What happens during a psychotic break? Do you need to go to the hospital? Or do you simply need someone by your side? Or, maybe, you can manage by yourself?
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Depends on the person/situation/severity. Usually you go to the hospital if you are a danger to yourself or others.
Having the support of someone is nice, but the situation determines how nice. If I’m thinking EVERYONE is part of some secret plan, I’m not going to want support from anyone because I generally think I’m being manipulated by them. However, sometimes when the paranoia is not as strong or all encompassing, I’m able to trust my wife enough for her to be my rock/anchor.
Finally, being by yourself while psychotic could lead to a downward spiral that makes things worse and worse until you become a danger to yourself or others…or it could work itself out and run out of steam in a matter of hours/days/weeks/months/years. Even so, it’s possible to maintain enough insight to keep it together enough so it’s not dangerous, just a horrible experience.
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You lose sense of logic and the collective reality, you may experience paranoia or odd beliefs to those around you called delusions, these may cause you to behave oddly, you may experience auditory, visual, tactile (touch), Gustatory (taste) and olfactory hallucinations which encourage the delusions. You only see or observe things in the world around you (so television, radio, newspapers, behaviours of others etc) that add or confirm the delusions which can lead to isolating yourself. This is not always the case, also prevalent is thought disorder which is disorganised thinking and speech.
There are many other factors and each person is different but one thing I must say is it mustn’t go untreated get the person you’re enquiring about or yourself if you suspect a psychosis to a doctor, emergency room if urgent as if untreated you can become a danger to yourself or others if not urgent it may not need hospital but it needs treatment and the support of others, often medication and significant therapy is needed; my initial psychotic breaks went untreated and even though I’m med compliant now and receiving cbt I still get strong positive symptoms and after effects from my breaks five years ago, if I had been properly treated then I may be completely symptom free, I may have not been but I would have had a better chance of a full recovery whereas now I may have symptoms for life.
The support of others around you is significant it helps to be around people you can talk to and be understanding of their behaviour and thoughts, have an open mind as when I became unwell everyone ran away other than my parents even my other family ran so stick by them, and stick near to people if its you you’re enquiring about.
If you have any other questions please ask, take care of yourself, Meg.
the first time i was “unwell” i didn’t trust my husband, the second time i didnt trust the nurses or patients, the third time i didn’t trust anyone at all. it was terrifying. but i did come out of it eventually. i still don’t understand fully how they did it to make it last for so long tbh. but it worked anyway. the key thing i think is to trust the people around u, not what u believe to b true. difficult i know but it’s the best thing for a positive outcome i think.
Thanks to all.
I was wondering…during the psychotic break how do you really feel? Can’t you tell to yourself “those things are not real” or “I already experienced it before and the people around me helped me and I know they’re right when they say it’s only on my mind?”.
I hope to have made myself clear, I just want to understand!!
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The hospital is a last resort for me. When talking or medication or self-control does not work and I feel like I am going to lose my mind, then it is hospital time. But not a minute before that.Some people go in way before that, as a pre-emptive strike I always call it.They go in for a rest before things reach a head. I’ve never done that. Their way is probably better, but for me, every time I enter a hospital I get worse before I get better. I don’t know why, but as soon as I get in I deteriorate. All I want to do is sleep, it’s my only way to escape my mental pain. But some hospitals discourage people from staying in their rooms and sleeping all day. But hospitals are boring. So I disobey them. In one hospital, they locked me out of my room so I couldn’t go in to sleep. So I layed down on the floor in front of the door!! That just made them mad.
How rude 
I think every patient should feel free to do what he/she wants, so if you wanted to sleep…well, they could just let you!
So, if you go to the hospital because you feel you’re losing your mind, once you get there you can still have the psychotic break or they can prevent it?
Never. I don’t quite understand it myself but for some reason every time I get in a hospital I go downhill. It MAY be because they change my medication.The prevailing theory in hospitals is (or used to be) that they heavily medicate some people who come in and are in bad shape. I don’t think they help me when I’m psychotic, they just mask the symptoms until it runs its course.
So why do you keep going?
Because that is the help that is offered.I haven’t been hospitalized since 1990. But my first series of hospitalizations in 1980 I was 19 and I let my parents put me in. I was legally an adult but I couldn’t take care of myself and I needed help. Doctors told my parents i needed to be hospitalized and I just went along with the program. I went along with whatever they told me. I was depending on my parent’s so I did what they said. It was a lot easier to get into a hospital back then then it is now. My next series of hospitalizations was a relapse I had when I was in my late twenties, in the late 80’s. Stress and a bad crack addiction probably were two big factors in my relapse. I was hospitalized for 4 or 5 times in rapid succession for several days at a time in each case. I was living on my own and checked myself into various hospitals because that’s all I knew. The prevailing treatment for psychotic breaks was hospitalization. So I did what I knew. If I get psychotic again and all there is is hospitals I will go again. If they can treat me without being hospitalized or they come up with a new treatment or alternative to hospitalization I will do it. But until then, it’s hospitals in an emergency. But back 20 years ago, if you got sick, you were hospitalized.
I see, it’s understandable. So it’s a long time you didn’ t become psychotic? No hallucinations nor delusions? Do you live by yourself?
I live by myself. I have plenty of delusions, no hallucinations. People tell me I am doing good but I went through a rough patch a couple days ago. Today is good. I made a batch of lasagna that I will be eating off of for a few days. Earlier I took my sisters dog for a walk and exchanged pleasantries with a neighbor who was sitting on her porch.She said I looked cute walking a dog! I’m not doing enough, I could be doing more.
What’s a delusion exactly?
Don’t push yourself. I have OCD and is about 4 years I don’t have a social life besides my family and it’s difficult for me to think to get a job, friends and stuff…but it’s not necessary to force yourself to do always more. You walked the dog? Good, it’s a good point and you have to be proud of it. Maybe tomorrow you’ll do a longer walk or you’ll hang out with somebody so be always proud of yourself!
(sorry of my bad english is not my language ^^’)
During my first psychotic break, i was working at a big name retail store and i started hearing voices and i thought i was being hunted by my coworkers. So i hid in the back clothes racks and didn’t trust anyone who tried to get me out. I came out on my own eventually and was fired. I didn’t receive help from doctors until months later. The only person i was convinced out never hurt me was my partner. She was able to talk me into going to the hospital. I didn’t trust the doctors, nurses or patients. I even set a booby trap on my door so i can wake up when the door opened.
I see. Then did you have other psychotic breaks? Luckily you could trust your partner, at least you weren’t totally alone!
The act or process of deluding.
#1 The state of being deluded.
#2 A false belief or opinion.
#3 A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness.
delusions of persecution.
Examples of delusions common in schizophrenia are thinking you’re God. Or that the FBI has planted a chip under your skin. Or that cameras are planted in your home. Or that everybody is against you. I’m sure you’ve seen these or similar ones on this site.
Yeah i had other breaks, but they weren’t as severe as my first one. The second one, i had to be hospitalized again. They wouldn’t let me rig my alarm system so i can wake up when they opened my door. I didn’t even trust my parents when i was psychotic, i thought they were poisoning me.
It must have been really painful Then what’s happened that made you think your parents didn’t want to poison you?
Yep I saw something like that. So, how can I help a schizophrenic who believes that the FBI is chasing him or tell him that nobody planted nothing under his skin?
Unfortunately the nature of some delusions is that you can offer evidence to the sufferer that he is wrong but he will not believe you. Or in some cases he will agree that you’re right but he will still believe in his delusion. I’ve been told a million times that other drivers are not bothering me, but one tailgater will amp up my paranoia and I think everybody is bothering me. There’s a certain method to talking to people about their delusions which I can’t think of now. But arguing that he/she is wrong or getting mad usually does not help.