Psychosis?

[Deleted member 29311]

Apparently I'm psychotic?

Can someone with PTSD suffer from psychosis, do they come hand in hand or something? Because after being seen by psychiatrists, they think I'm insane or something since I always think people are coming after me or are going to harm me, do things on purpose, influence my emotions and I have extremely erratic, unpredictable behavior.

Is this part of PTSD though?

 

[joeylittle]

Because after being seen by psychiatrists, they think I'm insane or something

Can you be a little more specific about what they actually say to you?

Yes, PTSD can be concurrent with psychosis; but I'm not certain if you are describing psychosis or paranoia (both of which are possible).

What diagnosis do the psychiatrists want to give you, instead of PTSD?

 

[Powder]

I agree with @joeylittle

What you are describing sounds squarely in the realm of PTSD Paranoia. Depending on how far it breaks from reality checking, aka, you are not aware of it or you take actions based on the ideas versus thinking "Wow, I'm being really paranoid right now. What is making me feel this way?" then they may take this into that Psychosis direction more.

Only your Dr's can ascertain the cluster of symptoms and your state of mind for diagnosis. We can only share what we experience and what our Diagnosis was at that time.

I will say that Paranoia is higher in PTSD during flashbacks, after flashbacks, to be specific, and in response to cues to the trauma in your environment. That is why PTSD is not considered psychosis because the distress always bears a direct origin in reality, a real trauma.

Hope this helps clarify just a little and that your stress levels drop.

 

[Friday]

In psych, nearly all roads lead to psychosis.

Psychosis is not an illness, but a symptom. A psychotic episode can be the result of a mental or physical illness, substance use, trauma, or extreme stress.

https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Men...ted-Conditions/Psychosis#sthash.dtidFWop.dpuf

Extreme stress, as listed above, includes things such as grief, sleep deprivation, one of the next steps beyond a panic attack, starvation, 10/10 pain, etc. (Not a complete list).

Certain disorders are more heavily linked to psychotic episodes, in no small part, because certain disorders carry multiple common causes of psychosis. For example; not having eaten or slept for days in an anxiety or panic cycle, or the same in a bipolar manic state or rapid cycling. Symptoms start piling on top of each other, each making all of the others worse, and everything can spin very rapidly out of control.

 

[Powder]

Great post @FridayJones

Kudos: one smart cookie here! (Punny, not funny!)

 

[Deleted member 29311]

Can you be a little more specific about what they actually say to you?

Yes, PTSD can be concurrent...

Well the thing is they know I have PTSD although there's some things they aren't sure about.

I've always struggled with anxiety in general, although I never get the classic ''panic attack'' any more. For example, when most people speak of a panic attack, their hearts are racing and they start pacing around and they have this sense of fear and panic, although I legit never experience that unless it's during my sleep (I panic in my sleep and run around my apartment trying to jump out of windows some times, I always think I'm choking on needles, toothpicks, etc.).

I have this consistent paranoia, I always assume people have bad intentions like they want to fight me, hit me, kill me or something. People close to me often tell me I'm out of touch with reality because I assume things about people and what their intentions are with me and it's not true, even though it feels true to me.

Someone could be starring at me and I'll assume they want to fight me and I'll start feeling aggressive and my focus zooms in on them and I try so hard to move on although my attention becomes pretty focused until the person leaves or I do..

So I'm just confused about the difference between PTSD symptoms and anxiety, or other illnesses?

 

[Deleted member 29311]

I agree with @joeylittle

What you are describing sounds squarely in the realm of PTSD...

There was a time where I thought people could influence my emotions and the constant uncomfortable feeling I experience every day. I used to think people had this ''energy'' bad or good and that if I was around someone with ''bad energy'' it would influence me into becoming violent or something.

Now of course I've grown out of that weird way of thinking and I understand that it's insane and not real. The problem is with the things mentioned in the comment above this one.. Not sure what to think any more?

 

[Powder]

I think any disorder left untreated can get you there, like FridayJones said.

People with Bipolar and PTSD are in this zone often.

If it's beyond PTSD, then they should be working with you over time to figure out what is maybe fueling this for you. Could be just untreated PTSD and stress ongoing in your life that you don't see. Could be you have a medical problem, such as an allergy.

There is something making this happen, but you need to be patient and work through finding its origins in your body-mind.

I'm sorry and I know it's frustrating and takes a lot of patience.

Paranoia is very hard to live with. It could you you are, like I was, having flashbacks and high stress that you've had for a while that's crept up on you. Could be the FB's are happening mostly at night, causing you to not be aware of them and their effect on you as much.

 

[Deleted member 29311]

I think any disorder left untreated can get you there, like FridayJones said.

People with Bipolar and PTS...

Muse and FridayJones, it actually makes a lot of sense when you put it that way honestly!

I've lost connection with the world around me and I rarely talk to my family, I've lost almost all of my friends, etc. My doctor wants me to try antipsychotics so I can calm down, although I've always been terrified of meds.

I want to thank everyone involved reading this for not judging me and giving me support, it means a lot to me. It's embarrassing.. I don't want people to think I'm insane or get the wrong idea.

 

[Deleted member 29311]

I forgot to really mention why they think I'm psychotic (been experiencing these symptoms for years). I constantly:

- think people can influence my emotions and even make me violent.
- think I can control people and people's behavior (example: if I feel off or angry and someone around me gets upset, I blame myself and I think they got upset because they could read my body language and it influenced them, I can control people's behavior)
- think people are threatening me for no reason
- think people are trying to brainwash others including me

I often go off on huge rants where I'll rant on and on about this kind of stuff for like 20 minutes at a time.

The list goes on

 

[mary1979]

Anxiety is incredibly powerful I have just learned.

I definitely underestimated its power, and perhaps over estimated my own emotional strength.

I've just spent the past two weeks convinced I was dying.
Of stroke.
Of diabetes.
Heart arrack.
Even started having genuine (at least I thought) symptoms of these things. (to be fair, there is a couple legitimate things that sparked this, but rather than go to a doc, I googled and grew more and more anxious instead. Genius)

Then id have a moment of clarity and start to question if I was going crazy and imagining things.
Even convinced myself that others in my life were doing things to deliberately bring about symptoms at times.

So bloody confusing, and I never thought id lose control of my mind like this.
Dont underestimate the power of mental illness, its a bugger.
But also don't fall into the trap of thinking you have this diagnosis and give up.

If your minds strong enough to talk you into unrealistic crap, then it MAY just be strong enough to talk you out.

 

[joeylittle]

I forgot to really mention why they think I'm psychotic

Do they say that 'psychotic' is your diagnosis? Or something else? (Forgive me if you answered this already, but I don't think you did).