[Sometimes psychotic]

So I was only severely psychotic for a month and a half but it was severe and then I had sporadic voices for 6 months. I asked the pdoc if I had schizophrenia but he said I prefer psychosis. Still 2 years later I hear the occasional voice if I'm overwhelmed at work so I think the jury is still out on my dsm diagnosis as far as I'm concerned but there didn't seem to be a lot of positive stories in this section so I thought I'd add mine.

So basically I had to give a big talk at a professional conference and then went psychotic immediately. I was convinced that the entire professional organization was psychic and communicated all important details via thought. I also thought that I was a shaman and could heal people just by being near to them. The voices sent me to the ER twice, one because I thought I had ketones in my urine and one because I felt literally felt I was having a heart attack it was this horrible shocking sensation. Unfortunately I went to an ER where there was no pdoc on call so they could not help me. After my "heart attack" went away I remembered that I thought I had been raped. However this is where my story fell apart in front of my friends and they got me the help that the ER could not provide.

After staying with my friend overnight they got me into a pdoc by pulling some stings so I got an appointment the next day, my boss happened to be an important doctor at the same institution as the pdoc and wrote him a nice letter. At first I seemed fully lucid with the pdoc since I had compartmentalized my hallucinations, but then a friend in session with me mentioned the rape I could not explain and my story fell apart again. I was in the inpatient ward that day. After 5 days I was doing a puzzle with my mom. All of the puzzles had missing pieces so that drove me nuts but one puzzle of a parrot had actually two copies of the puzzle so I thought I could find all the pieces. Unfortunately someone had taken the eye from both and I just flipped out an wanted out of the ward. I was voluntary, but apparently they won't let you check out on weekends.

So I checked out the next morning instead refusing all medication. I went home to visit my parents and all was fun loving leprechauns and spirit plants until the thunderstorm. Then it was trumpets and suddenly I was the third horse of the apocalypse and had accidentally sold my soul to the devil. It was all much more involved than this but it would be tedious to go into here. Anyway I prayed really hard as an atheist and told God that I would believe if only he would help me stop the voices. The next day I made my parents drive me back to the pdoc where I had an appointment. He asked if I had been taking my meds. I said no. He told me they would help with the voices. This was the first I had heard of that he told me they were for sleep before. My parents say the same. Anyway I took risperidone and the voices were cut in half immediately and I was back to work within a week which they tell me is virtually unheard of. After two weeks I had only sporadic voices and after 6 months they were gone completely.

My pdoc says that I'm high functioning and I'm now two years out on the meds with just one little break last Christmas with voices and a delusion that pdoc was working with the devil but other than that I've been completely voice free. I consider this a success. In fact I've been so successful that pdoc wants to try and take me off the meds completely. Right now I'm on 7.5 mg of abilify. I suppose I should also tell you that I'm a research scientist and with my boss wrote a grant worth over a million dollars to study our research. This was within a year of being in the hospital and it was in the top 2% of all grants submitted. So I'm no John Nash or Elyn Sacks but I'm part of a team of researchers advancing my field of science. Anyway, here's hoping you can do as well. Oh also I was lucky enough to be part of a trial for CBT for schizophrenia that helped me get rid of the residual voices. If it weren't for this I would probably still be hearing voices today so I highly recommend it for what the meds can't treat.

[Travelinglady]

Thanks for sharing your story!

[serloco]

What is CBT? I have been trying desperately to rid these horrendous voices from my mind. Thank you for sharing your story too. Olanzapine and abilify did very little, and it seems the best tool is my mind itself. I'm sad and sick. I believe in special abilities too, and I often move things with my mind, people and clouds, and advanced healing too. I don't want to lose my abilities, just my voices.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by serloco

What is CBT? I have been trying desperately to rid these horrendous voices from my mind. Thank you for sharing your story too. Olanzapine and abilify did very little, and it seems the best tool is my mind itself. I'm sad and sick. I believe in special abilities too, and I often move things with my mind, people and clouds, and advanced healing too. I don't want to lose my abilities, just my voices.

Cognitive behavioral therapy....it's hard to find for voices so you can find a therapist that might do it for anxiety which helps or you can try a book. Basically the voices are similar to something called negative cognitions.

[Mistyblew]

Thank-You for sharing. Its good to know there is hope

[Sometimes psychotic]

Just wanted to update this. It's been two years since I was sick and now I'm officially three weeks off the meds and seemingly fully recovered. Fingers crossed.

[bird_lover]

Originally Posted by serloco

What is CBT? I have been trying desperately to rid these horrendous voices from my mind. Thank you for sharing your story too. Olanzapine and abilify did very little, and it seems the best tool is my mind itself. I'm sad and sick. I believe in special abilities too, and I often move things with my mind, people and clouds, and advanced healing too. I don't want to lose my abilities, just my voices.

serloco: i am gonna post tomorrow evening/night about my schizophrenia success story, actually my miracle. but for now, i just wanted to say that no schizo med ever worked for me. i was sad and sick. i understand you not wanting to lose your abilities, just the voices. please look for my post tomorrow sometime, it will take me a while to get it all down, it will be a long post, but it will give you something to suggest to your psychiatrist. i assure you it will be worth looking into. don't give up hope. there is hope for you. there was for me. so check that forum tomorrow night, i will be sure to post my story there.

[deeronjepsuhn]

I like your story, I found it funny just because I've been there.
I wish my pdoc told me I was high functioning and could get off meds.

[Sometimes psychotic]

3 months off the meds now....still good...

[spaz07]

Thanks for sharing, this definitely gives me courage to see a dr

[grandma21964]

What an amazing success. Thanks for your story. It is encouraging to know about what you have done to be treated. I want to know, did you ever hear voices at a young age, like in elementary school? Or did the voices come later in life?
Thank you, Grandma

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by grandma21964

What an amazing success. Thanks for your story. It is encouraging to know about what you have done to be treated. I want to know, did you ever hear voices at a young age, like in elementary school? Or did the voices come later in life?
Thank you, Grandma

So I had a late onset at age 36 no voices or anything before that it changed overnight.

[Sparking1]

What science do you research?

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by Sparking1

What science do you research?

I'm a microbiologist I study enteropathogenic E. coli and related pathogens....

[Jo37chevy]

Did I miss something? I am still trying to figure out what CBT is? Can anyone let me know? I am new to this forum thing so idk what the...?

[costello]

Originally Posted by Jo37chevy

Did I miss something? I am still trying to figure out what CBT is? Can anyone let me know? I am new to this forum thing so idk what the...?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[flocco]

Thank you for sharing your story <3 lots of love and carry on !

[Sometimes psychotic]

I am back on meds a least temporarily...I started hallucinating again but no delusions yet...weird hallucinations like smell and music and some visual one like spots and rainbow sparkles that might indicate some type of partial seizure but not really voices....I'm going to see a neurologist in a month.

[roseblossom]

Sorry to hear that you had some symptoms. How're you now? Have you gone back on a very low dose of meds?

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by roseblossom

Sorry to hear that you had some symptoms. How're you now? Have you gone back on a very low dose of meds?

I'm on 10mg abilify----still see the neuro on September 4th----nobody can give me a definitive dx yet.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Neuro says probably not epilepsy...it's usually like a single thing in repeat not so many different things but apparently I'm getting an EEG just in case....so looks like psychosis again....still no official dx...

[Loial]

Well, I suppose that's good in some ways & not in others.

I was reading about hallucinations in epilepsy in a book recently. Quite interesting... I never realised that happened & that it didn't always involve the stereotypical grand mal seizures.

It's certainly frustrating not having an official dx. I'm currently queried schizophrenia, although my GP did wonder if I might be schizoaffective.

[Sometimes psychotic]

EEG totally normal....looks like just psychosis...well I'm choosing to see this as a temporary setback rather than something intractable....I still hope to reduce meds....or go off entirely again....

[SmileHere]

Hey Sometimes Psychotic,

I posted in your other thread about Abilify, but now read your story here.

Sorry to hear about the setback. I was wondering if something in your life changed - more stress maybe, or different nutrition? Have you been taking fish oil/omega 3 and eating myelin-sheath friendly nutrition? Any supplements?
Did you see a naturopath or nutricionist before tapering off Abilify? (I've been thinking about seeing them myself, not so easy where I live though)

You were med-free for 6 months or so? (Which is a success itself!)

Overall, your story is inspiring & wishing you further success!! (Hope you answer in the other thread too, about tapering off)
You seem to have a cool pdoc! Did they tell you how long you would need to be taking meds now?

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by SmileHere

Hey Sometimes Psychotic,

I posted in your other thread about Abilify, but now read your story here.

Sorry to hear about the setback. I was wondering if something in your life changed - more stress maybe, or different nutrition? Have you been taking fish oil/omega 3 and eating myelin-sheath friendly nutrition? Any supplements?
Did you see a naturopath or nutricionist before tapering off Abilify? (I've been thinking about seeing them myself, not so easy where I live though)

You were med-free for 6 months or so? (Which is a success itself!)

Overall, your story is inspiring & wishing you further success!! (Hope you answer in the other thread too, about tapering off)
You seem to have a cool pdoc! Did they tell you how long you would need to be taking meds now?

9 months totally med free....I've added fish oil because it's good for everything...yeah I have a new pdoc now though I asked about decreasing if I'm stable she was cool with it but I'm planning on going off again because this episode was mild....if she won't help I will have to find another doc which is easier said than done. I think she'll be OK though becuase she talks to my old cool pdoc.

I went vegetarian for a while and lost 5 pounds so it should have been more healthy not less...I was getting plenty of protein. The thing I attribute it to is a UTI ...there was a study that there is a 29 fold increase in UTIs in people relapsing with psychosis it's pretty obscure but I think in future years they will find an immune component to this. Anyway that's my theory...I did have a grant due but that's not more than normal and I had way more this spring so if it were stress it should have happened then.