Which are the difference between the first psychotic episode and the other the following psychotic episodes?
in my experience following psychotic episodes have more severe symptoms and strong, have a longer duration and respond more slowly and hardly to drugs?you agree with me or not?
The first was pretty bad but after that it seems that my brain got acclimated to my defense mechanisms and worked its way around those mechanisms so the later episodes were significantly worse.
My first was bad like @petester but nothing compared to the second…i kind’ve learned not to drive my car 60 mph through rush hour traffic weaving in and out of traffic during the rainstorm going through red lights and passing people…the third and fourth were probably worse but i was smarter about it
the last one took the longest to recover from though
I’ve been through I guess five psychotic episodes. They just got worse. This last one started in 2002. I’m still struggling with the symptoms of it but almost recovered. A long never ending life of illness.
I was having problems when I was young… I was seeing and hearing things fully when I was 8 and 9.
Little by little they got worse and worse. I had a bad break down one night at 15 that SHOULD have put me in hospital… but somehow didn’t.
Then I just got more extreme… there was no middle ground with me anymore… emotions were extreme… mood was extreme… reactions were extreme… and I started drugs by then… in hopes of leveling out…
The one that landed me in hospital was pretty huge and scary as well. The cops were involved. It took me almost a year to get myself remotely level after that. I was in for a long time and back a few times after that.
In my later 20s… there were some bad ones… but they didn’t last as long. Now I do still have some glitches and break through symptoms here and there… no were near as scary or lasting as long.
I credit meds… therapy… and getting older and learning how to cope better.
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I managed to get to see a doctor before my last got out of hand. That was only because I was struggling to function at work it was getting so bad. You can avoid hospital if you just speak up and let people know when things are getting bad again. For me it’s a gradual deterioration and then suddenly I almost black out and wind up in hospital again after being missing for a few days. It can be avoided.
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Can I get an Amen to that one. The sad thing is… it took me a long time to learn that.
Get the help in place and ask for it when things are starting to slide.
I had a gradual onset to my first episode, I was delusional and having some hallucinations, I was brewing basically. I was admitted to hospital because I had lost some insight and was planning on serious self harm. The hospital dosed me up to max dose olanzapine and as I didn’t respond to treatment they took me off it too quick and bam! My major one, I lost any grip on reality I had and to be fair have never really gained it back. I manage most of the time before I get too stressed and lose insight with new delusion or the same background delusions amplified with new evidence. I slid downhill from August last year until I erupted in January it was the most acutely psychotic I’ve been since My first explosion. I find my episodes can’t compare to my first but they’re equally overwhelming when I’m lost in them and I take ages to come out of them. My meds get me out the initial blip, get me out of the horror that could wind me in hospital but I still have residual horror for quite some time after.
I can’t compare, they’re all horrible. I hope as I get older they’ll become less damage inflicting. But I think in my case it may not be so, I’ll never say never though. But I will do my best, keep talking, do anything, try anything they offer, whilst working within myself too.
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What happens is up-regulation of dopamine receptors due to the effects of antipsychotics on the flow of dopamine. We make more receptors in response to having dopamine levels dramatically lowered, so when the new surge of dopamine happens (episode number two) we are more prone to going nuts.
Abilify works by increasing dopamine and therefore causing down-regulation of dopamine receptors, which makes the overall received amount of dopamine less.
Or at least that is what a professor at school said a month ago.
My second episode happened when I was on a low dose of risperidone and my pdoc wouldn’t do a thing about it.
For me, each episode of psychosis I endure gets a little worse each time. Getting sick of this shiat.
I’ve only had a kind of semi-psychosis after my first major episode, so I can’t really say. Thanks for the tip that later episodes are likely to be worse.
Has anyone here been unmedicated between episodes? I’d love to know if that makes a difference.