It isn't the same, but I was brought up with my mother's delusions that we had ghosts and that I was evil, and they were coming for me. I managed to block it out for so long, but at about 16, I began to have hallucinations that they really were there, and of course she didn't help, and told me that what I was seeing/hearing/feeling was true. I managed to overcome the hallucinations by keeping a diary of what was going on, and allowing myself to turn on the light, even though logic said I should be able to cope with the dark. I also recorded what my mother told me. In the moments when I was feeling more in control, looking at what I had written and how ridiculous it was that I had been subjected to this helped me to feel more in control.

I have to really fight to keep these thoughts of ghosts at bay sometimes, it's like I have to say 'no, I will not open myself up to this, I will not allow that - what my mother called 'spiritual' - part of my mind to open up again, because then I know it will all come flooding back in, and I do not want the 'ghosts' to invade the lovely safe home I have created with my other half.

I think I will always feel some degree of fear, for example when a carrier bag in the bedroom would not stop rustling one night, I had to carry it into the living room, which my other half found funny, but I knew it must be done for my sanity. It's like closing down this shutter, I feel myself pull it down in my chest, and I tell myself it's not real, and that even if it is, I have the power to ignore it.

I've no idea if this is helpful - I've been out of my mother's house for about five years now, I'm 23, and I do think her psychosis will impact the rest of my life, but I do think I have the power to not believe her, to feel angry at her, and to not let myself be swept along again, no matter how scared I become.