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Someone asked me to log on today so that I could respond to your post based on my experiences with my parents.  Your mother doesn't sound like my parents though, what she is going through is more like what my grandmother went through.  "They" were always spying on her, coming in our house at night, stealing from her and conspiring to kill her.  We could never convince her that it was not really happening.  We all knew that she was mentally ill, but because it upset her so for us to not go along with it, we just tried to ignore it as much as possible.  There was nothing we could do to convince her that she needed help and my grandfather actually encouraged us to just go along with her.  That was how he protected her dignity allthough he was quite embarassed by her stories.  I don't think she would have ever believed that she was imagining things and even if she had figured it out, she would have never admitted it.  I was raised by these grandparents.  We had bars on our windows, three german shehpards,  and if we could have afforded it, I know she would have put up surveilance cameras everywhere.  She finished her life in this mental prison.  The good news is that despite the upheaval that she caused, most of the family would still come visit her and she was never left isolated or lonely, which is amazing.  The other good news, for you is that you have a good support system and that your brother will probably wise up in a few years despite what he must be going through.  The bad news is that it will be extremely difficult to pull your mother out of her prison long enough to convince her to seek help.  I have no idea how you would do that and it is impossible to force someone to get help if they are not putting lives in danger.  I'm sure the police in her area are fully aware of her problems, but there is nothing they can do.  This is such a tough situation for you, especially after everything you went through as a teenager.  I wish that I had some advice for you, but it is such a touchy situation.  It's not like you can just talk to your mother about this.  I hope you get a better answer, I wish that I at least knew some books that could help you.  Best of luck.