Brief psychotic experiences

Hi there,

I'm pretty new here but I'm glad to have found these forums. I have found peer support so helpful.

I'm also pretty new to the idea that I have mental health issues I have to "manage" in an ongoing sense. I've always (wrongly) seen my depression, anxiety and OCD as kind of discrete episodes of illness which I then recovered from.

But last year I was diagnosed with Bipolar (psychiatrist not sure which yet) after realising many of the times in my life I felt really productive and happy were actually hypomanias. Lots of projects, racing thoughts, unusual energy etc. Feeling like I am awesome at everything!

Anyways, at the end of last year I went through a horrible "mixed" episode where I went from the blackest of moods in the morning to euphoria by the afternoon. Total mess at work. This lasted for weeks before I then had an experience where I couldn't decipher writing, couldn't talk in proper sentences and had trouble making decisions. Everything looked unreal-like props in a movie. It was terrifying and weird. So I went to the emergency department and ended up in the acute ward. They said it was likely psychosis associated with bipolar.

The thing is, it only lasted two days and then I was back to normal. It has since happened twice more, each time only lasting a couple of days. I can't pinpoint any causes other than in the days before I have been extremely tired and very irritable.

I should add that I was on medication when the first episode happened and after my adventures in the psych ward, I'm now on other medications with very low doses at night).

My main question for anyone kind enough to read this is, have you experienced these strange brief psychotic episodes? Is there anything you do to manage or prevent them. I just can't find much talk about this at all-most people's description of their psychotic symptoms seems to follow the more typical path.

Thanks in advance!