The hospital copied my entire chart. Last night I picked up the records and sorted through them until the early hours.
I now know I had some kind of psychiatric drug toxicity that made me quite ill at the age of 18. The emergency department had no idea what it was, so diagnosed it as anticholingeric toxicity, because I was dehydrated and had dilated pupils. They treated the possible OD with 50 g of charcoal with sorbitol and admitted me to the psych service.
Whatever happened affected my ability to form memories. It also caused erratic and bizarre behavior, with periods of confusion. A nurse wrote that I was a "poor historian". Others also noted they couldn't get an accurate history. -- I have no recollection of this hospitalization, besides standing in a strange hallway and trying to leave.
How did I get there? Apparently I fainted in a public place and someone called an ambulance.
I wasn't suicidal.
I discussed this incident previously with my psychiatrist who felt it was probably serotonin toxicity. Another possibility is a drug interaction. At the time I was 5 different medications three at very high doses. It does seem to fit and could explain why it took weeks to recover from. After this happened the medications were slowly discontinued on the order of the outpatient psychiatrist, who noted a change in my alertness about 6 weeks later.
For years I believed it was a brief psychosis. The records don't support that diagnosis at all. The most responsible diagnosis would be delirium.
This is a consequence of polypharmacy due to a prescribing cascade.