Ryan

I'm 20 and live in Newcastle, where I go to university. My brother 25 and lives in London and was doing a phd there. We lost our Dad 2 years ago, his mother has effectively disowned him, and mine died when I was young (he's my half brother), so there's just me and my 17 year old sister for him to turn to.

He recently split up with his long term girlfriend, who he was living with, and ended up on the streets of London. I don't know all the details, but I know he slept rough a bit. He is bipolar and takes a huge amount of cannabis, which makes him worse, and has been going in and out of depression since Dad died. Loosing his girlfriend and being on the streets has caused him to hit an all time low.

He has become severely paranoid, saying absurd things about people trying to control him, and he keeps saying how much he just wants to die. He will only communicate though facebook, and is very arrogant which, combined with his paranoia, makes him very hard to reason with. He is mistrustful of medicinal drugs, doctors and any authorities.

I've been trying to talk to him though facebook, but he twists everything I say into an attack and makes me out to be against him. For example, I invited him to come and stay with me in the North but he accused me of making outrageous selfish demands of him, when all I want is to help. He's started just insulting me and saying horrible things to me when ever I try and facebook him, and doesn't respond though any other communication method. He still talks to my sister, but she is only 17 and suffers with some depression of her own, and his constantly saying how much he wants to die is really upsetting her. I don't know what to do or how to talk to him, any help would be really appreciated.