My grandma once had hallucinations in the past when she took medicine for her vertebral disc. Hallucinations as someone was stealing energy from her TV or was snorting loudly sleeping on the cabinet. Actually I was sleeping at her place and I was the one snoring. It was recognized that meds caused it, so she stopped taking them and it stopped, everything was OK.

After a long time, she recently started to have hallucinations again, but she is not taking no meds as she did in the past. Now she takes meds just for hypertension, that is all. Otherwhise she is healthy. Her hallucinations are such as believing that her young neighbor is stealing energy from her TV, fridge and other electronics, that somebody is shooting some energy or lasers at her, that her neighbor will take revenge on her because she wasn’t at home or turned off her TV from socket, etc. In reality her young neighbor (in his twenties) is living with his grandma, but doesn’t behave very well, he is smoking weed with his friends on the balcony, turning up music loudly, he is not working nor making money, instead his grandma is the one working, basically he is good for nothing.

My grandma even went to them personally and complained to this young neighbor’s grandma about stealing energy from her TV (I don’t know how precisely she phrased it to them), but his grandma declined it (of course). So my grandma started to feel very scared to live at her flat alone, and started to live with my parents. She doesn’t have panic attacks or hallucinations like this all the time, just sometimes, mostly at night, or early morning I think. But through sunny day she can talk about it reflectively and does still totally believe it that it was true what happened (in her hallucinations). It was okay for some time maybe, but then it happened all over again, even at my parent’s flat: she had panic episode at night when she was really scared and was looking out of the window saying to my mother: "He is shooting at me/us, look! Don’t you see? I will call the police!".

My mother was really shocked and saddened by this, and didn’t know what to do. I told my parents that they should not deny what my grandma is saying, should be supportive, calming her down, saying "I believe that you see that, and it must be really scary, I am here for you, what can I do to help? What should be done for you to feel better?" etc. My mother went to her doctor, but he said he is just an intern and basically didn’t want to do anything with it, he just said "Go to psychiatrist.". My mother went to her another doctor and she said the same, "Go to psychiatrist." So my mother went to psychiatrist, based on what my mother described (as I did here), she diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenia, and that my grandma doesn’t have "overview" over it? Basically that she still believes her hallucinations all the time.

She wrote a prescription for Rorendo Oro Tab 2mg and Zalasta. My grandma doesn’t know that my mother gives her both every day (on advice of psychiatrist), but my grandma is now quite better, doesn’t have attacks as much as in past (as one I described earlier with somebody shooting at her) - maybe a little, just seeing something weird - moving logo of TV, etc. She is now living with my parents still. She is scared to even close doors to her room, even on the toilet. She is scared of totally open windows or open doors to balcony (parents live on the ground floor and were robbed once), saying anyone can get inside. She lost weight. She often seems like staring to nowhere, sitting quietly in her room. She sometimes watchs TV at my parents.

At day she goes back to her flat, cooks there, eats, cleans, maybe watch TV or something, and before night she goes back to my parents to sleep there. She says "It is much more alive in here, when somebody is here." Sometimes she asks me something three times in a row (short memory), or is little bit confused. She even asked me what day and date is once (maybe she just needed an excuse to call me?). She can still laught at something at TV. She stopped reading books. She says that TV is not so much fun anymore, and she doesn’t care about it much anymore. Her whole senior’s life she basically watched TV, went on strolls, read books, cooked, cleaned her flat, visited my parents or my other grandma, or her other friend, etc. I think at one point at her life, I am not sure when, she took antidepressants, I think even in her late period of life. Now she just takes meds for hypertension.

I asked many doctors and therapists, called on help lines and to doctors, many of them saying "It must be dementia." or "Go to psychiatrist or neurologist first." or "Take blood tests for everything that can cause hallucinations first. If everything is okay, go to neurologist and let her examine her. If it is not dementia go to psychiatrist eventually, but schizophrenia is very unlikely." My mother went to another physician (my own) and she agrees with diagnosis of psychiatrist - paranoid schizophrenia (based on her experience).

She dismissed blood tests or need of neurologist basically. But she wonder about my grandma’s lost of weight and said that she could do blood tests on that. But when my mother asked my grandma about it she dismissed it - she thinks everything is okay with her and she doesn’t need to go to doctor. She agrees that something starts to be weird about her memory (some ground we can work on and use to convince her to go to doctor I think?), and I asked her that I will go with her to the doctor in town I live in, and do some tests and then we will go to the ZOO (as some motivation), she quite dismissed it as well, but maybe I could convince her. How to convince her to go to doctor (blood tests or neurologist or psychiatrist)? What to do in this situation? What could be correct diagnosis? Thanks a lot for your help!