Psychotic break??

[Iambubbles86]

Posted this in chat but not much response, Thought this area might be more appropriate....

For the last 4 months I've had a lot of health anxiety about my child/children, some of the concerns have been valid, some have been wildly unfounded, if you have seen any of my previous threads I have been quite unwell mentally, I am in therapy and I am taking antidepressants and am making progress.

There is something however that I haven't told anyone about. I have just told my husband now and I will speak to the doctor at my next appointment.

About 5-6 weeks ago at the height of my anxiety (just before I started therapy, ad's and was signed off work) I started to have occasions where I believed ds1 had died and I had gone back in time and was reliving it again to try and stop it this time, a bit like groundhog day.

I'd like to be very clear that I no longer believe this, the episodes have stopped and I am aware I cannot time travel. It did feel very real though. Was this some kind of psychotic break?? It wasn't constant, it was more a number of occasions lasting from between minutes to maybe a few hours over a period of a week or so.

[NolongerAnxiousCarer]

I'm not a proffessional, my DH suffers from episodes of psychosis. When he is ill his beliefs are very fixed, no ammount of reasoning will pursuade him they are not real, although the actual beliefs can flit about a bit. It generally takes antipsychotic medication to stop it in DHs case.

I'm wondering if what you are describing is a type of dissociation. I've experienced disociation with anxiety and PTSD.

As I said though I'm no expert you would be best off discussing it with your GP or MH proffesional.

[justanillusion]

Hi Iambubbles. That must have been awful to experience. I'm also not a health professional, sharing my (limited) experience.

Last year when my anxiety was bad i had a scary week including a period at home where i thought i had never existed and i was like a ghost in the home watching the children and my husband in the life they had built without me. Everything was unreal, voices were all at a distance. I wasn't sure anyone could see me.

This was explained as disassociation. And although scary i understand how it was related to the extreme anxiety then.

I also had a few terrifying days where i was suspicious my phone and emails were being monitored and that the emergency services, friends etc were in conspiracy with my husband.

The crucial thing seemed to be that i had some doubt, i didn't 100% believe this to be true. I was scared it was true but a little bit of me still knew it was possible that it wasn't.

It's good that you are speaking to your GP. My GP very quickly got me to a good understanding of these issues but i did get further valuable help from a mental health nurse.

I hope your GP is helpful.

[hayleyB79]

I too am no expert but I've recently experienced my second psychotic episode and in my experience the paranoid delusions I was having were constant, they wouldn't stop after a few minutes or hours and I believed 100% what I believed was happening to be real even though everybody else was telling me otherwise. Both my episodes lasted for over a month and only improved after taking anti psychotic medication and working closely with my care coordinator to keep challenging my beliefs. Good luck at your gp appointment.

[Iambubbles86]

Thank you for you responses. I would say I was probably closer to illusions experience as I think there was a little doubt if i remember (its so foggy to remember, very odd) and it wasn't constant.

[NolongerAnxiousCarer]

The main thing here is that you are feeling better now.

[Iambubbles86]

Yes of course, I'm still extremely anxious but I'm certainly not having those thoughts anymore. I was just interested to know if anyone had an idea what it was as it seems so odd looking back.

[NolongerAnxiousCarer]

For me it was when the stress and anxiety got too much I would disociate, I think that it was a kind of coping strategy.

[Iambubbles86]

I think I can understand that. So maybe because I felt out of control my brain made it so I thought I had a chance at saving him. (He is fine by the way, part of me knows that. I've just got the niggling what its that are still causing my current anxiety but its not as heightened as it was weeks ago)