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Looking for help identifying episodes

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Rennie

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Its been a long time since I've needed help from this forum but I'm kinda worried and would love yo know if any one has experienced something similar.
In the last two weeks I've experienced two episode that I find really hard to explain, Its like I am sleep walking but I'm not as each event has come on during the day, every 15 mins or so I come back to reality often 'woken' by the sound of my own voice saying something that I have zero idea, I'm 'conscious' for 30 odd seconds before I don't remember anything then I come back to reality again but this time I am somewhere completely different doing a different task so I know I've been active during the time where I am not conscious.
After each event my auditory and visual hallucinations get much worse causing me not to be able to leave the house.

I've explained it to my psychologist and she seems worried.
My psychiatrist cant see me for 2 weeks.
My GP didn't seem to understand my explanation lol don't blame him I barely do!

Has anyone experienced something like this? Is this a psychotic break?
 
We can't answer if you're experiencing a psychotic break or not, or anything else, sadly.

Can your GP refer you to any other available psychiatrist?
 
Thanks for the reply, I will edit my post as I was more interest in if anyone has experienced something similar.
if I was to chance psychiatrist it would be like going back to square 1 as I've been with him for years during all the ups and downs.
 
Is this a psychotic break?
From your description, I'd say probably not a "psychotic break". Those tend to be singular events and take longer to recover from - so, you'd not have experienced it twice in two weeks. (Not a doctor, but very familiar with psychosis)

But you could be talking about brief psychotic episodes/brief psychotic disorder, dissociative episodes, seizures....probably a good number of diagnoses, though it makes sense to be thinking psych, since you have PTSD.
Its like I am sleep walking but I'm not as each event has come on during the day, every 15 mins or so I come back to reality often 'woken' by the sound of my own voice saying something that I have zero idea, I'm 'conscious' for 30 odd seconds before I don't remember anything then I come back to reality again but this time I am somewhere completely different doing a different task so I know I've been active during the time where I am not conscious.
Can you explain this in more detail? Like, how many of these would you experience in a 24 hour period? How many days apart were the two days this happened on? (I might be reading you wrong...)

I've explained it to my psychologist and she seems worried.
My psychiatrist cant see me for 2 weeks.
When do you next see your psychologist?
And, does your psychiatrist know it may be a emergency?
Have you started or stopped any medications recently?
 
Its really hard to find the right words, its like i'm playing out a dream with zero ability to 'wake' myself back into reality, I am 100% awake tho and it hasn't been near bedtime or anything. My daughter was present for the second one and when I asked her about it she said I was talking and walking around but I wasn't making any sense or doing anything meaningful and when she asked me questions I answered with answers that made no sense to what she asked.

Both episodes really only lasted about 2hrs in total and I 'came to' reality about 4 times, but only for like 30 seconds, not even enough time for me to work out what I was doing and do something about it like take some extra meds.

The episodes were 5 days apart.
When do you next see your psychologist?
At the moment thanks to these episodes I am finding it almost impossible to leave the house as my auditory and visual hallucinations have become extremely intrusive so she is ringing me each week and we have a phone call instead.
And, does your psychiatrist know it may be a emergency?
Yes unfortunately he is on leave.
Have you started or stopped any medications recently?
Nope nothing new or stopped, I take a pretty complicated set of meds so maybe something has stopped working as per normal.
 
Its really hard to find the right words, its like i'm playing out a dream with zero ability to 'wake' myself back into reality, I am 100% awake tho and it hasn't been near bedtime or anything. My daughter was present for the second one and when I asked her about it she said I was talking and walking around but I wasn't making any sense or doing anything meaningful and when she asked me questions I answered with answers that made no sense to what she asked.
Both episodes really only lasted about 2hrs in total and I 'came to' reality about 4 times, but only for like 30 seconds, not even enough time for me to work out what I was doing and do something about it like take some extra meds.
The episodes were 5 days apart.


When do you next see your psychologist?
At the moment thanks to these episodes I am finding it almost impossible to leave the house as my auditory and visual hallucinations have become extremely intrusive so she is ringing me each week and we have a phone call instead.

And, does your psychiatrist know it may be a emergency?
Yes unfortunately he is on leave.

Have you started or stopped any medications recently?
Nope nothing new or stopped, I take a pretty complicated set of meds so maybe something has stopped working as per normal.
Hello!!

I wanted to ask you about the auditory and visual hallucinations. Are those flashbacks or related to psychosis/schizophrenia?

Also, I would look into dissociative fugue in particular and dissociation in general.

I am sorry you are struggling. Sending lots of love?
 
Hello!!

I wanted to ask you about the auditory and visual hallucinations. Are those flashbacks or related to psychosis/schizophrenia?

Also, I would look into dissociative fugue in particular and dissociation in general.

I am sorry you are struggling. Sending lots of love?

The drs think the hallucinations are trauma induced, my brain found a way to keep going, for me its mainly bugs and shadows, and auditory ones are conversations just out of earshot.
I have never had any psychosis and am not schizophrenic.

Thanks for the hugs, :)
 
The drs think the hallucinations are trauma induced, my brain found a way to keep going, for me its mainly bugs and shadows, and auditory ones are conversations just out of earshot.
I have never had any psychosis and am not schizophrenic.

Thanks for the hugs, :)
I am sorry you are dealing with that, on top of PTSD. Have you looked into Dissociative fugue and OSDD?
 
I am sorry you are dealing with that, on top of PTSD. Have you looked into Dissociative fugue and OSDD?

No I haven't but I will have a google tonight when the kiddo is in bed.
I think why I am finding this hard as its a new symptom and the last new symptom was over 3 years ago.
 
It is very stressful and overwhelming when something new presents. You're not alone in that. I'm glad you reached out here.
 
The drs think the hallucinations are trauma induced, my brain found a way to keep going, for me its mainly bugs and shadows, and auditory ones are conversations just out of earshot.
You're using the word 'hallucinations' - that's typically associated with psychosis.

But from your posts, it sounds like what you're calling 'hallucinations', perhaps you mean flashbacks..? Ones that are very real and intrusive when they occur?

I agree that this is something that you should be getting in front of your pdoc asap. If you're on psychotropic medication, it may be as simple as tweaking that. But it sounds like it's a potentially very unsafe, and no doubt extremely distressing, thing to experience.

If you can, keep it simple till you see your pdoc. Healthy food, plenty of sleep, healthy routine, good distracting activities. Keeping function as regulated as you can.
 
unfortunately he is on leave.
Not sure what country you're writing from...often, there will be a different psychiatrist left as an on-call for emergencies. If there were one, it's worth considering seeing them. Otherwise, as @Sideways said - keeping everything very simple, as low-stress and routine oriented as you possibly can.
I take a pretty complicated set of meds so maybe something has stopped working as per normal.
It will help you talk this through with your psychiatrist to try and start keeping a daily log - make note of any new symptoms, how your mood is doing in general, how much sleep you're getting, when you're taking your meds, etc. And if there have been any inconsistencies in your health regimen going back the last month, make some notes on that as well.

It's understandable to be frightened. What you want to do is keep your stress levels down as much as you can, until you can see your prescriber.
 
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