Psychotic Episodes after Meth

Psychotic Episodes After Meth...

Have many, If any, of you suffered psychotic episodes after the meth use was over?

My daughter 'lost it' the other night. Seemed to be VERY high, was agitated, dilusional, frightened and made absolutely no sense. We had to take her to the E-hospital where they sedated her, drew blood and urine samples,(tested both negative...), did C.T. scans to rule out any brain injuries, tuomors or anurisms...NOTHING!

I was told by the on-call Psychiatrist that these kinds of 'episodes' can crop up from time to time and can happen even for the rest of her life. It seems she could have a chemical disorder; 'self-medicating' with meth was suspected after she ended up in the hospital in August. A disorder of that sort will be more difficult to diagnose, I was told, because of the meth use.

So tomorrow to her Pediatrician to check her out. She flew off a flight of stairs tyring to run from the hospital and had stuck a needle through her lip in an attempt to 'self-peirce'. I also want to see if she will need a few more anti-anxiety tabs, (they gave us four to get us through), until we can get Psychiatic care. She obviously has some mental health issues going on now. I'ts very scary.

YA KNOW...frigging meth. I swear...

I've been wondering though if the psychotic episode she had in August was an indication of a bigger problem that was just 'enhanced' by the meth use.

Any takers on this?

Umm,

I just wanted to say...

Schitzophrenia and meth use are really.. really interesting in their similarities. Therefor amphetamine psychosis is so very hard to tell from schitzophrenia...

The issue is further confused by the fact that not everyone can get amphetamine psychosis in my experience. Some people do and some people don't and if you're someone who does it will usually first manifest in the first few months of use.

I personally (and I am not a doctor.. ) believe that amphetamine psychosis is a different brain chemistry imbalance from schitzophrenia.. because my brother has been diagnosed with acute schitzophrenia... and if he uses pot he goes nuts. However... He used meth once.. could sleep that night whatever.. and he stayed sane. I was surprised. When I found out someone had let him use meth.. I was ready to kill them.. but luckily he was okay.

From talking to people.. I would say that anything your daughter has is a treatable condition and that yes.. it is actually reasonably common that once someone is in a psychotic episode even after they stop using their brain doesnt get better automaticly.

Just posting what I know. I hope it helps.

Yes, some folks do have psychotic episodes after the meth use stops. A lot of it depends on the person's individual brain chemistry. The good news is that for most people, (in my uneducated experience), the symptoms go away over time. But not always.

I remained mildly psychotic for months after I quit using. In fact, I think I am still recovering from that. What has helped me tremendously is my Crystal Meth Anonymous meetings, where the absolute vast majority of participants have experienced serious paranoia and/or psychosis. People are able to speak more freely about their experiences with stuff like that.

Good luck!

forget
suzette

it sounds like panik attacks too...

try: psych central for disorder quizzes.. pharmoclogy of meth

My friend's ex-wife got what the doctors labeled 'Dilusionary Schizophrenia' after her 9 months of meth use. It happenened suddenly and came on hard; though it happened while she was using. She was basically 'crippled' for the better part of a couple of years; had to live in a recovery type of half-way house, could only handle her kids for a day on the weekends, (willingly gave up custody), could only handle a part time job of a couple of days which the recovery place set her up with. When I'd see her she seemed fine but wasn't. It was very sad.

This is now about maybe 8-9 years ago and now she works full time for my friend's business, (her ex), as his office manager. He owns a machining shop. Funny...she had left him because during the first two years of owning his own business, he 'wasn't home enough to help her'. It was more affordable for them for my friend to work longer days in a new business than to hire on. He did this for his family...to be successful! She was a pampered houewife and mother and chose the exciting life of Meth instead!

Given what has happened, things are going pretty well for her, it just took a while.

Brief Psychotic Disorder
SYMPTOMS
Brief Psychotic Disorder is characterized by the presense of one or more of the following symptoms:

Delusions

Hallucinations

Disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence)

Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
Duration of an episode of brief psychosis is at least one day but less than one month, with eventual full return to previous level of functioning.

The disturbance is not better accounted for by a Mood Disorder With Psychotic Features, Schizoaffective Disorder, or Schizophrenia and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition.

That's what my daughter had to the 'T'! It lasted from friday evening to even a bit this morning, but my ex-husband gave her one of the Zantac/Zanax? Not sure which name. I'm not going to give her one until she feels a bit 'weird' says before she 'can't remember anything' she felt a bit wobbly and lightheaded.

She seems pretty back to normal tonight. Should I be aware of anything happening again right now?

Today we will go to her pediatrician just for a follow-up and to talk with him. Found out Psychiatry isn't as easy as just a call. The 'Acess Team'from a mental health association has to call, do an interview with Jacklyn and myself and they will determine the route we will take. I will though on my own start today looking into who is available through our insurance though I have a name of a doctor that my friend uses.

Seems that Doctors can't refer for mental health because of insurance reasons; they now have different insurance for mental health purposes...thought it was just our insurance that had a differign mental health carrier. I don't know if this is a National thing...?

Wish us luck through all of this.

Call your insurance company and ask them what THEY want you to do. Hey, Insurance companies know a LOT more than some stupid doctor, right? Seriously, though, call them and see if they have a preferred providers list unless you want to pay out of pocket.

The whole insurance company "Utilization Review" crap makes me want to puke. Insurance companies routinely dictate treatment today - not physicians. Where I work, the nurse who does Utilization Review makes a LOT more money than the one who actually cares for the patients. Fortunately, though, I work in a public hospital so mostly our doctors don't give a rat's azz about what the insurance companies want - most of our patients don't have Blue Cross!

We're back. Dr. had her fill out some questionaires and we had a chat and it was decide that, yes, this does seem as if it CAN be a bi-polar issue. Drew some more blood and got a urine sample to do a chemistry panel; it's been since spring of '05 since we had a blood panel done. This was because she was having some behavior issues back then. No drugs in her system back then , but obviously there was an issue brewing.

GREAT,huh?

SO...now onto the insurance co., AGGRESSIVELY Dr. says, or we may have to wait too frigging long to start the process. The meth use makes it harder to diagnose, but he says the shrink will be likely to figure it out, especially since meth, (for a good amount of time), made her function better. She was working better, happier, clearer thinking, good grades, etc...

GREAT,huh?

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this soon enough; I want my daughter back...

The summer of 1995, I had lost my step-son, my husband left me for another woman, my son graduated high school and moved away to college, and I decided to quit using and get my life together.

August, 1995, after 11 years of meth addiction and another one full year of heavy use, daily, multiple times per day, I tried to quit. I didn't use for almost one week.

Then, I had these two "episodes", because I don't know what else to call them. They were strange. They happened within 24 hours of each other, on a weekend, and lasted a few hours each. I don't know how to describe it. It was as if someone had pulled the plug on me and I was completely out of control. I tore up my house, I destroyed my bedroom, I called my husband and cried and screamed, I wanted to die; that's all I remember. I woke up from each episode thoroughly exhausted, having very little memory of what happened, of how my house got destroyed. I had bruises on me that I couldn't explain, because nobody else was in the house but me. It scared me.

The following Monday, I called my doctor's office and got in to see him. I had always been honest with him about meth. He told me that I was having a nervous breakdown, and prescribed Deseryl (sp?).

For the following month or so, I was an absolute zombie. The pills he gave me, I believed, made me that way. I couldn't function. I was at the store one day writing a check, and I did not go out of my house during this time period unless I absolutely had to, and I went to sign my name at the bottom of the check and I couldn't remember my last name. It never dawned on me to look up and see my printed name at the top of the check. I was embarassed, and mortified at the same time. I just left the store and went home and didn't go out again.

Finally, I called my doctor and told him that I couldn't live like this. I couldn't function. I was a zombie. I asked him if he could change the prescription, but he said that I needed to stay on this medication and allow my body to get used to it. I told him that he either needed to change the prescription to something that didn't make me such a zombie, or I was going to go out and get some dope (meth), so I could wake up. He said if I did that, he would call an ambulance and have me transported to the local mental health hospital. I told him I'd keep taking the prescription, but...

Within a week, I wasn't taking them anymore and I was back on meth. I think maybe this was related to the meth psychosis that you all are taking about.