I have a friend who was diagnosed as schizophrenic many years ago and his unpredictable behavior forced me to stop seeing him in 2015. Since that time, I have only had phone contact with him - although with many problems.  For instance, I had to give up calling him because he never picked up - and I suspect he simply didn’t hear his incoming calls because he didn’t know how to control the volume on the phone.   I also stopped picking up after I started receiving so many ‘butt calls’ from him. Even when I did pick up, and he was actually there, our conversations were mostly cut off in mid-sentence and I don’t know if he was inadvertently disconnecting himself or not. My patience finally gave out this morning and I officially blocked his incoming calls from both my land line and cell phone.  He then called me at the office (where I’m unable to block his incoming calls) and I told him that I just couldn’t take it anymore and until he was able to fix his phone problems, that he simply stop even trying to call me. I also realize these problems may have more to do with a decline in his cognitive abilities which may have nothing to do with his schizophrenia and may actually be caused by other factors.   

I tried having a serious conversation with him several weeks ago about his situation and how I thought it was time for him to consider some other living arrangement because I really don’t think he is capable of living on his own anymore.  I also knew that he would be resistant to even thinking about the idea of giving up his independence (which is understandable) but I also told him that I needed to let him know what I thought and I wouldn’t bring it up again.

I feel very guilty about my need to distance myself right now, but I also feel I need to minimize the harm it is really doing to me too.  I want to help but I feel like I’ve run out of ways that I can effectively do that - I’m in way over my head and feel like I’m drowning -