Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[maggiesdaughter]

Hi all,

My mother has been admitted to a psychiatric facility for the second time in my lifetime and the 3rd in hers. Mum suffered from postnatal depression 37 years ago, after giving birth to me elder sister; she had a psychotic episode alongside the PND. For 35 years my mum was a highly functioning person, did not need any ongoing medication and did not have any relapses, until 2 years ago, when she had some stress at work, had difficulty sleeping and experienced her second psychotic episode. She was hospitalised, first in the private sector and then in the public sector, as she had to be sectioned under the mental health act when she became too unwell for a low care ward. The experience as her daughter, two years ago, was absolutely terrifying. This time around, although I'm shattered, I understand the system a little better and have a little more faith. I am still looking for answers though. I'm looking for answers because this time around there were no warning signs, no stress. Mum was happy and once again highly functioning. This psychotic episode literally happened overnight. She woke up and was psychotic; mum is very paranoid and is having delusions of persecution. We had her hospitalised once again in the private sector where she stayed for 3 nights and was responding to the medication prescribed to her whilst in hospital. Today she just went downhill, was very paranoid, had very persistent bad thoughts and kept expressing that she wanted to "end it all" so that her bad thoughts will stop. Once again she has been sectioned under the mental health act. 

I guess I'm just looking for other carers who have had similar experiences with very sudden onset psychosis. Also, mum has not been medicated, she saw a psychiatrist for a couple of months after her last admission and they agreed to discontinue her antidepressants and antipsychotic medication, and mum has been fine up until now. I feel completely lost and very alone. If anyone has similar experiences, I would really appreciate if you could share them with me. TIA 

[Kiera80]

@maggiesdaughter  I'm really sorry to hear about what's going on with your Mum and I understand what you're feeling.  I think one of the first things you should do is go in to the hospital, sit down with one of the doctors who is caring for your Mum and talk to them about what is happening and what care she is receiving.  Find someone who will answer all your questions.  Having an understanding about what has caused this in the first place and how the psychotic episode is affecting your Mum will help you a lot.  When you get no warning signs it can be a huge shock and leaves so many questions up in the air.

I have seen a little bit of this type of behaviour with a friend of mine.  I found it very difficult to understand and I didn't know what to do. 

The care your Mum is receiving is hopefully very good and when she is like this the hospital is the best place she can be in.  I think your Mum probably has to go back on some sort of medication after she eventually leaves hospital and the doctors will no doubt sort all of that out for her.  Do some research on the medication too.  What it is and what it does.  Also what side effects there may be.

From my experience, the more knowledge you have, the less scary the situation becomes.

[ivana]

Hi Maggiesdaughter,

Sorry about your mum.
Someone close to me also had psychosis appear at a late age but this might be different to your situation.
Something perhaps worth considering,and looking into even if you have to demand or fight with doctors,is that not all psychosis is from Schizophrenia.
Consider if your mum had an an infection prior to the psychosis development,or if she was going through menopause,or any other changes.
Does she have any physical symptoms such as headache,stretchmarks appearing that arn't from weight gain or anything else?
Psychosis can be caused by numerous things including Frontal Temporal lobe Dementia,Alzheimer's Disease,Delirium due to infections,Graves Disease (thyroid) and more...

[NikNik]

Hi @maggiesdaughter

We haven't heard from you in awhile. I really hope things have settled down since your last post and you got the answers you needed.

I wanted to let you know that this Tuesday (26 May) we're running a Topic Tuesday session about psychosis, with carers and people with lived experience discussing topics like:

• Noticing symptoms during the onset of an episode
• Care plans to manage episodes
• Tips for working with psychotic symptoms

If you would like to join the discussion, it kicks off at 7pm AEST. The discussion will be taking place here

I hope things have improved for your mum and your family.

Nik