Did you had any psychotic episodes? If so, how often they happened? I'm new here and I'm glad I found this forum because I'm having a hard time understanding what happened with me. My pdoc told me to watch a Ted Talk by Elin Saks but it's anything like I've been through. She is schizo and her experience is pretty scary.

I've been recently diagnosed bipolar after one year untreated psychotic episode that lead to my forced hospitalization. It began slowly over the years as I got more and more paranoid about people speaking about me and harassing me at my work and my school. Then I quit work and school, locked myself at home and began writing furiously thinking I was some kind of genius with all sorts of ideas and theories from Economics to Architecture and publishing everything online mostly on Facebook for everyone to see. I started seing conspiracies all over the world and through History. I believed that hackers invaded my computer and there were webcams everywhere watching me 24/7, so I was unable even to take a shower with the lights on. I thought the cameras were in the light bulbs and the television watched me. I also thought I was commanding a revolution against the surveillance society with my posts online and the hackers were actually my friends spreading my words to the television producers in a way I thought every program in television and radio was speaking about me and what I wrote. But no one spoke directly of it, only indirectly since every media was under some masonic illuminati rule and couldn't speak directly about the revolution. I also believed all my family was part of the secret societies and against me and I had serious clashes with them untill they called the ambulance and took me to the hospital.

I never heard voices or saw things although I interpreted everything I saw or read or view in a crazy way. Since I left hospital I'm taking risperidone and valproic acid and I've been great since then. I only have troubles concentrating and being less creative than I usually am.

Since this was my only episode, I'm afraid it may happen again. How can I notice something weird is happening? Because I wasn't aware at all that I was getting crazy. Do psychotic episodes get any different from one time to another?

Sorry for my bad English and please don't use common abreviations used in this site because I didn't figure out what they mean yet.