[Moose72]

I am officiall "bipolar I" but the last 3 days I've felt like tiny little bugs were crawling all over me even in my nose and mouth. I can feel them between my teeth and in my throat even. They seem to be eating dead skin because there's a lot of it... I called the psych office for the nurse to call me back but they haven't. ARG. ITCHY!!!

[MINIME]

Is it a reaction to your pills? can u take benadryl?

[ScaredSad]

It could be that you are feeling any one of a number of reactions from neurological to allergic to psychotic.

You did the right thing with calling the nurse.

I hope it feels better soon.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by MINIME

Is it a reaction to your pills? can u take benadryl?

I haven't switched pills and benedryl and zyrtek don't seem to help.

[marcelodlanod]

Isnt it part of the disorder? I feel them too.. under my skin.. its a weird sensation, i think is psicosis....

[spiritual_emergency]

In a related vein...

Last night I took some niacin. I took some because I'd done a work-out and I haven't done one in a while. I can't recall the exact terminology but when you work out, you produce slight tears in the muscles. As a response to these tears, lactic acid builds up in the tissue. It's the combination of torn mucle fibers and lactic acid that creates that tender, post-work-out ache -- the kind that makes you wince every time you flex a thigh muscle over the next few days and wish that you hadn't worked out at all.

Niacin helps to flush lactic acid out of your body tissues by expanding the small blood capilleries. In turn, this produces a greater blood flow within the body. The body's response to this activity is to get "flushed"...

You experience this as a reddening of the skin -- simply because there is more blood close to the surface of the body. As this blood flows in these areas the cells of the small capillaries will also be getting rid of their waste products, and often they produce "histamine" as part of that process.

That histamine is another natural substance produced by every cell in the body -- when the cell is under attack, or is getting rid of toxins. So, histamine causes an "itchy" feeling.

Source: Niacin Flush & Itching

I don't know if any of your medications might include niacin. Even if they didn't, it's possible something else within them could be triggering a histamine response, experienced by you as the feeling of "tiny bugs under your skin" and accompanied by an intense "ITCHY!" feeling.

Note that it's not necessary to be psychotic/schizophrenic or to have taken niacin to experience a histamine reaction.

.

[SpottedOwl]

I was browsing the news this morning, and found this article:

Stress May Trigger Itching, study says

It reminded me of this thread, and I thought it might be useful to add to the discussion.

[Moose72]

Thanks. In the last few weeks, I've had my psychotic sympotoms- hearing noises and voices, mostly. In fact, my pdoc said last she saw me I was psychotic, paranoid and delusional! Who knew? I swear I think its the meds though. I don't check here often because I am Bipolar I and that's where I normally post.

[GothGirl1771]

Fleas? Are you allergic to something maybe???