Potentially excluded from therapy due to psycotic history?

[Marinna]

Hi guys
Recently I have been feeling low and thought that accessing a counselling service would help. During my assesment, the advisor said that a specialist PTSD psycologist worked at the service and has had great success treating trauma. The catch is I have a history of psychosis and he does not feel like he has the expertise to deal with that.
I feel a little frustrated. My ptsd is worse than my psycosis. I need treatment for one and not the other.

Imagine going to your doctors with 2 broken legs. One has become infected and needs to be operated on (ptsd). Would the doctor refuse surgery in order to avoid aggravating the other relatively stable leg (psycosis)?

Am I being unreasonable to be a bit frustrated? My psycosis was caused by my trauma. How can you not treat the cause to avoid aggravating the symptom?

It is not just this one guy. Lots of trauma therapists avoid psycosis like the plague. I imagine it will be difficult and expensive to find one with the relevant 'expertise'. I have not had a psycotic episode in over a year. It is not a part of me. :/ sorry for the rant.

 

[EveHarrington]

It would be unethical if him to try and treat you when your symptoms are outside of his expertise. What he is doing is actually what’s best for you.

 

[Marinna]

It would be unethical if him to try and treat you when your symptoms are outside of his expertise...

Yeah defo. If i was still psycotic I would totally agree.

I didn't actually make it clear in my post (doh) but I last had psycotic symptons over a year ago.

 

[scout86]

My psycosis was caused by my trauma.

Then, maybe, it's not "psychosis" in the usual sense, maybe it's part of the PTSD?

If he feels he can't help you himself, that is what it is. Can they refer you to someone who can? I'd stress to them that you're having problems and you really want help.

 

[Marinna]

Then, maybe, it's not "psychosis" in the usual sense, maybe it's part of the PTSD?

If he feels he can'...

Thank you. Yeah it probably was part of the ptsd. They are trying to refer me elsewhere. Just looks like there will be a long waiting list so I am a little frustrated I suppose.

 

[scout86]

"Long waiting lists" are something that shouldn't exist! I'd keep bugging them and keep stressing that you really want to work on getting better NOW. (Good luck)

 

[Marinna]

"Long waiting lists" are something that shouldn't exist! I'd keep bugging them and keep stressing that...

Thank you. They are trying to be as helpful as possible. The advisor I saw was really great. My problems aren't really urgent, but I will stress that I would like more support. I had exposure T with a therapist before who was not put off by psycosis in the slightest and knew that trauma therapy doesn't nessacarily 'make it worse' or trigger episodes.
Guess I am basing my expectations on her. Other Ts might have a different opinion.

Just hearing briefly that a succesful T with ptsd expertise was available for free and being told that he didn't feel qaulified kinda sucked.

Also when you are psycotic, you are constantly told that every decision made on your behalf is in your best interests. Poison meds? 'Its good for you!'
Forced hospitalisation 'it is good for you!!!'
Can't access a particular T because of his lack of expertise in a different area?
I know it is good for me. Still sucks lol

 

[Justmehere]

Just hearing briefly that a succesful T with ptsd expertise was available for free and being told that he didn't feel qaulified kinda sucked.

I have had the experience of doing a handful of intakes only to be told by a trauma expert therapist didn’t feel they had the skill set to handle my type of trauma. While I respect the decision and I’m glad they don’t want to make things worse, it still is painful to hear. It was really disappointing. I’d think, “why not treat the trauma they can handle?” But of course it doesn’t work that way. Not with types of trauma or having other mental health problems in the mix. It’s not like two broken legs, but one broken brain.

Also when you are psycotic, you are constantly told that every decision made on your behalf is in your best interests.

This happens even without a history of psychosis - and I imagine it happens even more with a history of it too.

Kudos to you that despite it all, you can still see that they mean well and that you are not giving up on hope.

One thing to consider -have they offered anyone to treat you if the psychosis comes back? There was a time I needed treatment for one symptom by one specialist, but they were only willing to do it if I had another provider on the team that was more skilled with other symptoms. Perhaps this team approach could help a new trauma therapist feel more comfortable. I’m not really sure, just a thought.

 

[Marinna]

I have had the experience of doing a handful of intakes only to be told by a trauma expert therapist...

Thank you. This is incredibly helpful. I do have a mental health team 'on standby' to treat psycosis. He is also willing to look over my psych report. So I guess there may be some leeway there. Fingers crossed.

 

[Sweetleaf]

I experienced psychosis in relation to my trauma, too. I was kept from sleeping, basically torture kept me awake, for days and days, and my mind broke from reality. I did free myself from my abuser during that, at least. But, I had to go to the hospital eventually. I was too far gone from reality. They pulled me out of it.

Have you ever had the psychosis return after the trauma ended? It might not be a lifelong sort of issue. It might be something that would require very extreme circumstances to happen.

My therapist and pdoc know that it happened (my therapist is the one who pulled the trigger on sending me to the hospital, I saw her twice the week I freed myself), but neither of them seems to be bothered by it. I think they see it for what it is - something that happened because of extreme circumstances, rather than an ongoing lifelong problem.

 

[Marinna]

I experienced psychosis in relation to my trauma, too. I was kept from sleeping, basically torture ke...

I am so sorry you had to experience that. It seems like our situations are very different though. You (forgive me if this is wrong) had this horrible condition forced on you through torture. Sleep deprivation can cause psychosis in anyone let alone forced sleep deprivation.

My psycosis was more MH related (happened two weeks after trauma) and has reoccured once since through normal everyday stress etc.
Thank god (insert deity of your choice) that you escaped that hell.

 

[Sweetleaf]

MH

What's MH? Sometimes I suck at all these acronyms we use here lol.

Mental health?

Thank god (insert deity of your choice) that you escaped that hell.

Hell is a euphemism for what psychosis was like, at least for me.

I feel sorry that you had to go into it twice. That's horrible. It was f*cking -terrifying- for me. Words cannot describe it. Words don't do that type of horror justice.

Plus having to deal with the fact that it happened, after you recover (which itself is a process lol, felt like my brain was slowly coming back online, and I felt just stupid as hell). People take the fact they can trust their own thoughts and perceptions for granted.

That said, two weeks after your trauma is still pretty tied to your trauma. I could see the potential sleep dep. (dunno if you had any) and other stuff from being all jacked up because of what happened, causing psychosis. I'm glad that you've been free from it for over a year.

It's not even been 4 months for me, since my psychotic episode ended.

I've been afraid of "normal everyday stress" sort of situations sending me back into it, like I worry that if I let myself get too worked up about something, I'll start to go insane. Every time I'm unable to sleep, the fear of psychosis is there. It was the worst, the first time that I wasn't able to sleep after being cured of my psychosis. It's not as bad now, but it's a fear that I still have to deal with every time I'm sleep deprived. With time my fears have gone down some, but they are still very much there. That experience was just too horrible for me to be able to shake off all the fear of it happening again.