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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

gf's psychotic episodes treated with alcohol

I

ihajipen

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
56
Thanks for taking the time to read this in advance!

So my gf has been in the psych ward 3 times and has had 4 psychotic episodes. Benzos helped to kill her episode 2 times and the other time she was in the psych ward for 3 weeks then transferred to a half way house.

She was using MDMA, NO2, weed, and DXM on a regular basis( not the DXM+MDMA combo tho).

Her episodes seemed to be triggered by drug use ( dxm was the main one) and has since stopped. She hasnt had anything close to an episode for a few months now and her brain zaps have completely gone as well.


She has recently tried to smoke weed here and there to see if she can and in the past she has had some psychotic symptoms and had to take a benzo to pass out but then woke up fine later.

Since then (2 months) she has drank before smoking and there was no problem with any psychotic symptoms that she normally would have gotten in the past. She smoked today after drinking and the same thing. She has been talking to someone on the dextroverse about drinking before smoking the guy said the same thing about only when drinking before smoking did his symptoms not occur.

Does anyone know about the idea of alcohol before weed or any drug some how preventing symptoms to arise?

I have been the one putting my foot down on her drug use because im always left to pick up the pieces when she has an episode and her wanting to smoke has made me nervous to say the least but I cant argue with what works for her. We recently received some acid as well and she wants to try a hit and I am extremely nervous what may happen because of LSD's ability to trigger psychological problems
 
Seriously, she shouldn't be taking any psychoactive or psychedelic drugs after that many episodes period. She should be avoiding all drugs that arn't helping her, this is self-destructive behavior if its continued.
 
^^^^ I agree giving someone whos had psychotic episodes like that any psychoactive drug that isint prescribed to them by a psychiatrist that knows what they are doing is asking for trouble. Also alcohol can in and of itself trigger a psychotic episode so for fuck sakes don't give her alcohol just so she can smoke weed. If you get a bad reaction from weed just don't smoke it.

Also giving her LSD would be sheer folly.

Alcohol or any drug shouldnt be given to anyone who has psychotic episodes until they are well over them in my opinion and in the sake of harm reduction no alcohol cannot treat psychosis. It has however driven me psychotic more then a few times.
 
^^ I wholeheartedly agree with PA and malakaix.

ihajipen, I know it's not really answering your question specifically but in all seriousness, she should not be taking ANY recreational substances whatsoever. I would strongly advise against her taking the LSD as well, in particular. It's just not worth the risk.

If she's going to be stubborn about this and if she's made her decision, then you need to be prepared. Make sure you've got benzos on hand if anything gets out of control. I would lean away from using alcohol to medicate the psychotic symptoms because that in itself could make her worse in the long run.

Good luck! <3
 
^spot on.

Adding dependence on alcohol to her list of other problems is certainly not the best decision.
 
malakaix said:
Seriously, she shouldn't be taking any psychoactive or psychedelic drugs after that many episodes period. She should be avoiding all drugs that arn't helping her, this is self-destructive behavior if its continued.
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I agree with this fully. If your girlfriend has a mental health issue she should definitely not be messing around with recreational drugs, and if she drinks alcohol it should only be done in extreme moderation. If she keeps using she is just asking for trouble, and you have no idea how bad that trouble can be.

Recreational drugs tend to trigger very serious acute episodes of psychotic symptoms in people who have mental health issues. If your girlfriend has experienced acute psychotic symptoms due to drug use she really should be working on staying clean and safe. Sometimes it takes a lot of drugs to trigger this stuff. Sometimes it only takes a little bit and it seems to come out of nowhere. Sometimes this stuff happens all on its own. I didn't want to believe that the drugs I researched and took safety precautions with could hurt me. I didn't want to believe that, just because I have bipolar disorder, drugs aren't safe for me to take. Well, keep poking a lion with a stick enough times and eventually you will get bitten. I speak from experience: Your girlfriend really, really doesn't want to see how bad shit can get for her if she keeps using.
 
is she currently seeing a medical professional (doctor and therapist) to help address these issues?

if not, you should encourage her to reach out for this assistance.

also i concur, she should not be using any substances which have the possibility of aggravating her condition.
 
drug-induced manic depression.... I wish I hadn't seen this occur in nearly as many individuals as I have :\

please, do all within your power to make sure she does not consume acid.

that stuff gets me pretty rickety & I'm usually the one who can't give over to any drug (completely)
 
No drugs. Her brain must have time to go back to its normal baseline state before she can start to get thing sorted out and drugs do nothing but prevent this.
 
^^^ Indeed it can as my family and friends can attest too.

Man make sure your g/f gets into see a mental health professional ASAP. I wouldnt go diagnosing her bipolar yet as it could just be the after effects of the drugs. But the main thing is to get her some help.
 
malakaix said:
seriously, she shouldn't be taking any psychoactive or psychedelic drugs after that many episodes period. She should be avoiding all drugs that arn't helping her, this is self-destructive behavior if its continued.
Click to expand...

qftw
 
Slapdragonx said:
Alcohol can trigger psychosis.
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According to statistics it's actually more likely to do so than cannabis which is ironic considering how often they go on about the link to cannabis and schizophrenia in the media, and never mention the link to alcohol. 8)
 
The best thing for her mental health is to not use any drugs at all. It's possible that she might have to give up all psychoactive substances forever. The alcohol thing might work for now, but its very likely that soon it will itself start triggering psychotic episodes. Is smoking weed that important to her that she is willing to compromise her mental health for it? She is playing with fire. She needs good mental health help and she should only take substances that are ok'ed by a mental health provider.
 
i cant smoke weed, gives me EXTREME paranoia/anxiety etc, but if ive had a drink or a benzo, i dont feel the anxiety (still the paranoia though), its just masking the problem whilst probably making it worse at the same time.
 
Sounds like she needs some serious help. I'm really against benzos and alcohol, because they don't really cure the problem. They make it worse, they cover it up, but they don't solve the problem. Not really sure what advice to give, but I hope things get better.
 
I'm really against benzos and alcohol, because they don't really cure the problem.
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Im not against benzos at all if they help you. Nothing really cures the problem per se and the best we can do at this time is merly help the problem. Anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, opiates and yes benzos don't cure my problems but they keep them under control.

As for alcohol giving it to anyone with a mental illness much less suffering a psychotic episode is asking for trouble.
 
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