The short of it is my mom has had psychotic episodes (possibly others unknown) starting, supposedly, in 1973; following a long "respite", 1994, 2003 and 2016. To be clear, that's 4 known psychotic episodes within 43 years. Enigmatic - yes. Strange - very. The episodes have always been no more than 4, possibly 5 days long, at which time she gradually becomes more herself. Oh, and she's a Christian Scientist, which means she doesn't go to doctors; so that's why this remains an enigma. Incidentally, "Christian Science" is Latin for "neither Christian nor science"......

Her affect is energetic. She has a very strong personality - that was fun growing up. She hasn't ever displayed anything I would remotely attribute to depressive symptoms though. This suggests the possibility of unipolar mania, which is under-researched, but on paper this diagnosis might fit. The apparent rarity of the episodes, assuming less severe episodes don't occur with no one-the-wiser, presents some enigma I would think. A study has been published on unipolar (no depression) mania, and it indicates the DSM lumps it with Bipolar 1...even though it's just "one pole", apparently. It apparently isn't getting much respect

My dad has beared the brunt of her episodes, having to make sure she doesn't get herself into trouble, etc. Poor dad She hasn't had "manic" episodes necessarily - though I'm not sure that pure psychosis doesn't "count" as manic. I'm quite confident I'm less enlightened on this topic than many of you.

Any thoughts on this would be interesting. It's an unusual presentation of symptoms so no responses at all would be unsurprising.