Sometimes: I think it is interesting that in your case you were instantly psychotic. Wasn't there anything going on with you as you look back that you can put your finger on as being "not right"? Could it be that you were escalating towards psychosis and had no insight? Were you not sleeping, etc during that time? The feeling you had of thinking you were having a heart attack sounds to me like a type of panic attack/paranoia. What was it exactly that your friends noticed about you that prompted them to bring it up with you and your pdoc regarding delusions? What were your delusions?

My experience is and has been that I am acutely aware of my decompensation. I now know to nip it in the bud and mainly focus on sleep, nutrition, and triggers like stress and negative influences in my life. I think my experiences are not "typical" in that they don't seem to be chronic, and I agree with Newtus' regarding antidepressants sometimes inducing a psychosis in those predisposed to psychotic episodes.

I have had a lot of serious negative experiences with all meds. My recent break/episode was induced by a change in meds and not being under the care of a psych provider. The practitioner I was seeing at the time of my recent event was only a Physician's Assistant. During that time I was under a huge amount of stress and had a lot of grieving and financial issues; no amount of medication is going to cure us from " life", but changing meds around at that time for me probably was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I had been stable, despite life events, on Prozac for many years when I had insurance and was under the care of a Psychiatrist. Regrettably, after my divorce I moved to a state with horrible healthcare options. I assumed I would have the quality care that I received while married, in California, insured etc. Prozac was always the default med for me, so I remained on that and was ok for the most part. I wish I'd just stayed on that and not " gone along" with what my therapist recommended to my PA which was to switch to Paxil. Whithin a week of the Paxil, I was decompensating. I had constant diahrhea. I was not sleeping. I was violent, I was losing tons of weight I was even more paranoid and suspicious. Like I said, a PA and a therapist are not trained in psychiatry, things got worse for me because of that. Things are much better now than last July when I broke, but I have been deemed "non-compliant". So be it.

My episodes in the past and especially the one last year have been fairly brief, no longer than a month. I occasionally have some residual stuff if I am stressed, etc. When the slight paranoia creeps in for example, I have some insight into it and have learned to talk myself out of it. I then prioritize getting sleep and eating right. During these times I will also not go out in public or plan social events or appointments that may trigger me. I just wait till they(the weird symptoms) pass. Then I resume regular ife activities.