It has been many months since I left the hospital and even more since my psychotic break from getting off meds. I still find trouble overcoming the shame of it. It doesn’t help that I have certain friends that still remind me of it because they saw me running around looking psychotic. I was just wondering what strategies have you all done to overcome the shame that accompanies a public psychotic break. Thanks
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For me it took time, and to be honest sometimes I get flashbacks 15 years later that make me cringe. But you have to move on, you can’t take away the past, but it gets easier with time.
Also you were sick, you are not that person when you are well. So it’s like a portal into another dimension that you wouldn’t be in normally.
For me, the shame never goes away, but it gets easier.
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You may be lucky and never get an episode again but if you stop meds it is highly likely you will be back in the hospital soon again! Other than that, you just need to accept that you have an illness and it is not your fault.
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It is very hard to overcome such and incident, but try to remain calm and try to be yourself and talk to those whom are unlikely to be knowledgeable to such things…
Honestly I’d just try to pick up the pieces and make due with what you can by forming strong alliances with those whom will listen to your explanation.
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Thanks guys, it feels nice to talk to people who can relate. It is alienating talking to other luckier people who don’t get psychotic and them knowing about what you did during a psychotic break. I will take your guy’s suggestions to heart
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Be patient with your self and those around you as well.
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Thanks sweldon. I suppose waiting it out and letting the wounds heal is the best thing I can do. I’ll be patient and see what time can do for me
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Be Calm and be yourself 
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I feel a lot of shame but I know that I wasn’t acting like my regular self. I try to surround myself with supportive people and forget the rest. And if my psycho self did anything wrong I try to make amends the best way I can without taking on the guilt.
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Yeah, we can really lose control when we hit psychosis. We shouldn’t feel guilty over losing ourselves as long as we do the best we can to be healthy when we regain the freedom
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I know. Stay strong.
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For the things that were just very embarrassing, I learned to cope by making jokes about them and learning to laugh at myself. “So this one time, I was totally out of my mind, and I thought I could speak Gaelic! I just started spouting gibberish at random strangers, it was so goofy!” Generally, as long as you’re laughing about it, other people will laugh, too. Being able to joke about embarrassing moments made them feel less shameful to me.
For more serious offenses, like abandoning my sister when she needed me, I had to have a serious conversation where I sincerely apologized, explained that I regretted hurting them, and that I now take my meds to hopefully prevent me from ever losing touch with reality that badly again.
But I am fully open with my illness. I live in a progressive city, and work in a non discriminatory field. It may or may not be safe for you to be open about your illness. That’s up to you. This is just how I cope.
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For some reason I didn’t even think of laughing about it. That is a cool idea I’ll do that. Thanks ninjastar. That’s great advice, I appreciate it. I already made sincere apologies for my more serious transgressions when I was in an episode so I suppose all that’s left is to laugh off the rest.
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Some of my funniest party stories are about the goofy crap I did while psychotic. I once spent an entire paycheck on hair bows. I once ended up in New Hampshire somehow, and set a trash can on fire. I have more, but they’re kind of reckless, and I don’t want to appear to glorify poor decisions on here.
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Stay strong! 1515151515151
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I stopped caring about it decades ago. But it turned into being used by relatives to hide behind. If I remind them about some crappy things they’ve done, it’s the “don’tbelievehimhe’snuts” conversation that starts up. Nothing like being used to whitewash a bunch of horrible people. That’s life, I suppose.
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It is good you stopped caring but it sucks we can often be dismissed from relevance by people who don’t understand our conditions. I’m doing my best to not care about my previous mishaps myself. It’s a bit difficult at the moment but it seems to get easier
you can do little. Only let everyone know that it is good. Give them the time to process it. you be fine
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I find talking to my therapist about them helpful. Some times I’m relieved when what I thought was bizarre she found to be fairly normal. At some things I can laugh at myself for others I apologize. Guess what bothers me more than the shame is my faulty perception and the insecurity as to whether I’m reading something right, that’s where talking to my therapist and reality testing come in handy.
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