Am i a schizo or have psychosis

I used to be bullied /stalked for 2-3 years and one day after being bullied 2 years ago I continued to hear thoughts in my head that taunted me. I always heard the peoples voices after a day full of lots of stimulation or whatnot like going to the mall. I became paranoid thought every conversation was about me and when i heard laughing i was sure it was about me. When i stopped my car I would stare into who was driving behind me. I even had my stuff stolen from me.I thought people were going through my emails and stuff. Well I started taking wellbutrin xl because I became very depressed. Now I always hear noices in my head that are all my unconcious thoughts or actions. They tease me or berate me about them and it sounds like people I know. It's like i feel like I'm being watched doing everything I feel slight guilty about and they bring up old stuff that i was teased about. I think people are going through my emails where I had tons of embarrasing stuff even though the creation dates on the email accounts where after i lost a phone that might have had stuff on it. I believe that my that my computer is hacked by my neighbors and that their talking about me most of the day I just hear the taunts in my head about everything in my life that has overstressed me the last few years. I'm just super paranoid but i was already like this before. When ever I hear loud noices it's like the voices get louder along with the noise and people are yelling at me. It's like before but all day now even though it has started to calm down alot and isn't as loud. I no longer think everyone is staring at me on the highway or recognize me and brining up old stuff but i'm paranoid.Am i having psychosis

Help anyboyd. Is this normal or am i becoming schizophrenic or having psychosis

Have you seen a psychiatrist and if so have you talked about these things? If not it might be a good idea to get in to see someone.

It sounds a lot like psychosis, but you really do need to see a psychiatrist to determine if any of the meds will be good for you or not. They can also diagnose you if you want.

It sounds like maybe you were put on a med for depression, but did you reveal your feelings of being watched, monitored etc. ????

For me, I did not know the suspiciousness and paranoia that I had were being prompted further by the antidepressants I was put on. I didn't know about anti-depressant induced psychosis, and how common it is.(I'm not saying this is the case for you or the cause of your symptoms, but you should look into it with your doctor.)

I do hope you see a doctor and openly discuss what you have written here. You might want to print out what you have written here and bring it with you to the Dr.
I think a med change may be in order for you.

I am so sorry about the distressing symptoms you are having.

no i've never been to a psychiatrist as it had only happened to me once after a bunch of events in my life and went away afer about a few months a long time ago.

Yah the thing is after researching more and more on this stuff i think i had a episode of psychosis about a year ago for a few months , and some episodes a few hours that weren't anything near this level and only a few times a year and just extreme paranoia after being stalked and bullied and stuff for a long time. But with the wellbutrin it's like I can be good for about 6-7 hours but at different parts of the day I feel crazy again . Its not as bad as it was a few days ago but it's still bad and heightens whenever I'm over stimulated or around people and is random sometimes. I think I'm going to try to get therapy first for my depression then if it doesn't work get medicine. I believe that medicine isn't always the answer if therapy works first. The medicine seems to just be a temporary solution till it burns out eventually.

The crazy thing is though that the voices came back today after my neighbors came back from school which started today. Coincedence or am i crazy.

Psychosis is often triggered by stress...if it is psychosis a psychiatrist is better than a general practionioner if you want meds to block the voices. The meds can be difficult to work out but they stopped 95% of my voices. Therapy stopped the rest.

What concerns me then, is that you are taking an anti-depressant which in and of itself can be making psychotic symptoms worse. If a general practitioner prescribed Wellbutrin, and doesn't know you are paranoid, suspicious and hearing voices, that is not good.
I really think you should contact the person that gave you the Rx for Wellbutrin, and explain what is going on

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21872337 This is an abstract on Wellbutrin in particular and psychosis.
Maybe another member here ( Sometimes Psychotic) can explain it better in layman's terms as far as what dopamine does in the brain and it's relationship to psychosis. This is why I really think you need to go to the prescriber and explain what is going on with you.

So what Mimi is saying is the Wellbutrin could actually be causing your psychosis or making it worse. There are two major neurotransmitters involved in psychosis one is dopamine. Dopamine is great, it's activated by things that make you feel good...this is actually how certain street drugs work, Wellbutrin stops dopamine from being absorbed into the cell so it is still outside the cells in your brain where it is actively signaling. Too much dopamine in the signaling parts of your brain can actually cause psychosis in some people. So it's possible you might need to decrease the dose of Wellbutrin in order to get better.

Another thing that can happen with antidepressants is that some people are bipolar and the antidepressants can trigger mania. Mania or extreme happy up moods can also lead to psychosis. Not sure where your mood is at in these episodes. Basically it's complicated so better to scrape these things off onto a doctor, they get paid to think about all this stuff. One thing I will also warn you about is the duration of untreated psychosis....the longer you are untreated with antipsychotics for a first episode the worse your outcome. You don't want to be on them forever, just long enough to get the voices to stop. My voices stopped within 6 months and I am now tapering off the meds although its been two years, but better than hearing voices forever. Whether to take Antipsychotics or not is your choice but I like Mimi strongly urge you to talk with someone about the Wellbutrin.

what about someone like me who is untreated now. i used to be during first episode stuff. i stopped right before my second episode and have been off/on - mostly cuz so many hospital stays.

Harrow + Wunderink + Open Dialogue = An Evidence-based Mandate for A New Standard of Care | Mad In America

So the first 6 months you're supposed to stay on, but after that you can go off and just go on to stabilize an acute episode if you want. Basically there is only 1 long term study and the people not taking APs do better on life skills like having a job. The link explains it better. The first guy harrow just studied people over fifteen years to see the outcome and off the meds just did better overall in terms of social life etc. The second guy wunderink studied people for seven years after only 6 months on the meds or after staying on the meds and while the people who originally stayed on the meds did better in terms of hospitalization in the short term but did worse in the long term, the recovery rate was twice as high for people off the meds. Now it was still only 40% so,not everyone got better but it was better than for the people still on the meds. None of these studies included therapy. Some forms of CBT or psychodynamic therapy have been shown to help as well so it's possible to increase those odds.

The thing is though that it's like 50% real and 50% fiction. I was so close that i knew someone was talking about me who lives near by and thats what started the stem of everything but do I have to take APs. I have high blood sugar though my body weight is healthy range and a history of diabetes in the family. If i gained weight on the meds It'd be bad for my healthy. Would therapy not work I haven't had a pschotic episode more then a few hours in a long time before I took this med. I also didn't have any paranoid thoughts like this before the wellbutrin.I just thought everyone was talking bout me and the occasional taunting after certain events.

So would I gain weight on these and I just can't do therapy?The voices never really bothered me till I got on Wellbutrin or i never had dellusions like this . Just thought people were talking about me

It's like feeling like every comment is about you and hearing taunts in head but this is like 5 levels above what I was feeling before. It's unbearable

So it's possible you might do OK just getting off the Wellbutrin and doing therapy but if that doesn't work I'd recommend an AP like abilify or Geodon because most people don't gain weight on them. Really I'd talk to a psychiatrist because you need a medication expert.

I heard that those take forever to schedule. The person who originally told me about depression and treatments kinda abandoned me as he was helping me through treatment once I said it freaked me out. But i remember him saying it took a while. Can a therapist at least diagnose me psychiatrically. I sent a email to my hospital asking for a appointment and will call in tommorow

Like right now I have this thought in my head someone is out my window talking about me and it's a voice i recognize. It's like my brain remembers a voice and projects my thoughts out

Most therapists have a psychiatrist that they work with so if you tell your therapist you are hearing voices they will want you on meds right away and send you to their pdoc. There are very few who will even talk to you without meds if you are psychotic so that's one way to get meds if you want them.

Sp: thank you for explaining about the meds here. we need as much info as we can get. a lot of us don't know that AD's can induce and/or exacerbate psychosis, and mania.

Brosci: I want to suggest that you don't minimize what you are experiencing. Maybe delusion and paranoid is a strong clinical term, and there are varying degrees, but what you are dealing with, the feelings of being watched and talked about, are not acceptable, and It needs to be addressed even though you might think it "isn't that bad." It is something that should be nipped in the bud, like SP suggested. If it is treated early on then your chances are better.
When I was first experiencing what you describe, I did not get treated for it. I didn't even talk about it at first. I thought it was just me, like it was a "normal" experience. Now 30 years later, I wonder if it had been treated, ( treated properly) maybe I wouldn't have had to suffer so long.

See today i haven't taked my medicines and I hear no voices and am at normality. Also though I must mention that It only appears when I have really bad depressive episodes. When I'm normal it isn't there. The thing is I'm starting college in a few weeks my freshman year and didn't want to have to tkae meds but I guess I'll view what I can do.

The funny part about it is that I was being talked about most of the time which is why i was never sure if I was being crazy until it started happening when noone was around. I had a hard time in school and being stalked/bullied made me paranoid. Then after extreme paranoia and depression I think i snapped a few times. Like right now I'm paranoid typing this on this website.

But i haven't taken my medicines and I feel perfectly normal

Would anybody be willing to talk through Pms and listen to a story or something to clear my mind?

It'd make me feel better like how my depression felt better for just a bit when I wrote it all out once.

Also another thing is that when i would freak out on Wellbutrin I noticed I can control what can be said mostly and some of it is just phrases of insults from voices I remember.