What was the first sign of mental illness you had?

My first sign was getting very confused, disassociated and paranoid while in nursing school. And deluded. I thought I was Florence Nightingale reincarnated. I was also having sense of smell hallucinations.

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Thankfully I had a normal childhood. It wasn’t until I was about 19 when I had the first signs of mental illness. I would drive about 30 minutes to college every day and 30 minutes back. Along the way I would listen to radio stations. Well my first sign of mental illness occurred when I thought I was hearing the DJ in the studio talking during a song. I thought I could hear them just chatting about mundane stuff. Eventually, I started breaking down mentally. I remember I’d tell my friend that I was he expecting hearing them. She couldn’t. Years later I’ve realized I was just hearing voices. It felt like I was hearing other frequencies.

My first sign was getting hypomanic and studying personality disorders very obsessively. I learned alot but then it descended into delusions of grandeur and intense ideas of reference. The descent into psychosis was very gradual for me but then picked up massive speed. Before I knew it I was being committed into a mental hospital. I really am not able to be out in public if I am in my full manic psychosis

I was 16 and I watched The Shining and it terrified me, because it was about craziness. A few months later I started hearing lots of voices.

Paranoia as a child. The movie Chucky really made it worse.

I was 18 and going to college in another town, staying in dorms.
I would not sleep and hear voices and walk at 3-4 am in the morning throw the town,
I also had panic attack when I was going to classes.
I quit eventually because it was to much stress and got a even more stressful job which send me to the hospital on the new year eve, a few hours before midnight

I was happy and stable as a kid until i was 8. At that point we moved, i entered a new class with some boys with huge behavioral issues and i was sexually abused by a family member. I got a bit anxious and upset and refused to go to school. My mum couldnt really handle that well. I was tested and the school inspection came to school. They said i was normal but the school was not. They didnt know about the abuse, i didnt tell. They didnt do anything. But it was the first sign and the moment in which help would have made the biggest difference - if i would have spoken about what happened in the family. After about a year i got better again, but something was changed.

Prodromal phase: Extreme confusion. Thought disorder. Mood swings. Sensitivity to light and sound.

We had some damaged street lights and sometimes they’d blink when I was around and I thought they were directly blinking because of some energy I had.

I had that belief 2 years before I got any negative symptoms. It was benign and I wasn’t hearing voices yet and had no cognitive problems.

I am sorry you didn’t speak up. I think that my parents knew about my issues, but they didn’t get me help. They certainly knew I had extreme emetophobia (fear of vomit), but they did nothing about it. Once, a boy threw up near me in my 1st grade classroom (the teacher hadn’t noticed yet), and I skirted the perimeter of the room, passed the befuddled teacher, and locked myself in the girls’ bathroom. They had to call my mother and have her come to the school to get me out. My parents had to fight to get me in a car with my sister because she had gotten carsick a couple of times, and I was terrified she would again. I would press myself into the door, holding onto the handle, and pray over and over, “Please don’t let anyone get sick”. I had nightmares about people getting sick. I remember the name of every student, first and last, who got sick in school in front of me, but I can’t recall all of my teachers’ names. Yet my parents didn’t get me help. And that wasn’t my biggest issue!

My first signals were in my early years of college, when I isolated myself from all my friends and girlfriend. I had no idea it was a sign of mental illness, and then later came the depression and apathy. Eventually I would have a psychotic break, and get diagnosed with sz at age 26

i’m diagnosed schizo affective disorder.

i was about 5 years old and new something wasn’t right with me. didn’t respond, behave and think like most people did and even those in my family (some of them are way different than other people). no hallucinations of any kind.

i was neglected and abused quiet a bit growing up so i tried the best i could to make others aware of what was going on with me at different points in my life but it was hard to explain it (like it is today).

puberty was a pain in the butt and everyone didn’t know what to think about me going through it. committed suicide in my later teens and was finally put on meds and introduced to my first therapist right after that.

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