The way I can explain it is when he is down he seems useless to the world. Lays in bed or on the same spot of the couch everyday trying to unravel this huge knotted mess of yarn. As soon as he figures out one thing there are 2000 more tangled strings of yarn to get thru to get to the next answer of what he is going through. He is probably exhausted yet driven to find the answer of his delusions.

Reality is perception, I'm sure you've heard of that. While he is probably very intelligent this is something he is not equipped to figure out. A: because he is so jumbled inside his head and B: because there really isn't anything real to figure out.

As his mom, like the above said, all you can really do is educate yourself and be there for him. He will come out of his episodes and you will see your "old son" again...these things just take time. By the sound of it him and you are on the right track. Hope this helped.