[fitgirl]

Hello all,

has anyone had an episode of depression so bad it was accompanied with phycosis? If so what happened to you? What was your treatment? How long did it take to see results?

Just wondering b/c I did, I am to ashamed to admit my entire story to anyone. I take AD meds but still suffer some of the effects of phycosis. I function normally and my overall mood is very good.

Thanks for any help you give.

[CastlesInTheAir]

Last September I was involuntarly hospitalized because I was so messed up (major depression with psychosis)......Actually almost every fall for the past three years I have some kind of episode, my goal is to make it through this fall without an episode...lol....

Anyway I was in the hospital for about a week but I had symptoms a week before I ended up there, I didn't start feeling even remotely right again until a week after I got out of the hospital. I still had some symptoms of paranoia and delusions but not near as bad. Probably I would say the end of october is when my head was about right again. I still suffer from depression though......

I was psychotic for about a week or so before I was taken to the hospital. While I was in the hospital I was taking 30mg of Celexa and risperdal. I was able to leave the hospital because I totally lied saying that I was not paranoid, etc. Even though I was completely paranoid of the hospital and still hearing voices, but when I got out of the hospital that day I felt better because one of my delusions was proven wrong because I thought I was going to death row when leaving the hospital, which obviously did not happen. However, I still had some symptoms. The Celexa was ok for about a week but then it made me suicidal, and the risperdal was not so nice to me ethier. So, I had to switch to Lexapro and Seroquel, getting used to those medications was no fun, my psychosis was replaced with anxiety and always thought I was gonna die. Once the new meds kicked in just right which was about a week or two, I felt better. Still a little depressed....but not hallucinating, delusional, voices, etc......

hugs and feel free to pm me......

[Air&Earth17]

The first time I had a psychotic episode, I was hospitalized for a little over a month. I disappeared from home and ended up hospitalized in another state. My parents had put out a missing person's report, but eventually they found me. I was often violent (which people who know me know that I am not a violent person at all,) and was often restrained in isolation. It goes to show you that when you're having a psychotic episode, you aren't yourself. I was hallucinating, suicidal and I refused to eat or drink anything which led to me dropping a great deal of weight too.

Anyway, I was put on lexapro, risperdal and ativan. After my release, it took me over a month to feel normal. I've had about 3 other hospitalizations since then and I'm currently on prozac and abilify, but I still struggle a great deal.

I was ashamed too about it, but talking about it and informing people about it helped a great deal and I even found out that some had experiences with family members who were dealing with the same thing. Alot of my good friends know bout it and some don't. It just depends on who you trust.

Hope this helps!

[Bella01]

I HAVE major depression w/psychosis, I was like that for six months before I could no longer funcution. I was then hospitalized for 2 weeks before I fully came out of it with meds. I'm curently on abilifty. I will need this med for the rest of my life.

[Turtleboy]

all Your stories are so similar to mine, it's so nice to know others really understand, Paranoia and depression...hospitalized. found some success with rispiridol and sertraline

[fitgirl]

Im not even sure how to express my thanks for you being so open about your struggles. All of you had it worse than me, but I dont know what the future holds either.

I feel like mental illness isnt something you can talk about. Its taboo. Its not like cancer or MS, its that thing you just leave alone. ya know?

its that secret you just take to the grave with you...so to speak.

Much love to you all

FitGirl

I have psychotic depression (depression for 5 years, psychotic features for 2 1/2 years) but I've managed to avoid the hospital so far. It doesn't always end up in a hospital stay. I think what's kept me out of the hospital is that I learnt pretty quickly that doing what the voices said (hurt myself) wouldn't shut them up, so there was no point. Also I understand that my voices are really my own thoughts that I am not able to discern as thoughts at the moment.

Standard treatment for psychotic depression is an antidepressant + an antipsychotic. I've found an antipsychotic really helpful for reducing the voices and the paranoia. I'm currently on aripiprazole/abilify as risperidal made me really out of it. So far they haven't really helped my strange thoughts/delusions. I still feel that people can read my thoughts and are judging me, which makes me paranoid (although I can leave the house now on meds). I am also experiencing all this guilt for things that aren't my fault i.e. world dying, people dying around the world etc. I'm going to ask my pdoc when I next see her if increasing the aripiprazole will help with that as all I do is sob when I hear the news and feel guilty for everything every day.

Basically as long as you eat & drink, aren't harming yourself or others, they will have no need to hospitalise you just because you're experiencing psychotic symptoms. (Though this is in the UK where they seem to avoid hospitalising people at all costs as it costs the NHS too much money. From reading these forums I hear of people going into hospital in the US when they wouldn't in the UK, so it may be different wherever you are.) My pdoc barely batted an eyelid when I told him so don't worry about telling a pdoc about this. You deserve to get help.

All the best,

*Willow*