[Rajah]

Extreme trigger warning!



So I have this friend that I met in a psych hospital. She was there for panic disorder and depression. After getting to know her a little better I found out she is a compulsive liar. She got better about the lying when I confronted her about it but I think she might be doing it again. She has this habit of pretending to have other peoples illnesses. Like in the hospital she said she had lung cancer as a kid because this guy just got diagnosed with lung cancer. She said she was raped and had a miscarriage. My other good friend I met there was in for severe health anxiety and he was always paranoid his heart was going to give out on him. A month after we left the hospital she starts saying she has heart problems and needs an emergency EKG. All of these were lies that she admitted to. Now she's telling me that she's hearing voices and having night terrors. She told me that she blacked out and carved messages in her leg which was something I confided to her that I did before. I told her she needs to go to the hospital and she's fighting with me saying the voices are telling her if she gets help everyone will die. The thing is, i just got out of a psych hospital 2 days ago because I had a psychotic episode. I really want to help her but I'm in no position to when I can't even help myself right now. Also, she's reporting this to have started last month, and already her hallucinations are getting extreme. For me it started very gradually when I was 15 and I didn't hit full on schizophrenic until I was 20. Its just stressing me out because I can't really believe her but I want to because maybe she is going through all this. Maybe I'm just being judgemental. I don't know

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[Sometimes psychotic]

Clearly she has issues and the best thing would be to encourage her to see a psychiatrist...the timespan of onset is different for everyone, it was literally overnight for me. Also when I was psychotic I was very susceptible to believing I had medical illnesses like diabetes or thyroid issues....I went to the hospital thinking I had a heart attack because I hallucinated one...I would genuinely not be surprised if she did have issues with psychosis.

[Rajah]

Its just hard to believe her after she's admitted to "stealing" people illnesses before

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[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by Rajah

Its just hard to believe her after she's admitted to "stealing" people illnesses before

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I would say stealing people's illnesses is a mental health issue and it may or may not be psychosis related that's why I think it would help to send her to a psychiatrist they can get to the bottom of it.

[Rajah]

That's what I think as well which is the main reason I'm encouraging her to go. Its just hard to get a diagnosis if that is the case because of course she's not going to tell the doctor about it.

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[EllieGreene]

I agree the best thing to do is to encourage her to see a psychiatrist or therapist. You can also encourage her to be honest with the doc but at the end of the day you don't have any control over what she will do. The doc, however, is trained (hopefully well trained) to read people and may be able to help her regardless of her tactics.

I think you need to take care of *you* and make yourself top priority. It's common to form relationships with people when IP...but you have yourself to take care of and it's not your responsibility to be their therapist, take on their issues, etc.

You sound like a caring person. Be well. xoxo