Schizophrenia or Amphetamine-Induced Psychosis?

[lost_soul]

Hi, I've been wanting to talk to somebody about this for a while now, but do to the fear of the public stigma and misunderstanding surrounding mental disorders, I always kept quiet. I'll start off with a little history. I'm 18 years old and I've been a chronic user of marijuana since I was 12, at one point in my teens I smoked more joints than cigarettes daily. When I turned 16 I started experimenting with heavier substances. I've tried just about every type of drug except the ones you inject, I hate needles. When I was 17 I became addicted to ecstasy. I binged at first, but in order to avoid the down time I started using daily. I took on average about 4-8 pills a day, for about 2 months straight. During these 2 months I began hearing things. I live in an upstairs duplex, and late at night, at first only when I was high, I heard what I thought to be my neighbors having sex. At first I thought it was real, it continued every night, all night, for about a week. I couldn't sleep because of the noise and finally decided to go talk to them. When I did I found out that my neighbors were two brothers, who lived alone, and both worked nights. I decided to get clean the next day. After my 5 day burnout, which consisted of auditory as well as visual hallucinations of many different things, I was clean. I even quit smoking weed a week later. But I still heard things and still do. It comes and goes, almost always happens at night, and consists mainly of two things, my neighbors having sex (which I know for a fact isn't real but I still hear) and people outside laughing at me (which I also know is not real). Sometimes when I'm walking outside late at night I'll hear somebody walking behind me and yelling at me, but when I turn around nobody's there. I mainly just try to ignore it or drown it out with music. There's a few other symptoms, like I feel bugs crawling on me when I try to sleep, and I have trouble sleeping, sometimes I don't sleep at all. I don't know if these things are worse because I can't sleep or if I can't sleep because of these things. I think its amphetamine induced psychosis, but I've been 100% clean from anything for 6 months now. I mean I've just been waiting for it to wear off, but will it? How long does amphetamine induced psychosis last? When do I start worrying about schizophrenia? It seems I have all the symptoms of both. I really need some help cause I don't know how long I can keep this hidden. I mean I screamed shutup to nobody the other night and woke up my brother. i really don't know how much longer I can keep hiding this, I'm even becoming suicidal. I should probably mention that manic depressive bipolar disorder runs in my family, but I've been screened for it already. I really need somebodys opinion on this, is this gonna pass?? or do I need to see a psychiatrist?

 

[diddypinks]

hi lostsoul

hello there i just want to say that there has been a link between HEAVY cannabis use at an early age and phycosis i was very much like you i smoked daily all the time from an early age i also took speed etc and LSD i experienced voices and went to my gp and i couldnt handle college i was paranoid all the time 10 years later i have been diagnosed paranoid scitzophrenic do you have a job? does it interfear with your life? i still cant sleep with out heavy medication if it is bad you can get tablets to help called antiphycotics i am on quitiapine the best one ive found you may just have phycosis. either way i dont think i would have these problems if i hadnt spoked pot especially skunk
i strongly urge you to got to the gp and let them know what you are experiencing if you want right down what to say before you go they really dont bite and are the experts goodluck diddy

 

[Apotheosis]

It can be very hard to separate things out. Everyone is different. What I do know is that severe drug abuse takes a very long time to recover from - many years - recovery from addiction can be considered as being life long.

There is no way of telling what is an underlying condition - & how much is drug induced, needless to say that drugs will exasperate a MH condition. Enough drugs do send people mad I think. But there is the question as to what is present in certain people to make them heavily abuse drugs in the first place?

 

[*Sapphire*]

Hi lost_soul

And to the forum.
Firstly I want to say don't panic, there are things you can do to help yourself.

No one here can say how long your symptoms will last for. If it is Schizophrenia or drug induced psychosis symptoms will vary from individual to individual in both length and intensity. Some people smoke marijuana once and have problems for a long time, others smoke it for a long time and never experience problems. Some people never take drugs and still experience problems. There is no way of telling how long these symptoms are likely to last or how they manifest themselves, or where they originated from.

I would concentrate on one thing at the moment, and that is, if right now you are unable to cope with your feelings and symptoms, then I would seek some form of help. You need to decide that if you do get a diagnosis whether a potential stigma is worse than dealing with the symptoms you are enduring right now. Remember you do not have to reveal to everyone if you do have a diagnosis.

I would say that if you are feeling suicidal, then you should seek some further help, by seeing your GP first. They can offer help with medication that may alleviate your symptoms, or perhaps you can try some therapy which may help you to cope with your symptoms better, and offer you a space to talk about your difficulties with them. I think talking about it in some form of therapy might be a good avenue for you because it appears from your post that your suicidal feelings are originating from the pressure you feel to 'hide' your symptoms, rather than the symptoms themselves. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Look I know that having a mental health label can be so devastating, but in some ways as far as treatment goes under the NHS it can also be liberating as it can open up avenues for you to receive the right treatment if you feel the need to have it. I have the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, it really is not a pleasant diagnosis to have, however because of it I have been accepted onto a form of treatment that has been most beneficial to me that I know others really want. Now I lead a full life, am married, have a job (which I just got) and my life is fulfilled and what some would class as 'normal'. Not many people I know, know that I have that diagnosis, they do not need to really.

If you are really distressed please see your GP. Perhaps by even just telling them what you are going through you might find some form of relief.