Drug induced psychosis

[ItCanOnlyGetBetterRight]

Hi, I didn't know whether to put this here or in addiction so I chose here. Sorry if it's wrong.

I'm looking for any sort of advice or suggestions for my current horrific situation. VERY long story short my ex partner has become addicted to cocaine and he suffers from a rare side effect called drug induced psychosis. He has been discharged from the mental health community team that he was under because they can't treat his psychosis whilst he is still using, and he is very much still using. I know he needs rehab, everyone involved knows he needs rehab but he is an addict so as yet, cannot see how much damage he is doing. He is becoming more paranoid and deluded every day and I am absolutely terrified he is going to do even more damage to his brain and body.

Is there anything I can do? Can you force someone to go to rehab? Is there any other professional I can go to for help? I'm desperate for him to get some help before it really is too late, I'm so scared he is going to cause serious irreversible damage.

Anything, please, I'm desperate.

I don’t have any experience in this, the only advice I can give is to do all the research you can on the subject so you’re a bit of an expert so you aren’t worrying yourself over things that may not exist (people can recover from addiction, he may not do ‘permanent’ damage).

Have you spoken to him properly and told him all of these things you’ve said? How old is he also? Is there anything in life he really loves/ has aspirations you can use as a way to persuade him to get his act together?

Is there a Nar-Anon branch near you? Or Al-Anon. For partners of substance abusers. No you can't make him do anything. He isn't doing all these bad things because you didn't love him enough. He's in his own mess.

My brother has drug induced psychosis (effectively the crystal-meth fried his brain permanently).

He's so deep in his addiction and psychosis that he can't see what he is losing. He thinks I'm a twin (I'm not) he thinks I'm in Japan (I'm not) if this wasn't caused by drugs he would 100% have been sectioned, but they are reluctant to do that because he is still lying about how much he abuses drugs. He has the most beautiful daughter that is 21 months old and not even that can make him see what he is doing. Nothing can because he just has no reality left at all.

Psychosis is psychosis- drug induced or not! If he is delusional he needs a mental health assessment- they can't say no because it's drug induced- the problems will come when his mental health is more stable and he starts to make unwise decisions about using drugs. If your worried contact your local crisis team?

Risks are useless. I have called them 20 times maybe in the last six months and because he doesn't have a gun in his hand or is on a bridge they don't do anything. Ever. Nor do the police. I asked for a welfare check over Christmas and they sent a lone volunteer policewoman to do it. I'm exhausted and starting to effect my own mental health.

*crisis

This is going to sound really harsh but if you have a 21 month old child with him, then your focus needs to be on that child and keeping them safe. I'd cut the ties with your ex and make a new life safely away from him elsewhere. That sounds so cruel but what can you do? No one including him is willing to take responsibility for him cleaning up his act. Why should you when you have a tiny child to care for?

I agree with pp that you need to leave or get him to leave, at least until he is receiving treatment, he’s a risk to your child at the moment.

He could easily start believing your baby is a demon or some other thing that needs to be killed, it happens. I knew a man who put his cat in the tumble dryer during a psychotic episode and a mother who attempted to kill her child due to psychosis.

Your first priority is to your child.

(All that is presuming he has contact with the child).

When you love someone, it's not your fault if you can't fix them, OP. It's ok to put the safety of yourself & your child first. x

So sorry that you are going through this. I second lljkk's message. Be kind to yourself. Do what you need to do for your own wellbeing and your child. At the moment it is all you can do .

Mental illness brought on by drugs is really hard to deal with. Rehab will tell you it's a psych problem and psych will tell you it's a drug problem. We've been on this merry-go-round with my DSis.
You cannot force someone into rehab, and even if you could, it rarely works unless they're 100% committed to getting off drugs. You can possibly get them forced into a psych ward, but only if their illness is deemed a mental health issue. If psych says its due to cocaine they probably won't want them in hospital til they've detoxed.
We ended up with DSis on anti-psychotics as an out-patient until a rehab place was available.
Either way this is not your problem. If you have a DC, they are your priority. You cannot help someone who doesn't need help and if you try and force it you'll likely get abused. This doesn't help them at all, but pulling back will help you.

Also, drug induced psychosis isn't that rare. Any drug affecting the brain can bring it on and anyone with a predisposition to mental illness is even more at risk.
Even after stopping drugs the psychosis can continue for an indefinite period. This can be treated by mental health professionals then once the drugs are out of the way.

My first post should have read 'someone who doesn't want help', not need.

Leave (or kick him out) your safety comes first. Call the non emergency police line for your area and explain you are not safe whilst he's out and they can help (ideally call in the middle of the day so the various agencies are at work!)

OP doesn't say he is dangerous, and we have no reason to believe that he is. Most people with psychosis are not at all dangerous.

I had drug-induced psychosis 18 years ago - with a drug famously claimed to be "non-problematic" . For 72 hours I was very unwell but luckily for me there was a tiny thread of "maybe it's not real" which would come and go. If I'm honest, I had the potential to be dangerous at that point - and so I literally locked myself in my flat. I had flashbacks for months/years after that and made the decision in an instant not to ever touch another drug again. The decision had to come from me.

I've had psychosis at other times - but for that particular episode I would classify myself as dangerous. I wouldn't put a baby in such an environment - and it's not fair on you as a grown woman either.

Thank you all for replying. It's weird knowing that people have been through anything even kind of similar reassures me in a weird way.

I don't live with him. I left him two months ago and will always and have always protected my daughter. He hasn't seen her, I will not allow it. We are safe and secure. He isn't dangerous at all, he is just desperate and still unable to admit he even has a problem with drugs. I have plans to move to be closer to my family I'm just waiting on some legal advice about finances. It's all such an awful mess I can't believe this is my life.

My mom had psychosis linked to morphine after a skull fracture, actually. I forget about that. Was pretty freaky.

I should have written 'protect your sanity', too. You're allowed to do that.
One day at a time.

I'm glad that you can find a little bit of reassurance from hearing about others going through similar experiences.

Psychosis is so alien, so strange, and it is very disturbing to see a person that you love or are close to just dissolving into something very different from normal experience. So we need all the reassurance we can muster! But it is a common, very common, condition, so there are plenty of people around who can sympathise.

My son is intermittently psychotic, not initially caused by drugs but in the wreck that illness made of his life he did begin abusing drugs - and repeatedly had awful episodes of drug-induced psychosis.

He was introduced to hard drugs while on the acute ward of our local mental hospital. I think that is one of several reasons why mental health facilities don't want to take on patients who are still actively drug-taking - it makes hospitals unsafe places.

Before we get exposed to the awful experience of being close to someone who is mentally ill or addicted, it is easy to think that the services are in place to cope with the emergencies that illness and drugs create - and to offer long-term solutions.

But the reality is that these services are so so stretched that they can't help everyone, especially someone who is not ready to accept help. It isn't that such a person is less deserving of help, it is just that there are so many practicalities in the way.

Hopefully one day your partner will be ready, and hopefully help will be there for him then. x