Originally Posted by ataloss

Hi,
I'm new here, hoping to find some help/advice.
My mom is 69, and for the last 17-20 years has had mood swings, forgets stuff, and things 'they' are listening to phone conversations, break into the house, move stuff around and steal things of no worth (like one tomato).
It's gotten slightly worse over the years, although I'm not a good judge of that as I'm 32, and have only really been 'watching' this for the last 6 years or so, when my dad passed away. When I say this has been going on for around 20 years - I say that because I remember her at that point accusing us of stealing things/moving things around/saying there must be 'ghosts', but obviously wasn't really engaging and trying to figure out what was going on.

Anyway - I was hoping I might get some advice on what's going on and what to do. We live in Germany at the moment, my mom doesn't speak German that well, she refuses to go see doctors in general because 'they killed your (my) father' (he died of a heart attack - no one killed anyone). How do I get a diagnosis. How do I stay sane myself to cope with this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!