Stimulants amphetamine induced psychosis :: paranoid schizophrenia, is it permanent?

[blurrrxx]

I was just wondering if anyone could help me out on something I wasn't clear on. is amphetamine induced psychosis, well, just that, or can it trigger & bring on paranoid schizophrenia in a person? excuse my ignorance, please. I often find myself thinking and doing all sorts of things...I ran down a city street at 5:30am, backpack in tow, thinking my dealer was going to kill me, I hallucinated bumps in my nether region and thought it's spreading all over my body but I'm totally OK in reality but at the time completely convinced that I have herpes (TF?), I think people are talking about me, I have this HUGE fear of body odor, I've stranded myself at gas stations and in the middle of nowhere because I think my ride is going to do god knows what to me...lol...i'm definitely a conspiracy theorist from hell and it gets worse than what I've described.

but I'm thinking that comes with shooting meth obviously, lol, just hoping it stays with that and doesn't creep into my sobriety too. cause seriously this sorta shit scares the crap out of me, should I be worried about long-term effects, get back on medication (this would seem logical..), ???? I have a family history of mental illness, as well as being bipolar and borderline myself + generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and PTSD. so I'm hoping with that, that this is something I should be posting asking about

 

[misspharmacyashley]

i'm not sure if you would stay in a psychosis, per se, BUT i have noticed that since my getting off meth (been off since august 2011) i'm still wayyy more paranoid then i used to be about people, cops, cps, cars, the way people look at me, ect. i'm getting better... but i have noticed a change in my mind and brain chemistry that i believe is going to be everlasting. that shit's rough on the mind, no joke. hope that helps a little..

 

[mrflowers00]

you should see a doctor about your psychosis

 

[nAON]

How long have you had this psychosis since your last hit? Usually takes 48h+ to get back to baseline with stim psychosis for me, but i've known people that stayed dissociated from PCP for over a month.

Stop doing drugs for a few weeks/months, see how you feel. If you're worried about this, stopping drugs is the first thing you should be doing. No point going to a doctor or getting meds or anything if you're not actually removing the cause.

 

[silva]

I was a big user of mdma & other uppers (never meth) and I mean on a daily basis... and by the end of it my brain felt fried with paranoia.
I have been off all drugs (other than prescription codeine for a buzz) for almost 2 years, and I have found that my paranoia still comes in waves. I can be happy 28/29 days out of a month, but 2 or 3 days somewhere in there will be depressing, paranoid anxt. I'm hoping with more years it will go though.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

I would recommend speaking to a mental health professional. How long has it been since you've used stimulants?

 

[DistyBoi]

Stop drugs, see a doctor. If you cant stop drugs, see a doctor about stopping drugs.

And no its highly unlikely to be permanant. See a counsellor and speak through everything you worry about.

Its likely that you have fried your Adrenal glands with stress (I bet as you have anxiety anyway your stimulant comedowns made you very paranoid and stressed), and so they might take a while to normalize and start releasing the normal amount of stress hormones and adrenalin. Could take a few days of healthy non drug use, might take months of non drug use and lots of excersise. You'll need to see a doctor.

 

[DistyBoi]

I can be happy 28/29 days out of a month, but 2 or 3 days somewhere in there will be depressing, paranoid anxt. I'm hoping with more years it will go though.

That sounds like a normal happy person! Everyone has good and bad days, just 2 or 3 depressed or anxious days a month implies your generally a happy person.

 

[blurrrxx]

thank you for your replies! nAON, I can't say I'm in a psychosis right now lol It's been about 4-5 days since my last shot and I'm doing well. I just fear for a random episode to sneak in on me, maybe it's an irrational fear but hey. sometimes even after I go to sleep, for example I was up for 6 days once and my hotel room got kicked in (thankfully while i wasn't there), and with my boyfriend getting caught up in something different, I just lost it but when I finally went to sleep for like 12 hours and woke up and felt the exact same. obviously your body takes a while to adjust after being up for so long that it makes sense it took a few days in detox, but after that I'm just like which shot is it gonna be that I don't come back from that like someone said, is gonna fry my brain? I completely agree with what you're saying about confronting a physician/psychologist/psychiatrist till I'm off drugs, at least on the paranoia part - since indeed nothing's going to help besides the removal of stimulants. my plan's to remove the drugs and use preventative measures with meds/therapy. just seeing people's feedback on here to maybe soothe my thoughts and worries on the subject or to have an idea of what to expect in the future.
silva, it's inspiring to hear that you're doing well from the amount and consistency of your use. keep up the good work!
DistyBoi, the adrenal gland thing makes a lot of sense. I think I fried those even before my meth use, lol! I do feel a bit silly posting this now but hopefully it helps anyone else out there stressing over the same thoughts.

 

[silva]

That sounds like a normal happy person! Everyone has good and bad days, just 2 or 3 depressed or anxious days a month implies your generally a happy person.

yes, the depression part, but the paranoia, no.
also, the paranoia I still get is about things I was paranoid with in the past while using... that's what freaks me out.

& blurrrxx, you'll be ok. You just need to decide when your going to quit (if at all) and sort everything out

 

[DistyBoi]

yes, the depression part, but the paranoia, no.
also, the paranoia I still get is about things I was paranoid with in the past while using... that's what freaks me out.

Well you need to say what it is you get paranoid about else theres not much I can suggest. Either here or speak it through with someone else or your proabably not going to stop worrying about it very soon. Theres always ways to overcome persistant paranoid thoughts (opening up about them, doctor, counselling, CBT)

blurrrxx, dont feel silly! People here like giving advice, what the whole forum is for. Oh yeah, I just re-read your whole OP which I dont think I did before (excuse me ive been awake for over 100 hours now from too much 2dpmp, going slightly mad) and the actual effects of long acting drugs like methamp can cause persistant paranoia/psychosis that can last a good few days if you do too much or stay up on it for too long (sleep deprivation). Schizophrenic type symptoms (very weird thoughts that you convince yourself are true) are classic signs of prolonged stimulant psychosis abuse. The cure is sleep and stop using.

Earlier today before I took a benzo to chill I thought my flatmate was hiding in my cuboard on the phone to the police about me doing drugs for a minute before I snapped out of it! When you are clean for a bit you need to speak to people you trust about your thoughts, no matter how stupid you think they might sound, and after doing that and chatting about them or laughing about them they will likely subside.

But remember, just because your paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

 

[Grondelduck]

I've used quite a lot of amphetamine over the past few years. The first year(s) I didn't have any side-effects. Now, however, when I get past too far beyond the recreational limit I find myself engulfed with paranoid thoughts which is very unlike me. I'm quite the gullible and forgiving person, but I've had moments which made me want to quit using amph. In the past it didn't matter how long/how much I went at it, but now I always find myself facing these thoughts when I go beyond 24h of no sleep. In other words; In my normal life I don't suffer from it at all, but it definitely had it's impact. Be wary about your usage for your own health.

 

[johnx3]

It is likely that what you experienced is not leading to something permanent -- psychosis can be induced by amphetamines in people without psychiatric predispositions. However if one has an underlying disorder, amps will exacerbate those symptoms.
The commonality with psychosis in schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is related to a state of excess dopamine (which of course also occurs with amps), but psychosis can independently be caused by sleep deprivation (e.g. ICU psychosis). So those two things together, plus an underlying fear that you are psychotic, could certainly lead to amp induced psychosis without any underlying psychiatric cause.

I have had the same worries and some similar experiences, including a nice psychiatric family tree + list of disorders myself, but aside from stopping amps, the best thing to prevent psychotic and paranoid thinking (I've found) is sleep. I think it's hard to tell the difference between the drug and the lack of sleep, but personally I suspect lack of sleep actually has more of an effect -- once I added a benzo to my regimen so that I actually got more than 2 or 3 hrs of sleep a night, a lot of my psychotic/paranoid type of thoughts subsided and I stopped worrying so much that I was actually schizophrenic.

so...i know how you feel, and probably stopping using/sleep will help!

 

[rhythmtech]

I've known several people who have sadly developed permanent paranoid schizophrenic and delusional type behavior (distrusting of people, picking apart their skin after delusional 'meth' bugs, thinking everything said is somehow an attack on them). I've seen it affect them long after the drugs have worn off and these people are NOT THE SAME mentally, at all.

Be careful. Meth is some powerful, scary shit. No other drug that I've seen has the power to completely warp people's minds. The fact that you have a bit of insight that this could be happening to you is a very good thing and should serve as a warning. You are playing with fire, get out while you can.

 

[Jakeperson]

I've known several people who have sadly developed permanent paranoid schizophrenic and delusional type behavior (distrusting of people, picking apart their skin after delusional 'meth' bugs, thinking everything said is somehow an attack on them). I've seen it affect them long after the drugs have worn off and these people are NOT THE SAME mentally, at all.

This is me minus the bug part. It does fade but it will never go away. Psychosis changed my life. Using stims less will help, A LOT.

 

[InhaleDeep]

Well to put my two cents in... A good friend of mine experienced a very fucked up psychosis after smoking meth for the first time. He spent the next 6 months in a psychiatric clinic. You can tell the difference in his personality now, but it might have more to do with the drugs the doctora have been feeding him than the meth itself, who knows.

 

[Paulymorphone]

I once had amphetamine psychosis and was in a mental hospital for a few days taking an antipsychotic medicine called zyprexa. That medicine will make you fat really fast if you stay on it lol. They sometimes put anorexic people on zyprexa.