Someone has posted up nude photos and CCTV footage of her online
A group of people are dedicated so spreading rumors about her online
And she claimed
Random people on the street have told her that they know her
Random people on the street claimed that they have saw nude footage of hers.
Random people have scolding her on the street for forging certifications, aborting babies and etc.
She wants me to find them online; or something, or to believe her. I can’t really make out what she wants from the mess of text that she sent me. She’s should be in her early 30s.
I don’t know which is more terrifying, that it is all really happening, or she’s…imagined it up. Or somewhere in between, that she is convinced that some people are out to get her, and to get us to believe her she comes up with such stories.
I don’t know what to do. I have see read many dopers’ account of depression, borderline personality, but never something like this. Have this happened to someone you know? What did you do? I’m at a loss.
Right now I just want to stay far far away from these drama.
It pains me to tell you this, but I’d have to go with door #2.
Her story makes no sense at all. Unless she has absolute (i.e. visual) proof that this is happening, there’s simply no way “random people” would be telling her these kind of things. I’m not saying it’s impossible (stranger things have happened in my own life, believe me!!) but the most likely explanation, absent any evidence, is that she’s had some kind of mental breakdown or has recently been abusing drugs.
If it were my call, I’d schedule an intervention ASAP. And if you feel she may be a threat to herself or others, call 911…like, NOW.
Psychologist here. A mental breakdown is very likely. Go with her to her GP or the hospital and ask them what they can do for her. She may not want to, but right now she is living in a kind of paranoid hell. Is she on any meds right now? it could be as easy as adjusting the dosages.
She was in some New Age thingy once and advocated medication is evil. Or something like that.
Not too long back (3 months?) she was having some problems with her husband. I set her up with a marriage counselor but she stopped going after three sessions. I hope this time she’ll stick to it.
I have to talk to my mum about that; they’re the one staying together now. I’m the “super nerdish IT guy” so I have to hunt down evidence that people are posting pictures of her online. (That’s apparently what she asked me to do. What am I going to do? Surf every porn site in existence?)
Yeah, I hate to say it, but I agree with the others who think that she’s having psychological issues.
A friend of mine finally had to be hospitalized due to hers; she thought she was being watched, including from drive-through speaker boxes (the kind at fast food joints and such), and she also thought that her husband had joined in on the plot. Her ‘breakdown’ moment occurred when she got in her car and drove halfway across the state, before finally stopping and regaining just enough judgment to call her husband for help. These days she’s on medication and is doing well in her career, but has to go in regularly for medication adjustment and therapy sessions.
I was thinking it’s typical Luddite behavior like what someone who has no idea how the internet works… until the part about random people talking about forging certifications and aborting babies. Yea that’s a sickness right there. She needs help.
Just to encourage you to follow up on what other posters have said. Get her to a doctor as soon as practical. I personally know two people where something similar happened. (A relatively normal person starts behaving irrationally and saying irrational things.)
In both cases it was a brain tumor. :eek:
That is not the only possible cause, of course, but you should get her to a doctor soon in any case.
I’m sorry, but your sister is almost definitely having some kind of psychotic delusions. She needs professional help.
And I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t waste your time looking for those photos or any of the other stuff she’s talking about. I’d say there’s about a 99.999% chance none of it exists.
Yes, this definitely sounds like a psychotic break of some kind. Has this come on gradually, or did it start relatively suddenly? In either event, I would strongly recommend starting out with a primary care physician visit to begin a physical work-up.
If these symptoms are unusual for her, and they came on suddenly, there might be an organic explanation. If not, then a psychological assessment would be the next step.
I realize that there probably aren’t real pictures. And that this seems to be a case of paranoia rather than stolen porn. And I agree she should seek medical help.
But there is a viable way to find specific pictures online. Ask her to give you some of the pictures that have been posted online. Then you can use TinEye to find other sites where they have been posted. It is a remarkably effective tool. And I understand must such sites are willing to remove pictures, at the subject’s request.
Small chance she physically resembles some porn actress who’s posted stuff online. Much larger chance that your sister’s brain is having problems of one kind or another. It’s an organ, and things can go hinkey just as with your pancreas, heart etc. Helping her is probably outside your realm; you can help her by getting her to someone qualified to intervene.
My sister went crazy once and kept saying the exact same thing that other people said. It was spooky. She consulted a mental health professional and got better.
My sister went crazy once and kept saying the exact same thing that other people said. It was spooky. She consulted a mental health professional and got better.
She had some feud with the people in her previous workplace, and she always been suspecting they’re out to get her. I think she was victim of workplace bullying.
For a while, about 3 or 4 years ago, she kept asking whether it is possible for the IT staff at her workplace to peer into her personal mail, at home. I said no; well, technically, if someone is darn determined to spy on you and unless you are a high level hacker, you can’t stop it. But the IT staff of a company? I don’t think so and said no.
She has this whole thing of her ex-colleagues posting her photograph on newspaper, putting up her pictures on websites. She was telling me that she can’t find those videos or websites, but she was being approached by random people on the street who said they recognize her for aborting babies, forging university certificates and etc. So she think it must be her ex-colleagues.
I have no idea HOW to bring her to see a doctor. It’s like telling her that she’s wrong, and it’s not happening, and she can be stubborn.
I will talk to mum about it. They’re closer since I have moved out about four years ago. And my sister has a volatile temper, and till now I wouldn’t talk with her unless it is out of necessity.
ETA:
I think it is possible she overheard random people talking about certain items on the news, and was somehow convinced that they’re talking about her. I myself have that paranoid feeling when people behind me suddenly laugh and I would go “Are they laughing at me?”
Sounds like you are not best placed to deal with this, whatever the problem. Talk to your mum and make sure you both share any concerns you may have, fully. If your mum agrees that there is a problem then you might want to talk to your GP about how best to get help for her: if she does have a mental health problem she is not the only person ever not to have recognised it: so they will have experience of this and perhaps can find ways to intervene or to encourgage her to seek assistance
I had a mental breakdown a few years ago and I experinced very simalir delusions. I believed there was some sort of conspiracy against me involving unflattering photos of me on the internet. It got to the point where I believed my own parents were trying to posion me. The evidence I had that there was a conspiracy or that such photos even existed? Pretty much zero.
I don’t think people fully understand what delusions are. From my experince I’d say they’re a result of the human mind’s natural tendency to search for explanations. When a mind that isn’t working properly tries to come up with a comphrehensive explanation from a very partial data YMMV.
Of course you shouldn’t jump to conclusions, there could be a grain of truth to this so it’s worth checking, but the probabilty is that it’s symptomatic of mental illness.
