In 2006, my mother pulled a knife on my father and accused him of attempting to poison her. 2 months later, my mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and put on powerful anti-psychotic medication. My parents marriage survived, and until present day my mother has acted relatively "normal". That is, until my father sent an e-mail out to my sisters and I staying my mother has "relapsed". Either the medication quit working or she quit taking it.
Now, my mother is being tormented daily by a "Mr Keystone". Mr Keystone exists only in her imagination, but his intentions are evil. He is stalking her, following her everywhere. He teases and taunts her. He is threatening to kill her. And my father, of course, is in "cahoots" with this Mr Keystone and is plotting with him against her. They "meet" on a regular basis and call each other on the telephone. Thus my mother, petrified for her life, has locked herself in the bedroom, on her knees, begging for God to protect her from these evil men out to harm her.
As my father well knows, Mr Keystone does not exist and he is at a loss as to what to do.
Searching online, I came across a new theory on the cause of schizophrenia: child abuse.
My mother's father was a violent man. He physically abused my mother's brothers violently, and beat the "hell" out of them. He did not physically nor sexually abuse my mother, but he did tease, taunt, and threaten her. She spent her young childhood exposed to all sorts of violence and threats. When her father passed away in 1980, she began to show the first signs of schizophrenia but was not diagnosed until 2006.
Dr Read states that when a young child is exposed to violence on a continual basis, it permanently alters the developing brain, leading to all sorts of mental illness, schizophrenia being only one. Instead of medication, Dr Read says, these people need extensive therapy to fully confront and deal with their previous abuse. You see, my mother no longer has her father around to threaten her. Yet, because she has not completely dealt with her abuse, her mind has "created" an "imaginary" abuser as a "substitute" for her real abuser, which was her father. Now, why would someone do that? Because their brain has been permanently altered by their previous abuse.
http://scienceblog.com/10790/new-theory-child-abuse-can-cause-schizophrenia/#0roTHZDdRGuyrUTH.03What do you think? Could mental illness be caused by child abuse?