[franz kafka]

My psychotic episode started about two weeks ago, and after a med change I'm feeling a lot better. But I'm still sensing "the entity" that was at the center of my delusion and I'm still not convinced that it's a delusion. It seems plausible to me that it went away on its own.

How long does it take you all to recover fully from psychosis?

[Moose72]

How long does it take zyprexa to take full effect? Maybe 2 weeks isn't long enough.

[neodoering]

For me, my psychotic symptoms are daily. They start sometimes in my sleep, forcing me to dream of psychosis, and when I wake up I'm tired and crabby and out of sorts. Then the voices, delusions, etc. will continue throughout the day.

My illness goes in cycles. There will be half a year of really intense symptoms, then a few months where they're not so bad, then another half a month of bad times.

What I think of when someone says "psychotic episode," is when you almost completely lose contact with reality. You start raving, or repeating yourself, or declaring that you are God, and so forth. You believe you have to power to kill millions of people just by thinking about it, and you try to do so. You lose contact with reality and cannot see or respond to the people around you except as shadows that have no meaning. You do not see automobiles, or believe if you wander out in traffic, the cars will not hurt you when they hit you. And so on.

I experienced this sort of episode in mid-February, and I flash back to it every few days. It only lasted 25 minutes, but it ended in a half-serious suicide attempt.

So to answer your question, from a mindset of minor psychotic symptoms to full-blown episode, back to minor symptoms, took about half an hour. I have no idea what provoked this episode or why it was relatively short, but I'm glad I didn't die.

I hope you take care of yourself. Good luck.

[Wander]

Late last year I had a psychotic break and was put IP. Once the symptoms subsided I fell into depression. It lasted about a month then I was ok. Recently I have had hallucinations. Abilify was added then increased and they went away after about 5 days. The agitation ect is calming down now after a week on the med. I feel very tired though and am finally sleeping a lot. My mood is lifting too. I feel like I will be back to normal in another week.