Partner suffering drug induced psychosis

Hey @gs2001 ,

That sounds so tough - as though this person is no longer the one you knew before.

What I found comfort in was saying to myself that it's not them speaking, but their mental illness.

Psychosis is scary at any point. Reality blends with that which is imagined. The hardest part is paranoia. It can hurt loved ones immensely.

It's so important you also get support at this point. Do you have people to support you at this time?

In my experience, psychosis doesn't make you inhuman or 'not there'. It just means your story is complicated. Your brain is firing a bunch of signals because something - or a bunch of compounding - weird, stressful things happened to you. You can't resolve the inner conflict so you're either kind of numb or all over the place giving conflicting signals, trying 'creative' things. You feel like you can't speak things directly and are talking 'around' things because nobody will listen directly. Sequencing behaviours and words into meaningful patterns that are comprehensible to others can be difficult.

I can't speak for him, though. What happened when you tried to talk? How did you approach him? How were you seeing him at the time? It sounds very difficult and complicated.

For me, I had to drop the story and focus on back to basics a bit. Slowly, I managed to make more sense of what happened. I am probably better off than before and better at expressing myself.

You can feel kind of uncomfortable from medications. It can be hard to communicate this. Hospital is a weird environment and you will probably get mixed feelings about authorities and everybody around you and society itself if they held you down with security guards and put needles in your bum. Or of they gave you medications that made you feel awful and said it was for your own good. It's weird. Really weird.

It can make you feel like everyone wants you to just act normal and play a role they are comfy with but without caring for you. That wellness is a bunch of boxes to tick.

Psychosis is highly contextual, and individual. It also puts you in situations that compound the confusion, the disorganisation or the alienation from others. So not only do you have whatever led up to the episode to comprehend, but you have to comprehend this leading to you being sectioned - invalidated.

Sometimes you can be 'acting' normal or you are subdued or under less stress. Sometimes you might find a connection to a relationship, story or situation that makes sense. Sometimes the situation is just normal. The role assigned to you is just good and conducive to sanity.

I think the doctors and nurses are probably right in that you should give it time. He's already 'come to' a bit but being drugged, then drugged again in a psych ward is just damn weird to go through. You are describing someone who sounds agitated and alienated.

How much of the broken trust or paranoia is the drug and how much is it the aftermath or other stuff?

All in all, you know him best. He'll just have to come to his senses and form relationships with the world and his body and mind again, that make sense and are meaningful. It's not a life sentence.

Also, it's drug induced. There's a good prognosis.

I have no idea what he, you or the circumstance and history is really like, though.

Just sounds like the med reduction might've been a bit drastic or that something about being outside the hospital triggered him.

Hi @fruitshop24hrs @gs2001 @MamaG ,

How is everyone? Thank you for your contributions. It was very helpful to read.

At the same time, I want to check-in with you.