Hello everybody,
I'm 19 years old, currently doing my service at the army.

About 1 and a half years ago my mom (which is 49 years old, almost 50 now) started developing some very strange behavior.

At start, she thought some vandalists are taking revenge of the building we're living in for some unknown reason (the main door broke every couple of weeks and 1 of our tires had no air in it one morning), but of course that wasn't the case. There is no man that intently trying to sabotage the building.

We didn't notice that something is really wrong until she started saying the the same "people" (from now on let's call them "Them" because that's how she calls them) are trying to poison us. She started examining any residue on the floor of the building (even gums and other regular stuff that she thought was poison).

Then the one time I realized that something is totally wrong is when she saw a woman walking near our building while I was driving the car, she shouted at me to stop the car, jumped off in the middle of the road and started chasing her. Later she explained that she is one of "them" - the one that are trying to ruin our lives..

Me and my father didn't know what to do and hoped she will just get out of it, but the situation got just worse and worse..

She started seeing signs in grafiti's around town that are telling her to do stuff - we started telling her that something is wrong with her, trying to explain to her that this is crazy.. Grafiti that has been there for the past century was made for her that she will see it 50 years later and know the someone is after her and our family - "Them".

The situation got even worse and worse the past year, untill she saw "doom" signs everywhere:
- If i put a hat, that means someone is hurting me and I'm not telling.
- If someone publishes a joke on facebook, it's somehow a sign that she has to give 20000$ to some charity or we will all get hurt.
- If she sees a sign the a cat was lost, that means she is gonna lose all of us.
and so on...

One day at the army I got my head bumped during practice and had a concussion. Then it got even worse.. "Them" got to me and that's the sign they are really acting against us, she had a proof! -.-

She became so depressed, didn't sleep at nights, nothing.
And nothing we said or done could have changed that...
Then we started telling her that she probably has schizophrenia and should take meds, that this is all in her mind, just hallucinations..

She couldn't accept it.. Got really mad how can we not see it.
After a while she started thinking that "Them" got to me and my father and they are threatening us to tell her she is crazy or else they will hurt us, of course we told her it's not true but she couldn't believe.

She started looking for listening devices everywhere, didn't wanna talk at home about this because "they" are listening and if they hear us, they will act.

We tried to convince her to go to the shrink, but she kept saying that if she does that they will act and hurt us.. Until she broke and came. He gave her some kind of medicine called Rispond, but I'm not sure.
She started taking it, still believing that nothing is wrong with her, but if she didn't take the meds "them" will hurt our entire family.. I think she never believed for a moment she is really sick and accepted it, if she told us she knows she's sick, it was so "them" will hear it from the listening devices and leave us alone.. really crazy things..

The Rispond got her a little better, but made her really fat and sick physically, she gained 20 kg in 1 month! scared from diabitis and other illnesses and heart diseases we stopped, and everything went back..

Every med she tried there were some crazy side effects that made her very miserable.. she tried over 7 types in the last 4 months.. nothing really helps..
I'm so desperate, and my concussion didn't help either since I have headaches and dizziness 24\7 ever since.. and can't even fix my self now.. brain damage

Sorry for the wrong posts, and my English..
1. Is there any chance that she was misdiagnosed? That this is not schizophrenia? Because I have read that schizophrenia comes and goes, and she keeps seeing the signs and all 24\7 none stop regardless.. and wouldn't accept that "them" don't exist, that they are all in her head, and that I'm not lying to her by saying that nobody wants to hurt us.

2. I have read that schizophrenia doesn't just appear on this age (started at 48).. She was a very happy and active woman, not totally healthy but still funny, enjoyed life. And it came all of a sudden out of nowhere..
Well, we had a theory that she started taking many nutritional supplement, like lots of them a year before, but it's just a speculation.

3. I don't know how to act, every time I tell her it's all in her head she becomes really depressed.. My father even tried once to tell her that he is protecting us from "them" and everything is gonna be alright, at start it helped, but then it got even worse.. We don't know how to act, how to behave... We're very afraid when she's driving, and up all night..

4. She is taking 1 pill everyone and a while when it gets so bad, can this make things worse?

I need a lot of sleep and to be calm in order to fix myself from the concussion, but I'm all stressed out all the time worried, waking up many times at night to her crying, moaning.. It breaks my heart.. It's terrible.. It's my mother who I love the most!!

My father acts strong but I can see he is helpless too.. He barely sleeps, maybe 5 hours at nights with breaks where he listens to her speculations and crying.. sometimes forces her to take a med so she goes to sleep.. He starts forgetting things and other stuff.. Now I'm very worried about him either..
I started waking up when she cried at night instead of him so he gets some sleep but that got my head worse and worse..

I'm really helpless, don't know what to do. I can barely recognize her face anymore.. She is stuck with a super worried face that stresses me out so bad..

I would love if you answered my questions, that maybe she is misdiagnosed and the meds aren't right for her, and maybe some advices of how I should act..

Thanks in advance, and hope you and your families will become well as soon as possible.