Did not know where else to post this, as I don't even know the condition that my Mom has, but it seems to fit in with what I've read about psychosis. Apologies for the wall of text...

Basically, for the last 12-14 months (it could have been longer, but I had never seen the behavior before then), my mom (53 years old) has these bouts of extreme anger where she thinks the neighbors are watching her and judging her. If it makes any difference, she was laid off about 4 years ago, and hasn't worked steadily since then, just odd jobs here and there. Most of the time though she spent inside the house.

When she has these bouts of anger, she can suppress them if I or my siblings are near her, or if she thinks we are not within earshot. She will look out the window or door if she hears any of the neighbors make any kind of noise, or even turn on a light in there house; she will start talking to herself, pacing back and forth loudly, and basically get herself worked up to where I can tell her heart is beating fast and starts sweating. Even when the phone rings, it's enough to trigger her anger. The worst that has happened is that she once was so angered at the neighbors mowing their lawn (or doing something in their yard) that she put her fist through a window while she was looking at them, and ended up with several cuts to her arms.

When I originally told my Dad that this was not normal or even angry behavior but something more than that, he did not believe it (given our culture), just thought it was her personality coming out. Since then though, he has seen these rage episodes and has come around to accept that it really is a problem. He took her to our general practicioner doctor (took a lot of convincing to get her to go), who suggested it could be menopause and the mix of hormones. He prescribed some mild medication (not sure what it was) but it did not really do anything as far as we could tell, or even if she took the pills as prescribed.

This is where we are stuck: she refuses to go to a mental health professional or anymore doctors. She does not accept that there could be something wrong with her mentally, as in our culture there seems to be a stigma to this kind of illness. I converted some articles on mental health to our language and tried to give them to her, but she got angry, ripped them up, and tossed them. My dad bought home a list of doctors that specialize in mental health from his health insurance provider, but she found it and tore the pages up.

Between my dad working full time (and some overtime), and myself living what could be 30-60 minutes away and also working full time, we cannot be at home to monitor her to make sure she doesnt hurt herself somehow, or go outside and start any physical altercations. I try to be home when I can but given my obligations, I cannot be home more than 1-2 days a week. It's gotten so that I have only had 2-3 Saturdays (sometimes Fridays) to myself in the last 8 months, as I go home to watch her on Saturdays when no one else can.

I guess what I'm asking is, what are my options here? I don't think we can sustain this as it is becoming a serious source of stress for myself and my Dad, as well as my sisters (who do not live at with parents either). We can't forcefully take her to a doctor, as when we called the mental health professionals, they said they can't talk to us, they have to talk directly to her. She doesn't speak English though in the first place, and in the second, she refuses to even talk to them. If anything I want her to get a full body workup so we can rule out any physical causes of this problem, like a tumor or anything.

Does this sound like psychosis or some other form of illness? How do we deal with this given her being uncooperative and unwilling to accept that there is something larger at play here?

Thanks for any help or advice anyone can provide.