r/Psychosis

Would love to hear stories of where people were at 6 months post psychosis or hospital. Just hit that mark and thought I was improving but now dealing with depression symptoms again. Thank you in advance

Hi everyone. My family is going through something concerning with my younger brother, and I’m hoping to hear from people who have experienced something similar, either personally or with a loved one.

My brother is 30 and has always been a little different socially. Growing up, he struggled in school, was diagnosed with ADHD, given adderall when he was very young, and had difficulty making friends and understanding certain social situations. As an adult, he’s struggled to maintain employment, has become increasingly isolated, and hasn’t always taken the best care of himself. He’s lived alone for about 10 years.

Over the past 6 months to a year, though, something has changed.

He became increasingly interested in religion (we did grow up going to church but were never overly religious), initially because he wanted to get his life on track and find more purpose. But eventually, that turned into what seems like paranoia and an obsession with demons and satanic activity.

It started when he believed an object in his home was possessed. He got rid of it and said he felt better afterward. Then he began repeatedly calling the police because he believed people were driving past his house and potentially targeting him.

More recently, he called the police because he believed there were strange scratches on his furniture that he associated with demonic activity, but the officers couldn’t see what he was describing.

He has also told a therapist that he sees eyeballs in his hands looking at him.

He voluntarily entered a short-term mental health facility for a three-day evaluation, which is where he is now.

What’s confusing is that when our parents speak with him, he sounds completely calm and normal. He isn’t noticeably manic or agitated. He genuinely seems to believe these things are happening.

We don’t have a diagnosis yet. I’m wondering whether this could be a first episode of psychosis, something on the schizophrenia spectrum, or potentially a neurological condition. Given his lifelong social and developmental difficulties, I’ve also wondered whether he may have undiagnosed autism or another neurodevelopmental condition.

I’m especially worried about him returning home alone after only three days.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar.

• Did your symptoms or your loved one’s symptoms begin with religious beliefs, paranoia, or unusual visual experiences?
• Could you or your loved one appear completely calm and normal while experiencing hallucinations or delusions?
• What ultimately helped you get an accurate diagnosis?
• What treatment, medication, or therapy made the biggest difference?
• How did your family support you without making you feel judged or dismissed?
• What should we advocate for before he’s discharged, especially since he lives alone?

I’m not looking for anyone to diagnose him, moreso just want to understand what he might be experiencing and learn how to support him in the most compassionate and effective way possible.

I love my brother, and I want him to have a chance at a happy, healthy, independent life. Thank you to anyone willing to share their experience.

Basically I became unwell because of drugs and I still do them. I'm pretty fucking stupid. Doesn't look like I'll ever get better.

Anyone else here have a problem with drugs?

I was living in what the Bible would call sin for many years. Then I picked up a Bible and started reading it to possibly align my life with it.

I felt close to God and was in a church etc, feeling like life was going well for me.

I felt called to make videos etc on the word and my interpretation of it. Then Psycosis hit.

I feel like it is a direct result of possibly being a false prophet. The Bible says He will send a strong delusion to certain people not in the faith.

I realise this may be an unpopular opinion, but I wanted to see if there was anyone else who could relate.

They say I don't got through psychosis because I am aware of symptoms. I hear sounds and voices, I get pre occupied about a thought and think it means something about me. I have thoughts that people are in love with me and want to have sex with me, I also think that others are out to get me wanting to kill me and gonna kill me. I get defensive that others are gonna kill me I think about getting at them before they get me. I don't think before I speak I flirt and I text and I think that any slight thing means they love me and In romantic connection and I have thoughts that I love someone who I just met and that they are the best and most awesomest person ever they love me and I love them and we are gonna have sex no and sex is the most glorious thing ever and I will be glorious for having sex. I also think I am a dog a god and monster I also think I am a cat since I head butt my cats there fore I am a cat and I get paranoid about names and how names remind me of a person and I get that person in mind mind and I think I am them I feel like them and I get angry that they are controlling my mind. I don't know for certainty if this is psychosis but I experience somethings that sound like my thoughts are externalized

For me, it started out as a social anxiety. I’d feel people talking behind my back or my neighbor hating me. When I go outside, I would have this “hunch” where people look at me weird.

I thought it was social anxiety nothing more but now I know it was the beginning of psychosis. For those of you who feel **extremely anxious outside or inside the house all the time, to the point where moving your own body parts becomes extremely awkward**, it’s one of the biggest red flags of Schizophrenia. Paranoia can easily be misdiagnosed with social anxiety so beware!

If you or your loved ones suffer from these symptoms, don’t ignore them. Go to mental health professional ASAP.

An somewhat artistic and stylized interpretation of what psychosis felt like for me.

I don't know if this is worth posting or reading, I wrote this up purely to process something that felt impossible to ever process or explain with words. I thought about giving some backstory of my life for reference but honestly even with more information this might all just read like edgy word salad to anyone but myself anyway. I will say that I will be 3 years post psychosis in December with no recurrence(Thank fucking god), my psychosis was thankfully brief and "harmless" in that I didn't need to be hospitalized (Although I often wish I was) thanks to my sister taking care of me and stopping me from doing anything extreme. Anyways, here it is:

Trigger warning: Body Horror, Disturbing Content, References to Self Harm

When I started my transition, for the first time I had to accept that it was real, and that a large part of the normal life I dreamed of was dead. That my childhood, my adolescents, and a very important part of my adulthood, had been robbed from me since birth. A body incongruent to its mind.

I grieved this death, a part of me forever lost. But what remained of me moved on, trying to look forward at the new normal my future held for me.

But despite doing everything right, doing everything I was told I should do to reach what remained of that normal life I was promised, it continued to be just out of reach.

So I tried to start anew, a new home for a new normal that I was as determined as ever to reach. I settled into my new home quickly, slowly building my new life brick by brick, a genuine sense of hope burning in my chest. It didn't last.

I did everything right, everything I was supposed to do.
I tried. So. Hard.
And still. I never moved closer.

Slowly, my dreams of this normal life that had been damaged, but not fully destroyed, began to wither in my hands.
I watched, rotting in my bed, as the only real dream I ever cared about, died. And with it, the last of my Hope, the last of my Innocence, and the last of my Sanity.

The reality I had known, that time and again, I was taught was very much real and tangible, shattered. The very ground beneath my feet, torn out from under me as that plain, simple, even boring normal life that I was told I would be given if I just did what I was supposed to do, turned to dust.

It's all I ever wanted. And all I was utterly denied.

I stumbled. I Fell. And Crossed Beyond The | Line
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Falling through madness and racing past words without meaning, the fabric of Base Realities tattered remains twisted and morphed before my 👁️Eyes👁️.

the♾️Infinite♾️possibilities of what Was and what Is flashing into my mind, violating my personhood and tearing •m🪬e•, from👁️I👁️, from♾️We♾️.

Bliss overtook us then. The pure euphoria of knowing the unknowable, seeing the unsee-able, comprehending the uncomprehendable.

Graced by the touch of The 8|• Universal's knowledge.

We felt reborn as the fog and darkness of what lies beyond | gave way to the unbearable light of the all knowing, obscuring The | Line from us, our descent beyond | continued as hope flooded our being.

Eventually that descent slowed, the♾️Infinite♾️potentiality coalesced. A new Base Reality slowly stitching itself, in part, back together from the torn fabric of the old.

False truths and nightmares replaced the blissful knowledge we had been gifted, terror in its rawest form filling our senses, promises of death, torture, and the loss of all we loved tore back the hope from our bones and rent our flesh.

The 8|• Universal letting fall the violated, beaten, and half dead remains of our personhood back to the body we were ripped from. The bloodied chunks of dead self slapping wetly against the physical form they once resided inside before sliding to the ground and rotting into nothingness.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

👁️I👁️woke then.

A new being birthed from the remains of a shattered mind and a broken soul, empty, hollow, and bleeding.

I stumbled and swayed, this new unrecognizable Base Reality spinning around me in a fog of disassociation, fragmented messages, and meaning. Lingering static from between God's thoughts still buzzing inside my head.

I lived. But she died. I am half a soul existing inside a lacerated body.

I wonder now, if they can see that change. Do they miss her? Do they grieve and whisper of her passing when my back is turned? Or did her death truly go unnoticed to them, utterly unaware of the brutal fragmentation of our psyche and violence that was enacted out upon us from within.

I miss her.

I miss her dearly.

If you actually bothered to read that whole thing I appreciate it, and I hope it was either enjoyable or relatable or, something. And obviously I would love to hear what it was like for anyone else who went through this hell I wouldn't wish on my worst of enemies.

Hi, 21 year old here. I recently recovered from a bout of diagnosed psychosis and desire to work my way back into society. I have been consistent with therapy and taking my medication for the past three years. I came off of medication recently and want to apply to jobs. I tried working during my recovery phase and ended up failing and quiting.

I had problems of paranoia and anxiety. I was severely depressed during this time but am starting to feel better recently.

What should I know when seeking rest and when I do apply for jobs what should I do when I feel there's too much to handle?

So, I am 31M and my 27F girlfriend is going through a second episode of psychosis
The first episode happened last year
And I am really confused about our future
For the first episode we were living together and during that episode she was saying a lot of things to me which really hurt me and I am actually moved on but they’re still the trauma in my head about what she was saying to me
The second episode we were in a long distance relationships everything was going good suddenly it happened again to her
FYI, she had stopped taking a medication last October

And now I’m so confused about a future because she wants to get married and coming from a Asian ethnicity both of us, it is going to be very difficult for her to send to my household since we have different language languages rituals, customs, etc

I tried talking to her and not exactly breaking up but acting distant and saying that I’m not sure about a future anymore but she gets angry. Disconnect the phone and the next day talk with me like everything is back to normal.

After a few days, I started feeling that it would still be okay but again I’m not able to move ahead and now I started to feel that is this going to be a very difficult for me in my life to deal with whatever happens with her during these episodes

Myself, I’m not going through a very good time. I have been unemployed for the last one year and moved back to my parents house and in the last whole year even when I wasn’t going through a good time I had to be strong and only support her. All of this is taking a toll with me like I did it after the first time and equal to do it for the second time, but the thought that I have to do this for all my life without actually any support from her is really killing me.

I don’t know how I shouldn’t things with her what to do up in the future ahead
I just need to talk with someone or just wanted to share all of this year

I experience very strange thoughts and questions that pop into my head. I find myself questioning things that seem completely ordinary and obvious, such as: Why do we walk on two legs in the first place? Why do we behave the way we do, rather than acting differently?

Sometimes, I imagine myself as an inanimate object, an animal, or a completely different person, and I wonder what it would feel like to be something other than the person I am now.

Other times, I have strange thoughts, such as imagining that I might suddenly start acting hysterically and behaving erratically in public, doing random, unusual things in the street, screaming, or moving in strange ways in front of other people. Then I start wondering: Why don't we do these things in the first place? What makes us follow these usual patterns of behavior and social norms?

I also sometimes imagine myself talking out loud to myself when there is no one else around to talk to, and I wonder why that is considered strange or unusual.

These thoughts make me question my everyday behaviors and things I have always taken for granted, as if I were seeing them for the first time. I start questioning things I have never really thought about before, even though they are just ordinary parts of everyday life.

Did anyone else have very long duration psychosis (or similar) with parts having extreme intensity, with extreme nervous system overdrive, and now being trapped in compromised brain and body in aftermath?

I just started clozapine and i was wondering if exercising helps with recovery from residual symptoms? I want to be me again but i feel like recovery is moving kind of slowly, has anyone had any recovery success from working out? Any help appreciated thank you!

Does anyone want to be friends? I’d really like to have a friend where we can both understand each other and be there for each other:)
I am 22f in my 4th year of uni.

Would be nice to meet some people around my age (22f) who've experienced the same thing as I did and diagnosed bipolar. Feel free to msg me and hope to talk to some of you soon :)

ok so I’ve had voices for 6 years and theyve stopped in the last 6 months. Ive done some research and its not an entity , demon, telepathy, god, angel. its too much dopamine. the meds reduce the dopamine ( that’s how I understsnd it) since learning this I’ve been staying away from things that increase my dopamine like stop reading the bible, stop listening to music/‘movies. also by distracting yourself with a hobby or housework will help.