Please share positive experiences of overcoming mental illness

[Honey567]

Hello,

I hope you all can help as I’m very scared and worried. Any advice or experiences would be welcome.

My lovely brother who is the kindest, smartest person I know is suffering badly from some sort of mental illness. He was recently hospitalised and I feel the mental health service really let him down, as he was let out with no diagnosis or real help and returned to work after being sectioned. Fast forward a few weeks, he is now in hospital again under section 2 of the mental health act. Without going into detail we knew he wasn’t quite right but things got very bad when he had an ‘episode’. It was scary and he wasn’t himself, he was suffering bad paranoia/ confusion and there was some sort of psychosis going on.

I feel like someone has died. He has a life he needs to get back to but I feel like we will always be worried and this can’t be ‘fixed’. He has young children and a lot of responsibility. I don’t trust the mental health service to help him. I’ve dealt with depression etc. but this is on another level. He’s very ill.

I don’t know what I’m asking really, has anyone suffered anything like this/ or a family member and gone on to lead a normal life?

My brother is my best friend and I am heartbroken. I don’t think he will be able to go back to his family again.

Hi honey

I am a nurse, although a general one (not mental health) but had mental health placements during my training and also have family who are mental health nurses. I have also had family members involved in mental health services.

It is totally individual in terms of recovery. I have known people have acute episodes and never suffer again, and also people who once diagnosed are in and out of mental health services and hospitalised all their life.

Do you have any idea what triggered it? Was it out the blue, all of a sudden? had he been suffering from acute stress? Alcohol or drugs? Could you ask for a family meeting to speak to the team with your brother and get a better idea of diagnosis and how things might go? A lot depends on how engaged he is with treatment, and the triggers to this episode (ie. if it is drug or alcohol related can make things more complicated).

Acute phases in my experience can be recovered from. Recently I know of a girl that they think might have had her drink spiked with something, she virtually went catatonic overnight, stopped eating and drinking and had to have intensive therapy (they used ECT). Withing 4 weeks she was back to normal, they are still a bit perplexed as to what happened.

Ask for a family meeting, your brother is still the same brother, just be there for him where you can.

This sounds like a psychotic episode OP. Psychosis alone can be due to a number of things-drugs, stress, depression or severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar.
This is perhaps why he left hospital without a diagnosis. The latter diagnoses in particular have a huge impact on life from getting insurance to a driving licence. If they aren't sure, better to not diagnose.
Obviously he is still poorly so I'm sure the MH team are going to be looking below the surface. Often psychosis is transitory and passes and may never return. For some it requires quite strong medication to reduce it, and then psychology to work on dealing with the residual thoughts and voices.
A man I know had his first episode following the birth of his first child and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He remains very fragile and has had more relapses but otherwise has a supportive employer and has learned to live with his diagnosis.
Hopefully he will now get the treatment and diagnosis he needs to move forward. I hope he feels better very soon.

Thank you so much for your replies.

It is textbook in a way. He moved house (further away from his family), got a new job and recently had a new baby. He got sectioned the night after the baby was born which is very upsetting for his partner.

I wasn’t there during the incident but I am told he was in a trance like state. He has had something similar happen back when he was studying but nothing this severe.

He is otherwise very switched on, intelligent and a general stable person. He left the unit the first time with a prescription for a small amount of anti depressants but nothing else.

Luckily my Mum works in the care sector (although has no knowledge of mental health) so will make sure he is looked after.

I honestly never knew mental health could be this serious and scary, it obviously can happen to anyone.

Also just to add, when he left the first time he very much insisted he was ‘okay’ and was resisting treatment. I hope this will change now though and he is able to engage in the process.

The sectioning will mean they can treat him. It's one of the reasons they do it.

People do get better but may have further episodes. He will need looking after & be mindful of when things are getting too much.

Have a look at the Mind website, lots of info on there.

I really feel for you. I would urge people to really look after their mental health as people don't realise how bad it can be & the treatments are complicated.

A bit of this comes down to capacity too. If he was well enough to make a decision about his treatment & was there voluntarily, there wasn't anything the MH services could do, at that point.

Don't despair, try to find out what's going on & see how you can help.

I have bipolar and at my worst thought spies were coming to get me and track me down to punish me for a hideous crime I must have committed-I didn't know what it was and was trying to find out what I'd done.
I couldn't go out without a hoodie on. I was terrified.
I'm fine now.

It sounds like he has an acute onset due to stress. A new job, and a new baby and away from his usual routine and family/friends could easily be the trigger. Maybe he has struggled for a while but hasn't recognised it, hopefully he will get the help he needs. Mental health is so multi faceted it could be so many factors. I feel for your sister in law, hope he is back to his normal self soon.

Pippylou yes that’s true, I’m glad he is sectioned now so is safe.

Sorry to hear that onetimeposter, that must have been scary. So glad you are well now though. Do you mind me asking if you were already diagnosed bipolar before that happened?

Thanks Pudding, I think that may be it too.

Sadly I think due to the circumstances his life with his family may be over, which I think he will find harder to deal with than the illness itself.