Mental Health Meth induced schizophrenia

[Dercarter]

So SWIM has been an n off meth addict for 10 years, 3 years clean twice, 1 year here, 6 months there. His father died in front of him unexpectedly and he developed severe anxiety.. prior to this event he had of anything the occasional mild.

SWIM has been doing it on n off again and idk but he has severe delusions out of no where.. something he's never experienced. SWIM will be totally for hours of a high and then be convinced people are after him, someone is plotting on him, stealing from him but it gets so bad he calls the cops and ends up in the hospital. Its severe. And it seems so real in the moment there is no avoiding it. SWIMS best friends help him through it but enemy turn to foe and as it progresses he gets so terrified he can't even doing dial emergency numbers. SWIM takes Xanax (sreet) to suppress but he's starting to see that it is actually what started causing it.

Again he never had this issue for 7 years. Is it bad drugs, or mental health issues from recent trauma that began this unfortunate reaction

 

[mtu mwendawazimu]

What's up @Dercarter,

How long were you awake when these delusions started?

These types of psychotic episodes are not uncommon, so try to ease your mind about it. Obviously meth is a killer drug and it's best to reduce to weed (or sobriety) which has been working for me.

Though maybe trauma played a part. Hard to say.

We don't use SWIM her, but welcome to Bluelight

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

I reckon you got it fairly well as you recognize it

 

[dopamimetic]

Obviously meth is a killer drug and it's best to reduce to weed (or sobriety) which has been working for me.

Personally I wouldn't do weed here, it can both exacrebate psychotic symptoms as well as anxiety - unless of course you know and tolerate it. I'm jealous of these individuals, it's the most abundant drug and I don't tolerate it at all. But in rehab really most of the people on antipsychotics had their symptoms from (over)use of weed. For stimulant psychosis these antipsychs might actually be of help though.

As madness00 said, it can well be trauma-related specially when you say to have got anxiety issues since then. It's worth testing the drugs too, we have so many research chemicals out there and some of the stimulants are more toxic than pure methamphetamine hcl.

Maybe, if you can't or don wan't to stop use stimulants, try to stick to the lowest dosage possible - this can be as little as 10mg after tolerance recovered. I have experienced psychosis in past from sleep deprivation and overuse but after the symptoms recovered I could continue to use drugs in moderation without re-occurrence of symptoms. But they would for sure if I went too high.

What @schizopath says is true! People in full on psychosis have no insight at all, which makes it even harder to treat and the lack of insight and fixed beliefs can remain even when the acute symptoms faded. Chances of full recovery are much better as long as one knows what's going on (I call that partial psychosis for the lack of a proper diagnosis).

I'm unsure about antipsychotics. Try them, more than once unless you're happy with the first, and avoid the old ones like haloperidol. I'd also advise against quetiapine as it's a powerful norepinephrinergic in the doses required which can lead to panic. Specially with stim psychosis, antagonizing D2 receptors for a limited time might help the recovering but you don't absolutely have to use them specially not for long time.

 

[mtu mwendawazimu]

Personally I wouldn't do weed here, it can both exacrebate psychotic symptoms as well as anxiety - unless of course you know and tolerate it.

Yeah sobriety is the ticket.

But anything.. Coffee running chess anything. IME, distractions and substitutes work for me.

 

[thegreenhand]

Yeah sobriety is the ticket.

But anything.. Coffee running chess anything. IME, distractions and substitutes work for me.

Not that coffee is that powerful of a drug but it can exacerbate anxiety in a lot of people and the don’t realize it until they stop

 

[mtu mwendawazimu]

I should stop saying what works for me because my anxiety is low. That's right - weed and coffee could induce it.

 

[thegreenhand]

I should stop saying what works for me because my anxiety is low. That's right - weed and coffee could induce it.

Yeah there’s no way to know how any given person responds to it. It’s just human nature to say what helps us individually

 

[JoEhJoEh]

Personally I wouldn't do weed here, it can both exacrebate psychotic symptoms as well as anxiety - unless of course you know and tolerate it. I'm jealous of these individuals, it's the most abundant drug and I don't tolerate it at all. But in rehab really most of the people on antipsychotics had their symptoms from (over)use of weed. For stimulant psychosis these antipsychs might actually be of help though.

As madness00 said, it can well be trauma-related specially when you say to have got anxiety issues since then. It's worth testing the drugs too, we have so many research chemicals out there and some of the stimulants are more toxic than pure methamphetamine hcl.

Maybe, if you can't or don wan't to stop use stimulants, try to stick to the lowest dosage possible - this can be as little as 10mg after tolerance recovered. I have experienced psychosis in past from sleep deprivation and overuse but after the symptoms recovered I could continue to use drugs in moderation without re-occurrence of symptoms. But they would for sure if I went too high.

What @schizopath says is true! People in full on psychosis have no insight at all, which makes it even harder to treat and the lack of insight and fixed beliefs can remain even when the acute symptoms faded. Chances of full recovery are much better as long as one knows what's going on (I call that partial psychosis for the lack of a proper diagnosis).

I'm unsure about antipsychotics. Try them, more than once unless you're happy with the first, and avoid the old ones like haloperidol. I'd also advise against quetiapine as it's a powerful norepinephrinergic in the doses required which can lead to panic. Specially with stim psychosis, antagonizing D2 receptors for a limited time might help the recovering but you don't absolutely have to use them specially not for long time.

I'm smoking weed because of my insomnia because of ADHD since 23 years. I know what I'm talking about.

 

[JoEhJoEh]

but where I live, cannabis is illegal - me as a German with the ADHD-Diagnose, I would get it in the parmacy - but im in austria fuckinfuck.