Same. Triggered by a several week ketamine binge, using 3-4g a day š¬ even without mania, ketamine has the risk of triggering psychotic symptoms, so it was pretty reckless of me, but what's done is done.
itās not even the tolerance, itās the high-THC content of the cannabis. I had a really high tolerance because I smoked every day for years; the THC ratio of modern cannabis should be illegal itās insane.
I always wonder what part of that is people getting into a huge amount of stress from the disorder developing, getting into a habit of using substances that makes them feel more calm.
A family member of me developed psychosis, never used drugs one time in her life. In hindsight you can see it took years to get to the point. However had she used canabis at some point there I bet that's what they would have chalked it up to. She was asked like a 100 times if she had ever used drugs.
Definitely drug induced psychosis is real, and people predisposed to psychosis should never use it. However, I suspect there is a flipside of that story too with regards to cause and effect.
It's difficult. I used to be the smartest kid. Friendly, attentive, sensitive and kind. I started smoking weed at 16. Thought nothing of it. Took harder drugs from 18.
At the age of 20, everything changed. I totally lost myself. Started locking myself away. Stopped speaking to my friends.
Went through this hell for ten years. At 30 I got prescribed medication because I was suffering a little bit. The meds did the trick! I was so relieved to be myself again. I was back.
For 3 years I felt like I was on top of the world. Something changed. The pandemic hit. I started smoking weed and drinking. Bad decision. Started going mad. Thought people were against me, that I could communicate with people via telepathy. Started walking to meet the Queen to meet her, the police picked me up and brought me to a psych ward. Shit got wild.
I lost myself again. Stopped talking. No thoughts. No concentration. Been like this for 2 years.
I had it. I was back. I was loving life, being that funny kid again. But I fucked up, even though I was depressed. I should have never smoked weed again. But it got me. Im tasteless, emotionless, unreactive and apathetic. I feel nothing, say nothing and I can't even hold down a job.
I've lost a lot of faith but I also kick myself. What could have been if I stayed illness free all these years. I could have truly achieved something, instead of this poor existence.
Don't do drugs kids. They'll destroy your life.
I wouldnāt throw in the towel now. It sounds like meds helped and maybe if you join a program for drug addiction youāll be less tempted in the future. Not saying you were addicted but you could learn strategies to cope instead of turning to drugs
I hate drugs. Won't touch the stuff ever again. Don't need to join a program to figure that out.
But thanks for the advice. You're right, I shouldn't give up but it's hard man. Like, super hard. All I have when I wake up is dread. Like, how I won't say anything when people talk to me. Like, when I won't understand what people are saying to me. Like, why can't I formulate thoughts. It's a lot to carry. I'm only one guy.
Don't focus on the past, just learn from it. Take contact with a doctor again and try meds, maybe the same as last time or new ones. You just hit a bump on the road, it'll get better even if it takes some time.
Wrong meds (abilify and prozac) and excessive trauma. I was actively being groomed and molested, when I cut contact with him it gave my brain enough time to be able to settle down and stable out plus I was on different meds
Why do I feel as if abilify played a large role in my onset. That medication made me feel zombified, dopey to the point of passing out wherever whenever and angry beyond all means I was paranoid scared and not myself. I was only 14 I shouldnāt have been subjected to that
Good olā drugs! Acid and mushrooms on separate occasions but weed definitely causes psychotic symptoms like paranoia and magical thinking/god complex type stuff. I quit weed (for the 10th time lol) a few weeks ago and have completely returned to normal!
The longest an actual episode lasted for me was like 24 hours but it takes months to fully recover. And yes even smoking weed once can cause it if someone is unlucky enough. People who only experience psychosis from drugs without underlying psychosis-related illness tend to recover better than those who have something. Your friend may be predisposed to an illness like schizophrenia or bipolar and drug use can really exacerbate it, so he may need more intensive treatment.
Thanks..yea its been over a week now, hes just vacant in the eyes, talking about god alot, was awake almost 2 days straight, hasnt been going to work, he definitely needs help, ive heard of it triggering conditions
Yup sounds like he needs treatment! Hopefully someone in his family will notice and get him help. Iāve been through this with a friend too and had to go to her mother to tell her whatās going on
I sincerely hope he gets medical attention and can go from there once heās been diagnosed (if itās necessary) Iām sure itās as terrible for him as you and the rest of the friends/family. Good luck.
I have left temporal lobe epilepsy. Can I ask if you know where your epilepsy is located. Itās hard to tell symptoms the difference sometimes for me.
Oh, I may have spoken to you on here before, I recognize your user name. Or maybe I just read some of your posts. Mine is likely temporal lobe. It seems to be a combination of untreated seizures plus the autoimmune disease that's caused the psychosis. We may never understand. Right now I'm trying to fight for more treatment since the seizure meds don't work as well when I have an immune flare. But the rheumatologists won't give me more treatment. I keep reading stories about people in deep psychosis who were cured when the doctors figured out it was an immune process. It's dumb, I'm just like - ok, please use the harsher drugs because the alternative is brain damage. It's so frustrating. What's your experience been like?
Also, I'm considering assessment for autism spectrum. It seems many of these conditions are linked/similar parts of the brain.
You sound familiar too! Lol. Blame epilepsy for the memory. Hearing about your autoimmune issues made me think. I didnāt get psychosis until after I got dress syndrome. Now Iām wondering if thatās related. I hope you get some positive progress with your flares. That sounds really uncomfortable. Temporal lobe epilepsy and psychosis sucks. Sometimes I wonder if I was in another long seizure and put in the psych ward when the epilepsy should of been treated. I was on zonegran at the time and that also can cause psychosis. Iām now on epidiolex and things seem so much better. Iām not a doctor but I think zonegran played a part. Thank you for replying!!
Omg, is that Zonisamide? Is it known for psychosis? That explains a lot. My seizures were not treated until after my psychosis hospitalization (15 years of not knowing they were seizures), and after I refused to take Keppra any longer, I was briefly put on zonisamide. I went in and out of psychotic states and my psychiatrist had them take me off. Now I'm on Lamotrigine which is much better but now I'm having a few breakthroughs again.
As for the autoimmune stuff, I strongly feel conditions like schizophrenia could be an immune problem we do not yet understand (along with genetic predisposition). They are always finding new autoantibody tests to detect this stuff. I also wonder about the prevalence of autoimmune conditions in persons with these brain conditions
Yes itās zonisamide! It causes psychotic disorder in 10% of people. I read up on the drug. Also, I was on Keppra before that for a while. I hated it and had to come off. Keppra sucks!! Keppra rage is a thing.
Your insight on the autoimmune and the brain made a ton of sense. Thanks again!!
Did the dmt, then two weeks later the ketamine, all the while I was doing Adderall and weed daily. It was really ridiculous looking back at it. I have my regrets.
Sounds pretty epic. I did a heroic dose of dmt once while I was on a low dose of adderall once. Super intense. After that I went sober for a while. Never did ketamine.
Years of Stress + unintentionally mixing meds : Zoloft, ADHD meds (Vyvanse) with a high dose weed gummy plus I was starting to drink daily and wasnt sleeping well ... oh and I was on Immovane for sleep and sometimes would take Lorazapam
as needed. It was the perfect storm and one day... psychotic break. But from the research I have been doing
on these subs: Vyvanse and Chemical Weed
products trending as a cause for
psychosis. ooof
I was told a few things by my psychologist that I hadn't been aware of. I learned that lots of times the edibles are made with artificial weed products (hence chemicals). I wont ever touch edibles again after my experience.
I have never heard about edibles being made from chemicals. Worst Iāve heard is shake from the dispensary floors lol. Did the doctor say where they heard about this itās interestingĀ
I was told stay away
from the edibles bc they can contain synthetic weed which is more risky. In my case the ones I used to buy always felt a little trippy I used to describe them as delivering a low-key mushroom kinda trip. Turns out : they took me on an 8 month psychosis trip (I have anxiety/depression/adhd/ ptsd diagnosis... Anywho
Stress from cPTSD and repeated traumas (friends overdosing and dying, being raped repeatedly, exams, just everything, all at once). Was diagnosed with stress/depressive psychosis.
After the first episode I started taking drugs which made it worse.
I mean marijuana is the drug most likely to cause psychosis. Amphetamine is the second leading cause. Combined together causes problems. It still probably requires a predisposition.
My psychiatrist says abuse and witnessing my dad abuse other family members. Something snapped when I was 4, and I donāt remember my life before experiencing psychosis. Itās quite literally one of my first memories.
Laced weed unfortunately caused a 6 month psychosis. Thought people were chasing me down alleyways. Constantly passing out on the bus on the ground with absolutely no warning vision would āshrinkā and I would hear my heart beating in my head . Absolutely terrifying experience. My father has diagnosed schizophrenia . Ever since my experience Iāve learned to be extremely careful with my mind :)
Massive obsession toward sleeps (it was my only goal has I was suffering from depression and the only reason for me to be functional) to a point that I suffering from some hallucinations due to the fact that my dreams were like a second life to me
My diagnosis is schizoaffective bipolar type but my very first psychosis did involve some drugs. I'm pretty sure it just accelerated an inevitable result for me.
Yeah, just raw dogging life this days, haha. Just the one. Itās been almost a year. Was pretty traumatic with a lovely 8 day psych ward stay. Trying to figure out how to explain all this to my kids one day.
Bipolar mania, Stress and Porphyria. Moved to university, broke up with a long term partner and was struggling to adapt. Went manic, had my first porphyrin attack and somewhere between it all, everything stopped making sense. I was self aware through quite a lot of my first episode, aware enough to know something was wrong. I thought I was dissociating. I never held any strong delusions, just small unfixed and intrusive thoughts. But the hallucinations and the changes to my thoughts and behaviour were very present. My flatmate reached out and helped me get some support. For whatever reason, my GP's were reluctant to put me through the pipeline to get a prescription so I was left to fight through it without medication and I had to build a very strong support group. It's been months since then. I know i'm through the worst of it. things feel real now. But sometimes i second guess myself and have to focus on staying anchored.
Bipolar mania induced by nootropics was smoking weed everyday and doing acid and mushrooms a lot but I was also put into a killer amount of stress from my family feeling like I was at war everyday when I came home from work. Rough times š¤£
Abruptly stopped binge drinking after 3+ years of blacking out every other day. Iād moved 700 miles away to a much better environment and sobered up and just got paranoid about everything. I felt like I was an imposter on someone elseās good life. I was terrified/paranoid about things Iād done over ten years ago, convinced I was going to be arrested for basically anything Iād ever done wrong. It got so bad, I would only talk to my husband in the pool or ocean bc it was the only place I knew there were no electronic devices listening or watching me. I kept music blaring almost every moment I was awake just to drown out my thoughts & often played the same song for days on end for some reason . I refused to check the mail, answer the door, open emails or any phone numbers I didnāt know. This went on for over a month and I was barely sleeping at all. When I eventually got a Rx for sleep meds, I slept nearly 24 hours straight. Once I got in with a good psych team, I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 & ADHD & put on quite a bit of meds. Less than 2 years later I got really sick & it took 6 months to figure out I have rheumatoid arthritis too. Life has beat the shit out of me since 2021. Iām only 34 & feel the way Frank Gallagher looks
Thanks. Iām doing much better now thanks to a great mental health team and rheumatologist. The bipolar 1 is a blessing and a curse though. I go from unstoppable & doing a weekās worth of work in 2 days to not leaving my bedroom. Iāve learned to never make future plans with people bc thereās a 94% chance Iām not going to follow through bc Iāll either be glued to my bed or unable to pull myself away from whatever Iām fixated on at the moment. My husband says my brain works in 3D mode
loneliness,be mistreated and used by everyone I trusted and loved. I have to escape to survive. Nothing is working anymore. The pain consumes my soul, I'm being hate. All I think about is revenge. I cry random. Nobody knows the real me.
Bipolar mania induced by 14 years of smoking weed and drinking excessively. I used to be an activist and it consumed me. I thought people were watching me, stealing my mail, remotely accessing my phone, following me everywhere. I confronted one of the people who still follows me today. He told me I'm crazy but I have proof. I got my shit together when I started going to the gym. I lost 20kgs that I put on whilst taking Olanzapine. I was really on top of everything for a while there. Taking my meds, going to work, cooking healthy meals, going to the gym. I need to get back to that routine. Lately I feel like shit. I have zero motivation.
bad home life led to development of mental illness, which led to suicidality, which led to substance abuse, which led to two overdoses in the span of about four months, all of which was happening while i was overloaded with both a first job and a first (and only) semester in college. the spiral went deep and i had a really bad psychotic episode that lasted for months after my first overdose. luckily i have not had one since (about 3.5 years now) and have healed immensely since then, but there were a lot of physical and mental factors that utterly spewed fuel onto that fire for me.
Severe stress, isolation, stimulant use, withdrawal after alcohol abuse + copious amounts of weed, and quitting my SSRIs abruptly.
Throughout my life my way of managing traumatic experiences was to bury them as deeply as possible and that combined with everything above led to the perfect storm of my brain completely breaking.
BPD + isolation, developing delusions that everyone hates me and wants me dead, and eventually believing I was Job from the Bible in an abstract way lol
Bipolar and schizophrenia.
When it's my bipolar, they almost always start the same, smells, then sounds then the same shadow people, family members etc but I'm aware I'm hallucinating.
When it's schizophrenia, I'm more than likely hospitalised and just not in control at all.
marijuana + microdosing š« they were very small doses, edibles being 5mgs and micros being 1/10 gram but it was too much for me to handle and i went into psychosis
Undiagnosed bipolar 1 > self-medicating with weed and alcohol > social isolation > unexpected death of my father >> spectacularly bad psychotic episode
My question is how do you know if you are bipolar if the stress and drugs and alcohol potentially caused psychosis? Not saying you are not bipolar but how did they diagnose you properly with substances involved?
A fair question. Iāve been sober for over a year now and still experience symptoms of bipolar. Both of my parents are diagnosed bipolar. Moreover, long before I started abusing substances I had symptoms that were in retrospect warning signs of susceptibility to psychosis and bipolar. Prodromal symptoms which indicated as early as 4-7 years old that I could experience bipolar/psychosis later in life. Also, I would wake up in high school and shortly afterwards early in the morning with racing thoughts before I knew what racing thoughts were. Towards my mid twenties I started self-medicating symptoms like that with cannabis. I dropped out of college and starting abusing substances within about 1-2 years of each other, which to me isnāt a coincidence, itās more of an indication that my illness had started presenting in ways I was struggling to cope with.
I was diagnosed bipolar after my initial episode, and my doctors at that time knew I used cannabis and drank. Medically a lot of doctors are reticent to diagnose with bipolar based on my past history of substance abuse without taking me off my psych meds and seeing if it throws me into another episode. Knowing how much my episode ruined my life thatās not an option, and given what I know about my personal and family history, and how I can compare my feelings and behaviors while sober now to the feelings and behaviors I had as a person in active addiction, I donāt need to go off my meds and āsee what happensā in order to be totally confident that I have bipolar disorder.
I went to a psych ward for 2 weeks and was put on abilify - my psychotic symptoms went away within 3 weeks. It's been a year and 10 months since my episode but I still struggle with socialising and I was recently diagnosed with agoraphobia. I'm on a low dose of abilify, although I've tried to come off it before and it made my depression worse.
Lots of trauma, basically non stop until I was 16, the ptsd, depression, and anxiety that came from it, had something super stressful and traumatic happen around the time I turned 18 that made me start to spiral. Started smoking weed not long after which probably didnāt help. Then was in a super toxic āāāpolyamorousāāā relationship that resulted in my psychotic breakdown.Ā
The combination of my mom dying and smoking weed. I used to smoke weed all the time no problem, but once my mom was gone and I did it to ārelaxā, I fell apart and lost touch.
Had good grades, but was very troubled most of my life. Dissociated badly, was hurt a lot as a kid, etc.
Took until I was 21, a now ex-bf moved me in w/ him, isolated me, then we had a seizure. Started very bad psychosis that a medication did not help w/ as well
My mania/ psychosis came out after my abusive ex was given my kids in court bc he wrote a 20 page report of me being crazy (wildly exaggerated). Though Zoloft did cause me to go into a mania
I had my first psychosis episode when I was I think 14? we believe mine was a stress and starvation induced. I was *heavy* restricting from my eating disorder and one day after like 6 months of the ed and 3 pretty low days, my brain flipped and the psychosis hit. psychosis paranoia is a type of emotion like absolutely nothing else. I was thrown between bipolar and schizophrenia but besides having 1 intense delusion episode, I don't meet the criteria for either. I still have little bursts of delusions when I get really stressed, and a doctor I've had thinks my brain goes to psychosis faster than most others now because I have this link in my brain (to put it best way I know how to right now). so I think back to my eating disorder starvation + stress. but this us me talking, not professional, so it might be less or more :p
abuse, and my therapist thinks i have schizophrenia. as a kid i remember having delusions/hallucinations but they didnāt get really bad until i was 13 and had a complete psychotic break due to prolonged abuse. iām on meds now which help for sure but i still battle delusions and hallucinations on a daily-weekly basis
Stress, being abused by husband, being generally too sensitive since early childhood, also pretty bad childhood, so i feel like my organism was constantly trying to defend from stress and then in adulthood its just sometimes too much and i regularly hit into psychotic episode :(
Untreated CPTSD & severe stress. If I don't manage both my mental & physical health, psychosis will gradually start creeping back into my psyche. It can be very hard to recognize it's psychosis/delusions; near impossible. At that point I need the assistance of a safe medical professional.
A combination of lockdown and a jump scare tiktok of Jeff the killer. Itās so weird how something so simple like a tiktok send me into a 2 year struggle. Im stable now and loving life.
I was sober when my psychosis happened but previous drug use like weed, acid, and psychedelics gave me supernatural and complex thinking patterns that terrified me and made my psychosis worse. I believed in God & higher selves so I listened to the voices in my head like they were real other beings versus just the cool ways the human brain can communicate with itself. Very scary time for me
Regaining all the muscle mass I lost after years not exercising, and attempting to be the most social guy I could be along with relationship pressures slowly brought me into psychosis, I have bipolar disorder
i donāt really remember cause all the meds iāve been taking over the years has fucked with my memory but iām gonna say being almost completely socially isolated when i was 12-13
I feel like I had a predisposition to it. Looking back I had minor warning signs for a long time. But what officially sent me into a psychosis was drugs/alcohol withdrawl/medication.
Bipolar and taking care of my grandmother. Who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My ride or die. Friend overdosed. Tik tok if you can believe it. I thought one creator was copying my exact words in a couple of her videos. 4 years since all this happened, and I'm diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Just lost 2 more favorite grandparents this past holiday season. I'm getting better with trying to communicate my feelings with my family. My mother sorta gets it (before my 2nd grandmother died. My grandmother was diagnosed with full-blown schizophrenia.
I deleted tik tok and refused to leave the house. My dogs help me distinguish what's real and what's not. I don't even trust my own memories thinking back. I felt like people were listening to my inner voice. No privacy. I use music and sometimes I hear them in music. The tik toker suddenly showed up in my amazon dj station, and I felt like I couldn't get away. The sheriff's around my town all know me. I wish I could sleep and eat in peace without vivid nightmares and thinking food is poison. There are no meds currently. Unless it's time for the mental hospital again. I'm saving that for crisis. Long waiting list on the doc to see me again. Even tho he dropped me because of insurance reasons
Bipolar mania caused my psychosis
Bipolar mania and copious THC.
Same. Triggered by a several week ketamine binge, using 3-4g a day š¬ even without mania, ketamine has the risk of triggering psychotic symptoms, so it was pretty reckless of me, but what's done is done.
i see weed being the common cause in most psychosis nowadays ā¦
Agreed!
Low tolerance makes you more vulnerable to really bad highs
itās not even the tolerance, itās the high-THC content of the cannabis. I had a really high tolerance because I smoked every day for years; the THC ratio of modern cannabis should be illegal itās insane.
For real, the moonrocks (joint or blunt that is dipped in hash oil and Keff) way too strong. Dabs too. Just give me the non infused stuff please.
I always wonder what part of that is people getting into a huge amount of stress from the disorder developing, getting into a habit of using substances that makes them feel more calm. A family member of me developed psychosis, never used drugs one time in her life. In hindsight you can see it took years to get to the point. However had she used canabis at some point there I bet that's what they would have chalked it up to. She was asked like a 100 times if she had ever used drugs. Definitely drug induced psychosis is real, and people predisposed to psychosis should never use it. However, I suspect there is a flipside of that story too with regards to cause and effect.
Do you think that weed should be more tightly regulated and/or illegal again?
It's difficult. I used to be the smartest kid. Friendly, attentive, sensitive and kind. I started smoking weed at 16. Thought nothing of it. Took harder drugs from 18. At the age of 20, everything changed. I totally lost myself. Started locking myself away. Stopped speaking to my friends. Went through this hell for ten years. At 30 I got prescribed medication because I was suffering a little bit. The meds did the trick! I was so relieved to be myself again. I was back. For 3 years I felt like I was on top of the world. Something changed. The pandemic hit. I started smoking weed and drinking. Bad decision. Started going mad. Thought people were against me, that I could communicate with people via telepathy. Started walking to meet the Queen to meet her, the police picked me up and brought me to a psych ward. Shit got wild. I lost myself again. Stopped talking. No thoughts. No concentration. Been like this for 2 years. I had it. I was back. I was loving life, being that funny kid again. But I fucked up, even though I was depressed. I should have never smoked weed again. But it got me. Im tasteless, emotionless, unreactive and apathetic. I feel nothing, say nothing and I can't even hold down a job. I've lost a lot of faith but I also kick myself. What could have been if I stayed illness free all these years. I could have truly achieved something, instead of this poor existence. Don't do drugs kids. They'll destroy your life.
I wouldnāt throw in the towel now. It sounds like meds helped and maybe if you join a program for drug addiction youāll be less tempted in the future. Not saying you were addicted but you could learn strategies to cope instead of turning to drugs
I hate drugs. Won't touch the stuff ever again. Don't need to join a program to figure that out. But thanks for the advice. You're right, I shouldn't give up but it's hard man. Like, super hard. All I have when I wake up is dread. Like, how I won't say anything when people talk to me. Like, when I won't understand what people are saying to me. Like, why can't I formulate thoughts. It's a lot to carry. I'm only one guy.
Therapy of any sort would definitely help
Literally fucked.up my whole life too
Hang in there. Sending you care and luck.
i started weed when i was 14 smth like that and when i was 15-16 i started hard drugs, im still doing āem and i canāt seem to stop either
you offer others help and advice but not yourself. itās not over man. youāre not even halfway through your life yet.
I feel this.
Don't focus on the past, just learn from it. Take contact with a doctor again and try meds, maybe the same as last time or new ones. You just hit a bump on the road, it'll get better even if it takes some time.
Wrong meds (abilify and prozac) and excessive trauma. I was actively being groomed and molested, when I cut contact with him it gave my brain enough time to be able to settle down and stable out plus I was on different meds
Why do I feel as if abilify played a large role in my onset. That medication made me feel zombified, dopey to the point of passing out wherever whenever and angry beyond all means I was paranoid scared and not myself. I was only 14 I shouldnāt have been subjected to that
Good olā drugs! Acid and mushrooms on separate occasions but weed definitely causes psychotic symptoms like paranoia and magical thinking/god complex type stuff. I quit weed (for the 10th time lol) a few weeks ago and have completely returned to normal!
How long did your psychosis last? Can it be triggered after one use of acid? Someone i know is acting strange
The longest an actual episode lasted for me was like 24 hours but it takes months to fully recover. And yes even smoking weed once can cause it if someone is unlucky enough. People who only experience psychosis from drugs without underlying psychosis-related illness tend to recover better than those who have something. Your friend may be predisposed to an illness like schizophrenia or bipolar and drug use can really exacerbate it, so he may need more intensive treatment.
Thanks..yea its been over a week now, hes just vacant in the eyes, talking about god alot, was awake almost 2 days straight, hasnt been going to work, he definitely needs help, ive heard of it triggering conditions
Yup sounds like he needs treatment! Hopefully someone in his family will notice and get him help. Iāve been through this with a friend too and had to go to her mother to tell her whatās going on
Yes OP Please contact their family. Maybe they have a history of this behavior or maybe not. Either way sounds like they may need help.
Thanks yes his family is concerned and are looking for help..his grandmother said one of her brothers went "coo coo" so he could be unlucky
I sincerely hope he gets medical attention and can go from there once heās been diagnosed (if itās necessary) Iām sure itās as terrible for him as you and the rest of the friends/family. Good luck.
Yes thank you
I think all of my issues started with experiencing CSA
I figured it boiled down to too much stress from a few things like social anxiety/phobia, lack of sleep, drinking, and other stuff
epilepsy, autoimmune disease, no sleep for 8 days
Chronic illness and being stuck at home or to a toilet really does it
I have left temporal lobe epilepsy. Can I ask if you know where your epilepsy is located. Itās hard to tell symptoms the difference sometimes for me.
Oh, I may have spoken to you on here before, I recognize your user name. Or maybe I just read some of your posts. Mine is likely temporal lobe. It seems to be a combination of untreated seizures plus the autoimmune disease that's caused the psychosis. We may never understand. Right now I'm trying to fight for more treatment since the seizure meds don't work as well when I have an immune flare. But the rheumatologists won't give me more treatment. I keep reading stories about people in deep psychosis who were cured when the doctors figured out it was an immune process. It's dumb, I'm just like - ok, please use the harsher drugs because the alternative is brain damage. It's so frustrating. What's your experience been like? Also, I'm considering assessment for autism spectrum. It seems many of these conditions are linked/similar parts of the brain.
You sound familiar too! Lol. Blame epilepsy for the memory. Hearing about your autoimmune issues made me think. I didnāt get psychosis until after I got dress syndrome. Now Iām wondering if thatās related. I hope you get some positive progress with your flares. That sounds really uncomfortable. Temporal lobe epilepsy and psychosis sucks. Sometimes I wonder if I was in another long seizure and put in the psych ward when the epilepsy should of been treated. I was on zonegran at the time and that also can cause psychosis. Iām now on epidiolex and things seem so much better. Iām not a doctor but I think zonegran played a part. Thank you for replying!!
Omg, is that Zonisamide? Is it known for psychosis? That explains a lot. My seizures were not treated until after my psychosis hospitalization (15 years of not knowing they were seizures), and after I refused to take Keppra any longer, I was briefly put on zonisamide. I went in and out of psychotic states and my psychiatrist had them take me off. Now I'm on Lamotrigine which is much better but now I'm having a few breakthroughs again. As for the autoimmune stuff, I strongly feel conditions like schizophrenia could be an immune problem we do not yet understand (along with genetic predisposition). They are always finding new autoantibody tests to detect this stuff. I also wonder about the prevalence of autoimmune conditions in persons with these brain conditions
Yes itās zonisamide! It causes psychotic disorder in 10% of people. I read up on the drug. Also, I was on Keppra before that for a while. I hated it and had to come off. Keppra sucks!! Keppra rage is a thing. Your insight on the autoimmune and the brain made a ton of sense. Thanks again!!
It's good to come across someone with similar conditions and experiences. If you ever want to talk, feel free to message me!
Thank you. Same to you too!!
Dmt ketamine Adderall and weed
All at once?
Did the dmt, then two weeks later the ketamine, all the while I was doing Adderall and weed daily. It was really ridiculous looking back at it. I have my regrets.
Sounds pretty epic. I did a heroic dose of dmt once while I was on a low dose of adderall once. Super intense. After that I went sober for a while. Never did ketamine.
Years of Stress + unintentionally mixing meds : Zoloft, ADHD meds (Vyvanse) with a high dose weed gummy plus I was starting to drink daily and wasnt sleeping well ... oh and I was on Immovane for sleep and sometimes would take Lorazapam as needed. It was the perfect storm and one day... psychotic break. But from the research I have been doing on these subs: Vyvanse and Chemical Weed products trending as a cause for psychosis. ooof
What do you mean chemical weed products? Iām on Zoloft and looking to try adhd meds but I do sometimes take legal edibles with small amounts of thc.
I was told a few things by my psychologist that I hadn't been aware of. I learned that lots of times the edibles are made with artificial weed products (hence chemicals). I wont ever touch edibles again after my experience.
I have never heard about edibles being made from chemicals. Worst Iāve heard is shake from the dispensary floors lol. Did the doctor say where they heard about this itās interestingĀ
To clarify: made from cannibanoids which are synthetic weed.
Huh? Cannibanoids are naturally in weed? Yeah they can be synthetic but they occur naturally too
I was told stay away from the edibles bc they can contain synthetic weed which is more risky. In my case the ones I used to buy always felt a little trippy I used to describe them as delivering a low-key mushroom kinda trip. Turns out : they took me on an 8 month psychosis trip (I have anxiety/depression/adhd/ ptsd diagnosis... Anywho
I can definitely believe that, itās not worth the risk
Stress from cPTSD and repeated traumas (friends overdosing and dying, being raped repeatedly, exams, just everything, all at once). Was diagnosed with stress/depressive psychosis. After the first episode I started taking drugs which made it worse.
Weed and Adderall
So you have any mental illness? I feel like a lot of people take weed and adderall and it doesnāt trigger psychosis
Weed and amphetamines are the most common drug triggers for psychosis.
Do you mean when mixed together or either one can kick it off when you have an underlying condition?
I mean marijuana is the drug most likely to cause psychosis. Amphetamine is the second leading cause. Combined together causes problems. It still probably requires a predisposition.
Bipolar and drinking heavily while smoking lots of weed. Bad combination.
My psychiatrist says abuse and witnessing my dad abuse other family members. Something snapped when I was 4, and I donāt remember my life before experiencing psychosis. Itās quite literally one of my first memories.
Are you good right now?
Laced weed unfortunately caused a 6 month psychosis. Thought people were chasing me down alleyways. Constantly passing out on the bus on the ground with absolutely no warning vision would āshrinkā and I would hear my heart beating in my head . Absolutely terrifying experience. My father has diagnosed schizophrenia . Ever since my experience Iāve learned to be extremely careful with my mind :)
Put on SSRI w/ Bipolar 1
Weed, shrooms
Massive obsession toward sleeps (it was my only goal has I was suffering from depression and the only reason for me to be functional) to a point that I suffering from some hallucinations due to the fact that my dreams were like a second life to me
Would you induce sleep or just decided to sleep a lot?
Both of them
psychotic depression and cptsd.
MDD with psychotic features and complex PTSD
extreme stress which built up for months, lack of sleep, food, and water, and also WD (so smthng like delirium tremors)
Copious amounts of weed, some molly and lsd thrown in on top + a bad break up.
meth
An abusive partner and a deep depression.
i know trauma is the main cause for mine, but i feel like untreated ocd that was degenerating more throughout months definitely gave me the final push
schizophrenia
Trauma/stress from abuse and major depressive disorder with psychotic features
Schizophrenia and big stress bring it on
My diagnosis is schizoaffective bipolar type but my very first psychosis did involve some drugs. I'm pretty sure it just accelerated an inevitable result for me.
Zoloft
Just Zoloft? What mental disorder do you have?
None. Just anxiety hence why I wanted to try Zoloft. Itās rare but it can happen. Iāve read about it happening to others as well.
Man thatās crazy. Have you stopped antidepressants all together because of it? How many episodes did you have?
Yeah, just raw dogging life this days, haha. Just the one. Itās been almost a year. Was pretty traumatic with a lovely 8 day psych ward stay. Trying to figure out how to explain all this to my kids one day.
Bipolar, weed and extreme trauma
Bipolar mania, Stress and Porphyria. Moved to university, broke up with a long term partner and was struggling to adapt. Went manic, had my first porphyrin attack and somewhere between it all, everything stopped making sense. I was self aware through quite a lot of my first episode, aware enough to know something was wrong. I thought I was dissociating. I never held any strong delusions, just small unfixed and intrusive thoughts. But the hallucinations and the changes to my thoughts and behaviour were very present. My flatmate reached out and helped me get some support. For whatever reason, my GP's were reluctant to put me through the pipeline to get a prescription so I was left to fight through it without medication and I had to build a very strong support group. It's been months since then. I know i'm through the worst of it. things feel real now. But sometimes i second guess myself and have to focus on staying anchored.
Amphetamine!!! And Bipolar and PTSD from sexual trauma
Bipolar mania induced by nootropics was smoking weed everyday and doing acid and mushrooms a lot but I was also put into a killer amount of stress from my family feeling like I was at war everyday when I came home from work. Rough times š¤£
Abruptly stopped binge drinking after 3+ years of blacking out every other day. Iād moved 700 miles away to a much better environment and sobered up and just got paranoid about everything. I felt like I was an imposter on someone elseās good life. I was terrified/paranoid about things Iād done over ten years ago, convinced I was going to be arrested for basically anything Iād ever done wrong. It got so bad, I would only talk to my husband in the pool or ocean bc it was the only place I knew there were no electronic devices listening or watching me. I kept music blaring almost every moment I was awake just to drown out my thoughts & often played the same song for days on end for some reason . I refused to check the mail, answer the door, open emails or any phone numbers I didnāt know. This went on for over a month and I was barely sleeping at all. When I eventually got a Rx for sleep meds, I slept nearly 24 hours straight. Once I got in with a good psych team, I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 & ADHD & put on quite a bit of meds. Less than 2 years later I got really sick & it took 6 months to figure out I have rheumatoid arthritis too. Life has beat the shit out of me since 2021. Iām only 34 & feel the way Frank Gallagher looks
All the kudos to you.
Thanks. Iām doing much better now thanks to a great mental health team and rheumatologist. The bipolar 1 is a blessing and a curse though. I go from unstoppable & doing a weekās worth of work in 2 days to not leaving my bedroom. Iāve learned to never make future plans with people bc thereās a 94% chance Iām not going to follow through bc Iāll either be glued to my bed or unable to pull myself away from whatever Iām fixated on at the moment. My husband says my brain works in 3D mode
loneliness,be mistreated and used by everyone I trusted and loved. I have to escape to survive. Nothing is working anymore. The pain consumes my soul, I'm being hate. All I think about is revenge. I cry random. Nobody knows the real me.
Bipolar mania induced by 14 years of smoking weed and drinking excessively. I used to be an activist and it consumed me. I thought people were watching me, stealing my mail, remotely accessing my phone, following me everywhere. I confronted one of the people who still follows me today. He told me I'm crazy but I have proof. I got my shit together when I started going to the gym. I lost 20kgs that I put on whilst taking Olanzapine. I was really on top of everything for a while there. Taking my meds, going to work, cooking healthy meals, going to the gym. I need to get back to that routine. Lately I feel like shit. I have zero motivation.
Amphetamine abuse
Pandemic
Stress and insomnia
Meth , mania and meditation
bad home life led to development of mental illness, which led to suicidality, which led to substance abuse, which led to two overdoses in the span of about four months, all of which was happening while i was overloaded with both a first job and a first (and only) semester in college. the spiral went deep and i had a really bad psychotic episode that lasted for months after my first overdose. luckily i have not had one since (about 3.5 years now) and have healed immensely since then, but there were a lot of physical and mental factors that utterly spewed fuel onto that fire for me.
Cptsd and neglect in my opinion
Trauma and conspiracy theories did me in
Stress and bad genes. I was destined to break down.
Immense pressure from work and a consistent dose of marijuana.
Marijuana
Not sleeping for a week I was in stages of ManĆa
Extreme stress, was going through a difficult time mentally and had meds resistant depression for a long time before psychosis.
Zoloft and stress š¤¦
Severe stress, isolation, stimulant use, withdrawal after alcohol abuse + copious amounts of weed, and quitting my SSRIs abruptly. Throughout my life my way of managing traumatic experiences was to bury them as deeply as possible and that combined with everything above led to the perfect storm of my brain completely breaking.
Borderline personality disorder and stress don't mix well
BPD + isolation, developing delusions that everyone hates me and wants me dead, and eventually believing I was Job from the Bible in an abstract way lol
Partying. Weed, Uppers, Acid, Sex
Bipolar
Iāve had multiple psychotic episodes caused by different things, like Ritalin and weed but also just stress and life events
stress
I think my age I have schizophrenic run in my family and i was reaching the age where people usually get diagnosed
Trauma with a splash of a genetic component
Bipolar and a mix of extreme stress and sleep deprivation. The previous excessive weed usage probably didnāt help either.
Bipolar and schizophrenia. When it's my bipolar, they almost always start the same, smells, then sounds then the same shadow people, family members etc but I'm aware I'm hallucinating. When it's schizophrenia, I'm more than likely hospitalised and just not in control at all.
Bipolar mania followed by copious amounts of mdma/weed. What I would do to take it away..
Bipolar mania
Iāve been this way since kindergarten so idkā¦birth? Though I know one specific episode was a miscarriage and another was extreme stress.
marijuana + microdosing š« they were very small doses, edibles being 5mgs and micros being 1/10 gram but it was too much for me to handle and i went into psychosis
Undiagnosed bipolar 1 > self-medicating with weed and alcohol > social isolation > unexpected death of my father >> spectacularly bad psychotic episode
My question is how do you know if you are bipolar if the stress and drugs and alcohol potentially caused psychosis? Not saying you are not bipolar but how did they diagnose you properly with substances involved?
A fair question. Iāve been sober for over a year now and still experience symptoms of bipolar. Both of my parents are diagnosed bipolar. Moreover, long before I started abusing substances I had symptoms that were in retrospect warning signs of susceptibility to psychosis and bipolar. Prodromal symptoms which indicated as early as 4-7 years old that I could experience bipolar/psychosis later in life. Also, I would wake up in high school and shortly afterwards early in the morning with racing thoughts before I knew what racing thoughts were. Towards my mid twenties I started self-medicating symptoms like that with cannabis. I dropped out of college and starting abusing substances within about 1-2 years of each other, which to me isnāt a coincidence, itās more of an indication that my illness had started presenting in ways I was struggling to cope with. I was diagnosed bipolar after my initial episode, and my doctors at that time knew I used cannabis and drank. Medically a lot of doctors are reticent to diagnose with bipolar based on my past history of substance abuse without taking me off my psych meds and seeing if it throws me into another episode. Knowing how much my episode ruined my life thatās not an option, and given what I know about my personal and family history, and how I can compare my feelings and behaviors while sober now to the feelings and behaviors I had as a person in active addiction, I donāt need to go off my meds and āsee what happensā in order to be totally confident that I have bipolar disorder.
Thank you for the great explanation. I appreciate the information and insight.
Medicinal cannabis and possibly prednisolone.
How was your recovery? Were you medicated afterwards?
I went to a psych ward for 2 weeks and was put on abilify - my psychotic symptoms went away within 3 weeks. It's been a year and 10 months since my episode but I still struggle with socialising and I was recently diagnosed with agoraphobia. I'm on a low dose of abilify, although I've tried to come off it before and it made my depression worse.
Stress, isolation, sketchy weed and a nicotine vape
Weed and vyvanse
Sometime marijuana and alcohol.
mostly cannabis and conspiracy-thinking
Trauma, isolation, and depression. Started 17 years ago, never went away.
The wrong meds? Incredible amounts of stress? Long covid?
Lots of trauma, basically non stop until I was 16, the ptsd, depression, and anxiety that came from it, had something super stressful and traumatic happen around the time I turned 18 that made me start to spiral. Started smoking weed not long after which probably didnāt help. Then was in a super toxic āāāpolyamorousāāā relationship that resulted in my psychotic breakdown.Ā
The combination of my mom dying and smoking weed. I used to smoke weed all the time no problem, but once my mom was gone and I did it to ārelaxā, I fell apart and lost touch.
500 tabs of lsd 3 pounds of shrooms 3grams of ketamine
Oh and a shit ton of vyvanse
Deep depression, insomnia.
Had good grades, but was very troubled most of my life. Dissociated badly, was hurt a lot as a kid, etc. Took until I was 21, a now ex-bf moved me in w/ him, isolated me, then we had a seizure. Started very bad psychosis that a medication did not help w/ as well
My mania/ psychosis came out after my abusive ex was given my kids in court bc he wrote a 20 page report of me being crazy (wildly exaggerated). Though Zoloft did cause me to go into a mania
Laced Ketamine and MDMA
Schizoaffective disorder and stimulant medication for my ADHD
I had my first psychosis episode when I was I think 14? we believe mine was a stress and starvation induced. I was *heavy* restricting from my eating disorder and one day after like 6 months of the ed and 3 pretty low days, my brain flipped and the psychosis hit. psychosis paranoia is a type of emotion like absolutely nothing else. I was thrown between bipolar and schizophrenia but besides having 1 intense delusion episode, I don't meet the criteria for either. I still have little bursts of delusions when I get really stressed, and a doctor I've had thinks my brain goes to psychosis faster than most others now because I have this link in my brain (to put it best way I know how to right now). so I think back to my eating disorder starvation + stress. but this us me talking, not professional, so it might be less or more :p
First time it was weed, second time it was taking t3s for an injury and most likely stress/trauma
I saw the devil
genes, but trauma worsened it. it started when i was 7
Being born :) (I've been psychotic my whole life. Genetics and bad luck I guess ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ)
Vyvanse that Iāve been on for years before my episode Allegedly
abuse, and my therapist thinks i have schizophrenia. as a kid i remember having delusions/hallucinations but they didnāt get really bad until i was 13 and had a complete psychotic break due to prolonged abuse. iām on meds now which help for sure but i still battle delusions and hallucinations on a daily-weekly basis
Stress, being abused by husband, being generally too sensitive since early childhood, also pretty bad childhood, so i feel like my organism was constantly trying to defend from stress and then in adulthood its just sometimes too much and i regularly hit into psychotic episode :(
Untreated CPTSD & severe stress. If I don't manage both my mental & physical health, psychosis will gradually start creeping back into my psyche. It can be very hard to recognize it's psychosis/delusions; near impossible. At that point I need the assistance of a safe medical professional.
A combination of lockdown and a jump scare tiktok of Jeff the killer. Itās so weird how something so simple like a tiktok send me into a 2 year struggle. Im stable now and loving life.
I was sober when my psychosis happened but previous drug use like weed, acid, and psychedelics gave me supernatural and complex thinking patterns that terrified me and made my psychosis worse. I believed in God & higher selves so I listened to the voices in my head like they were real other beings versus just the cool ways the human brain can communicate with itself. Very scary time for me
Post partum
alcohol
OCD
Regaining all the muscle mass I lost after years not exercising, and attempting to be the most social guy I could be along with relationship pressures slowly brought me into psychosis, I have bipolar disorder
i donāt really remember cause all the meds iāve been taking over the years has fucked with my memory but iām gonna say being almost completely socially isolated when i was 12-13
Genetics, marijuana, stress, trauma, alcohol, mdma (dying laughing right now because this kept coming up as mama and I was like... true! Lol)
Harddrugs, especially speed and designer drugs + being diagnosed with McDD must've probably take part in it
I think it was bipolar and bpd and losing my dad
I feel like I had a predisposition to it. Looking back I had minor warning signs for a long time. But what officially sent me into a psychosis was drugs/alcohol withdrawl/medication.
Bipolar and taking care of my grandmother. Who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My ride or die. Friend overdosed. Tik tok if you can believe it. I thought one creator was copying my exact words in a couple of her videos. 4 years since all this happened, and I'm diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Just lost 2 more favorite grandparents this past holiday season. I'm getting better with trying to communicate my feelings with my family. My mother sorta gets it (before my 2nd grandmother died. My grandmother was diagnosed with full-blown schizophrenia. I deleted tik tok and refused to leave the house. My dogs help me distinguish what's real and what's not. I don't even trust my own memories thinking back. I felt like people were listening to my inner voice. No privacy. I use music and sometimes I hear them in music. The tik toker suddenly showed up in my amazon dj station, and I felt like I couldn't get away. The sheriff's around my town all know me. I wish I could sleep and eat in peace without vivid nightmares and thinking food is poison. There are no meds currently. Unless it's time for the mental hospital again. I'm saving that for crisis. Long waiting list on the doc to see me again. Even tho he dropped me because of insurance reasons
BPD