[Physicist]

Guys, I can tell you what happened, can you tell me what you believe I have? I am completely recovered, though I do feel cold and wear a jacket, even in 60 degree weather, I'm always cold unless I exercise. I feel as though I have been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, when in actuality I may have hypothermia with delirium.

I was living in Potsdam NY as a student during December 2013 to January 2014. During this time we hit the record lowest temperature of -37 degrees Fahrenheit.

I had tried to catch the landlord several times to pay rent, he told me to slip it under a door in an envelope which I was uncomfortable with, so I did not pay my rent.

I came home one day to a freezing apartment, and I had to make a choice: sleep here, or find a chair on campus, a 15min walk over snow and ice, a -37 degree weather walk away. I chose to spend the night bundled in a blanket in the heatless apartment.

I don't know how long I was there; how many days I went unheard from. It felt like weeks.

I woke up from I don't know how many 'sleeps' later to a booming voice. I tried to make it happy, it wanted me to prey and bow to God. I was atheist at the time, so I thought he had a right to be angry with me. After digging in the snow like he told me to, (terminal burrowing I believe it was) in next to no cloths (paradoxical undressing, though at the time I was certain I was wearing cloths though I didn't know how I acquired such a costume I thought I was dressed in) I went back to sleep.

Next I remember waking to a phone ringing. It was my parents, shouting they were coming to pick me up. I was shivering, which was odd as I no longer felt cold. The wolf shadow was on the wall, I stared horrified as it moved, afriad to look to the left to see if a real animal was in my presence. The booming voice kept shouting. When my parents came, I was moving slowly, limping, shaking, slurred speech and confused.

I was driven a many hour drive away, and days later admitted to the psyc ward for shouting incoherently at the sky. I was very, very confused.

I was diagnosed with psycosis and schizophrenia. I believe I had moderate or severe hypothermia with delirium. What do you guys think? If it is a misdiagnosis, what should I do to fix it?

[Thunder Bow]

Best to get an professional Medical opinion on this. This to complex for a simple answer.

[shadow2000]

Hi,

As the above poster wrote, I think that it would be best to get an opinion from another professional if you think that you might have been misdiagnosed. It sounds like you experienced some form of psychosis, but to get another opinion, you'd need to have a professional evaluate you and come to a conclusion as to whether or not the experience that you had was related to hypothermia. I will say that the manual that mental health professionals here in the U.S. use to diagnose schizophrenia specifies that symptoms must be present in a person for at least six months for a diagnosis of the disorder to be made, but if a person experiencing psychotic symptoms receives effective treatment shortly after the symptoms present themselves and continues to receive the treatment for the next six months, it can be hard to know if the symptoms would have continued during the six-month period without treatment. If you don't mind me asking, are you still receiving treatment of any sort? And if you're not receiving treatment, how long did you receive it for? Along the lines of what I've written, I'm not qualified to say what might have caused you to experience the things that you did during the winter of 2013/2014, but as far as schizophrenia itself is concerned, you might want to question whether or not that specific diagnosis was correct if you fully recovered from the symptoms that you experienced in less than six months and also weren't receiving any treatment during part of this time.

I hope that you'll find at least some of what I've written here to be helpful.

Sorry, but you asked for an honest answer. If you had hypothermia for more than a few hours you wouldn't have survived.

[eskielover]

I experienced mild hypothermia the 2nd winter I lived here alone on my farm in the country. We had an ice storm & the electric went out. I didn't have a generator or a space heater that could have helped & didn't have wood for my fireplace. My neighbors farm had 22 horses & he had just gotten remarried & was living an hour away on a normal drive without ice so I had to feed & make sure the horses water had the ice broken so they could drink. By the time I got back in my own freezing house, my cloths were ringing wet from sweating that lugging hay & getting it to all the horses caused. I wrapped up in a blanket & surrounded myself with my dogs & started shivering so bad I couldn't stop. The thought hit me, it's better to get out of the wet cloths & put on dry freezing ones to warm up in than to freeze to death in the wet ones I had on. I braved it & as quickly as possible got cloths to change into. I couldn't even take a hot shower because my propane tank was empty & no electricity to heat water.

After changing cloths & bundling up in blankets I think I did fall asleep. No idea for how long. I never had any psychotic experiences during that time but I did have a horrible panic attack that hit. I was blessed because I had charged my cell phone the first night sitting in the police station lobby in town. My friend called me at 4am to see if I was ok & she talked me through my panic attack until the sun came up.

It's a scary feeling & hypothermia is nothing to mess with. Usually after warming up & getting to a safe place there aren't any bad residual effects except for possibly medical ones.

I would honestly depend on the professionals for determining what is really going on with you. I would tell them about the experience but with my own personal experience with hypothermia I wouldn't bank on it being the reason behind what you are experienced.

[Physicist]

Originally Posted by shadow2000

Hi,

As the above poster wrote, I think that it would be best to get an opinion from another professional if you think that you might have been misdiagnosed. It sounds like you experienced some form of psychosis, but to get another opinion, you'd need to have a professional evaluate you and come to a conclusion as to whether or not the experience that you had was related to hypothermia. I will say that the manual that mental health professionals here in the U.S. use to diagnose schizophrenia specifies that symptoms must be present in a person for at least six months for a diagnosis of the disorder to be made, but if a person experiencing psychotic symptoms receives effective treatment shortly after the symptoms present themselves and continues to receive the treatment for the next six months, it can be hard to know if the symptoms would have continued during the six-month period without treatment. If you don't mind me asking, are you still receiving treatment of any sort? And if you're not receiving treatment, how long did you receive it for? Along the lines of what I've written, I'm not qualified to say what might have caused you to experience the things that you did during the winter of 2013/2014, but as far as schizophrenia itself is concerned, you might want to question whether or not that specific diagnosis was correct if you fully recovered from the symptoms that you experienced in less than six months and also weren't receiving any treatment during part of this time.

I hope that you'll find at least some of what I've written here to be helpful.

In January of that year I was admitted to the hospital, I stayed 3 weeks. The medicine, the antipsychotic, made me more sick. I remember having alot of difficulty walking the longer I was on it in the hospital. As soon as I could get away with it I stopped taking it, as it did nothing at all but the adverse side effects (antipsychotics I have heard recently can actually make hypothermia worse). Later that year in October I was readmitted, after October, I recovered. A full 2 years later (one full year off any medicine whatsoever) I have had a full recovery.

I have since learned that I have hypokalemia (low potassium). It turns out, hypokalemia is caused by hypothermia in 2 different ways. But also, hypokalemia can cause schizophrenia like symptoms.

Something that bothers me is how I am always cold. I was told to take off my winter jacket recently because it was 60 degrees outside. I felt as if it was chilly.

[shadow2000]

Originally Posted by Physicist

In January of that year I was admitted to the hospital, I stayed 3 weeks. The medicine, the antipsychotic, made me more sick. I remember having alot of difficulty walking the longer I was on it in the hospital. As soon as I could get away with it I stopped taking it, as it did nothing at all but the adverse side effects (antipsychotics I have heard recently can actually make hypothermia worse). Later that year in October I was readmitted, after October, I recovered. A full 2 years later (one full year off any medicine whatsoever) I have had a full recovery.

I have since learned that I have hypokalemia (low potassium). It turns out, hypokalemia is caused by hypothermia in 2 different ways. But also, hypokalemia can cause schizophrenia like symptoms.

Something that bothers me is how I am always cold. I was told to take off my winter jacket recently because it was 60 degrees outside. I felt as if it was chilly.

Although I'd still advise you to see a medical professional if you think that there might be something going on with you from a medical standpoint that needs to be addressed, I will say that I've done some reading on some of the things (other than psychiatric illnesses) that can cause people to experience psychotic symptoms, and hypothermia isn't something that I've seen listed as a known cause of psychosis. I'm not qualified to say what caused the symptoms that you experienced, but given that I haven't seen hypothermia listed as a known cause of psychosis and that you were hospitalized for apparent psychotic symptoms twice over a nine-month period, I have my doubts as to how likely it is that a doctor will conclude that it was hypothermia that caused what you experienced. Having said this, if you still think that there might be some explanation other than a psychiatric disorder for the symptoms that you experienced, and/or if you have any questions about what you should do to address the problem with hypokalemia that you have, I think that seeing a medical professional would be advisable.

Take care.

[kindachaotic]

Used to be cold all the time too. Turned out to be hypothyroidism & meds for it made a Hugh difference.
Have you had lab work to check yours?
Glad you're feeling better!!

[fema4psychiatrists]

Of my 20 plus years in the mental health system I am not surprised...

[avlady]

Yes kinda was right too i think, hypothyroidism could be behind all this too. just a thought

[ReptileInYourHead]

Hey, there are antipsychotic drugs that can lead to hypothermia, risperidone being the most common.
Risperidone is used to treat schizophrenia.
Were you on meds at the time you had that episode?