When my son’s anxiety was really high his pupils would widen greatly. This also happened when he was having hallucinations. And we began to recognize hallucinations and their onset by his pupil dilation.
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One person recently asked a question related to this on fb. I couldn’t believe how many replies! Wow…I find validation when I don’t expect to. For me…it was, well, surprising.
Question: what signs do you see that tell you the person is starting to have a break?
Response after response, most with only two words:
“the eyes”
Some people described darkness, dialation or blinking.
Wow…
this is just another reason why parents need to talk to one another about this dx.
Thanks everyone…
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I didn’t really realize what I was dealing with when my husband’s psychosis hit so I didn’t take notice of that aspect. However I do find it very interesting, I have daughters (3) that were diagnosed with ADHD when young and their eyes all were largely dilated when off of medications. Interesting that SZ has that similar eye reaction. I wonder if there are other mental illnesses in which this is true.
My sons eyes have always given him away too. I remember reading that during a state of psychosis, the Automatic Nervous System is triggered and the “fight or flight” response is activated which can result in dilated pupils, which could explain the mania response as well. I can always tell if he is anxious by the size of his pupils.
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Yeeesss! It’s been really weird and unsettling for me to see. Huge black eyes.
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Yup - that is all I can say.
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My mothers eyes change color when she is in certain episodes. When she’s well her eyes are a pale blue , during certain episodes her eyes turn to a blue green. Ppl don’t believe me but I have vivid memories of this as a child.
IMy son attacked me with a knife during his second break. One of the vivid memories of that night were his eyes- dark and blazing at the same time. In hindsight (!) his eyes were the giveaway and I didn’t recognize that.
My mother had bipolar one and her eyes changed when she had psychosis. I remember being terrified to look in her eyes even when she was alright. Her regular looking eyes always seemed scary to me because I thought they could change any second.
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Yes !! I understand… I still go through this with mom. Although I am grown , those inner fears that have developed during childhood are still very present. Learning to deal with moods in those around me can be quite unsettling , I guess due to the extreme personality changes I have endured.
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I have seen that look too many times to count. Huge very black almost dead eyes. No light or brightness in them. They almost dont look real. Very eerie to me and sometimes evil looking. All this when things are going very bad and in psychosis state. I have seen catatonic state and very similar eyes also. Oh and his vision is better than mine. Interesting! I never thought how similar th e dilation was
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hello, ways to make eyes look bigger. Very helpful to the must attractive eyes to make.
My brother gets the exact way you are describing. When he is in a manic episode his pupils fully dilate and his head has a slight tremor to it and when he talks it’s very shaky and loud. His eyes will look completely black.
I have been diagnosed with skitzoeffective, and my eyes dialate like that when I’m nearing the the end of the month approaching my shot, or If I stop getting meds. Honestly from my perspective I’ll notice my eyes look like that and I actually think its kind of cool. Its deffinitely a sign of mania or psychosis, but in my particular case I’m usually at a state of hyper clarity and awareness, and find myself not being depressed like usual, and invested into my hobbies and playing my guitar and writing music. Then I get my shot and crash and get suicidal and my pupils get smaller than normal. Usually in my case people often annoy the crap out of me telling me how unstable I am and that I’m wacked out of my mind, but most of it is often placebo because you look different to them, so I’ll try to explain that I’m calm and not having any delusions and tbh, most of the people around me seem like they are the ones acting stupid or crazy about it and overreacting. Some people have full blown delusions and dont have any grip on reality, but for me I usually just reach a state of hyperawareness or even enlightenment. You cant really explain how your thoughts work to someone who doesnt have those experiences, they will never be able to comprehend it, not even psychiatrists. That’s why so many people fight being controlled and medicated, because in some cases the effects of mania are highly desired, especially in people who spend there lives disabled from antipsychotics.
Hi Jordan, Thank you for writing this and helping us understand what you go through.
I am the person who became afraid her mother’s eyes. This happened after she beat me badly enough to break my collar bone. I was four years old and had no way of understanding that she was very ill when she did this. My mother died by suicide when I was in my teens.
I get what you are saying and I understand that what my mother did, the majority of people with these ililnesses do not do. The only time I think “control” should be taken over a person with SMI is when they are endangering themselves or other people. I believe in voluntary treatment and social support, with or without medication.
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I agree, sometimes hospitization is necessary. But I’ve never been violent in that respect, I’ve only had suicidal thoughts. The most prominent “episode” I’ve had was beleiving myself to be a God, but little could anyone understand that I set myself out to do so intentionally through magickal practice and alchemy. My family are all Christian, so they could never understand how someone could be mentally healthy and practice anything other than christianity. So now I’m so depressed on medication that I litterally cant even have a religion. It’s been a lifes pursuit of knowledge for me on many different subjects because I didn’t have a good experience at school and didnt get an interest in learning untill later in life, nore did I have the freedom to explore religion for myself untill I was an adult. I’ve been living a life that I cant choose for myself since birth, and I’m 26 years old. Every time I try to leave home they lock me I’m the hospital and no one believes anything you say in there.
I am so sorry. I can’t even think of anything else to write. What a terrible way to be treated.
Hello there, my boyfriend was officially diagnosed with schizophrenia soon after we got together and I’m here to tell you that it is totally spiritual and demonic- please hear me out. My boyfriend had to go through multiple deliverances and still is not completely free but when we first got together, I didn’t see the color of his eyes for 2 weeks.
(Mind you, when we met he was not in the best place. He was in an “episode” as him mom said and she wanted him hospitalized and during this same time. And had just given his life to Jesus in this same time too!) One morning though, they weren’t dilated and I gasped at the color of them and it scared me, I realized what had been going on before then… he was completely overtaken my evil spirits.
So after that, God revealed to me that it was spiritual (I said nothing to my man, only observed for confirmation.) I would watch periodically them blow up, his pupils fully dilate, he stares blankly at me, eyes wide open and the way he talks will change, it will be faster and more monotone. And it scared me, even after everything I’ve seen! I wouldn’t say anything still but I’d watch him start praying and then they’d be normal!!! Now today we’re on the same page and I can call it out and same thing, he commands the spirit to leave in Jesus name and then boom, normal. This happens less & less as he grows closer to Christ.
We don’t understand it all completely yet, but we trust in the power of God and in His timing. Do not be afraid, deliverance is like going to the dr! When I got with my boyfriend God told me right away he was dealing with that the word calls schizophrenia and that He would deliver my boyfriend, I just needed to pray and trust Him. I hope this encourages some… I made an account just to post this 
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Im not sure how long ago you posted about your bf, but how are things now? My son was diagnosed with sz and Im wondering the same. I can see when he changes. I took a picture of him and I zoomed in on his eyes and one was shaped quite differently from the other. The pupil in the one shaped differently even had almost a rectangle shape and it seemed like something else was in that eye looking. Also when he was 1st diagnosed, he hated when I said anything about God or played any music referencing God. Im afraid to take him off his medicine bc whenever he stops taking it he gets very violent. Ive always wondered what the difference or is there a difference between mental illness and demonic possession. Ive prayed and aive asled him to pray for himself. Also, I know he sees things that are scary to him but he wont describe to me what he sees. Ive thought about saging his room and the house. Im at a loss bc the medicine makes him calmer but has never stopped him from seeing whatever he sees and hears. He argues with the voices alot. They tell him negative things about himself and others. Im rambling but very curious on what you’ve noticed since your post.
Good evening!
First of all, I want to say please do not try to sage his room, that is not a godly practice- it’s actually a witchcraft practice (my sister was an ex witch/satanist) I promise that would only make things worse for your whole household. That being said :
My boyfriend has been doing way better since he takes his meds regularly and found one that didn’t have other side effects. He actually gets a once a month injection now. He still has symptoms but he is functional. I rarely see his eyes go black anymore but when I do, same thing, I tell him and he prays and they go back to normal and he comes back to me.
So this is what we’ve learned and think we know and what I’ve explained to my boyfriend…. Yes this is spiritual but it manifests in the physical still. My boyfriend thought it wasn’t schizophrenia at all and so did I for a bit, we thought there was nothing wrong with his actual brain & It was actually multiple demons living in him, “ disguising” themselves as a mental illness and that’s why there were multiple evil voices. After studying the Bible, i explained to him that it is mental illness… caused by the demonic. The schizophrenia is there, the imbalance of serotonin is there… the needs for meds is there, but it is definitely spiritual & I believe God can heal him & if he doesn’t, he will use this to help others. Anyways- The example I gave him was the time Jesus casted out an epileptic demon out of a little boy…… I explained to him that in this situation, the little boy had a demon- we know that. But yet the only way we know that, besides Jesus telling us, is the boy has seizures. The demon that was in him did something to the boys brain which caused him to have seizures. We believe schizophrenia is what the drs say it is, an imbalance of chemicals (serotonin) but the cause of it is known to us we believe. (Matthew 17)
Praying for you & your son. If he’s comfortable & you are, I would confront the demon itself when you know it’s manifesting and demand it leave in Jesus name, see what happens. Make sure you’re looking into his eyes. Otherwise, ignore it and go into prayer or just start speaking words of love & truth to your son. You can’t reason with a demon, but the Bible says that truth and the word of God PIERCES through. It is literally a weapon. Jesus spoke to the fig tree, cursed it and it withered and died. There is power in our tongue
That’s my own advice. Obviously God knows better than I do and I’m praying he guides you to the right approach 
let me know if you have any questions please!!! My personal email is julien3615@icloud.com
Cierra Balk