This is a long one, bear with me. My mom moved to a new state (Florida) May 2020 after losing her husband January 2020. She was okay the first two months, but her neighbor across the road started bullying her over her boxer dog. She was told she needed to train the dog better or get rid of him. My mom told the neighbor after a while to leave her alone and stay away from her, which the neighbor replied with “you don’t know who you’re messing with.”
This is when the issues started. In September my moms Apple ID got hacked and we reset it. But then she said she thought people were coming into her home. She called the cops to check her smoke detectors for hidden cameras and none were found. She slowly began showing changes. She seemed more stressed and felt like she was being watched. In November she said she couldn’t sleep through the night anymore and she would wake up and felt her bed vibrating. She eventually woke up with a severe burning sensation in her legs and she felt like they were on fire. This led to her claiming that her neighbors had banded together to drug her via her air vents.
This arose from the fact that one neighbor is a retired serviceman, one was a therapist, and one was a pharmacist (she lives in a retirement area in Florida). Fast forward to March 2021 and she called me one night jerking and spasming like she was having a seizure. She was taken to the hospital. After multiple EEGs no stroke or seizure damage was detected and she was cleared. Two days after she returned home her boxer dog began to cough up blood and had to be put to sleep due to a tumor in his chest. She later told me she thought her neighbors messed with the dog while she was in the hospital and made him sick. Fast forward again to May 2021. I came to see her and she was okay for two weeks, but I noticed alarming changes. She would be moving her lips and muttering while driving and I noticed she would be sitting around staring into space with her arms folded.
At the end of May I noticed on her nest doorbell she stood outside for 4 hours on her porch with arms folded and finally ran inside. She later confronted the same neighbor who bugged her over her dog almost a year ago and threw a head of lettuce at her. She was Baker Acted and battery charges were supposed to be brought on her. The behavioral hospital said nothing was wrong and she was wandering in the parking lot aimlessly and claimed I called her when I did not. Two days later she was Baker Acted a second time after going around at 3AM knocking on neighbors doors looking for me and her new dog. She was taken back to the hospital and was diagnosed with a brief psychotic disorder. I had her taken to a memory care facility because I don’t live in the state and the police advised me to do this, as they would have to take her to jail if she continued to disturb neighbors. The battery charged were not signed by a state attorney, as she was Baker Acted twice.
She’s been trying to leave the facility now and has become aggressive with some staff. She’s only been there 48 hours but they also said they would call 911 if she got too aggressive, but they are going to see if medication will help her. They wanted to start her as respite to see how she progressed over 2-4 weeks. She has never shown signs of aggression until very recently. I don’t know what to do from this point. She called me earlier and sounded like her “normal” self and she said she needed me and loved me and I needed to come get her, and cried when I said I couldn’t, but then she went back to saying “they” wouldn’t let me come to her and was mad I didn’t really believe she was drugged in her home. Is this part of the adjustment? I was also wondering if this looks like early signs of dementia or a different disorder? She can still dress herself, and I don’t want her being in memory care to negativity affect her, but I cannot physically be here to watch her, I’ll lose my job. I also cannot sit back and let her be taken to jail.
