to help her.  If you feel that nothing is improving, it may be worth getting a second opinion from another psychiatrist or something.

Holly