Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
a couple of years ago, i was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. i had the mania that everyone talks about, anger, depression, and all that. but about a year ago i started getting weird. i would talk like a little kid and say things that didn't make any sense. i would hallucinate a lot, but i thought it was real at the time because my brain wasn't working properly. some of my friends will say that they are other people and i believe them and then i get really confused. if i'm in the car and i'm looking out the window, i think i'm watching tv. i can actually make it go away now, but it still happens. i thought it was some weird version of mania, but it only lasts for an hour. but then it comes back again the next day. last time it only lasted for a month and this time it's been 4 months. sometimes i'm really mean and sometimes i'm really nice. one time i forgot who my boyfriend was and i thought he was going to kill me and i freaked out. i was talking about this on the bipolar disorder group and they thought it was psychosis, but i'm on geodon and lamictal and i have been for a while and it's still there. so i'm starting to wonder if it's from ptsd. does anyone know what it is?and how to make it stop? it's kind of annoying.
I have had somewhat psychotic-like symptoms with my PTSD...but not to the extent and depth that you described. My "psychotic" PTSD symptoms were not ever so real as you describe yours. I was paranoid that others were out to get me....I went through very lengthy measures to stay safe to danger taht was imagined....but I always had a huge part of me that realized that things I was afraid of were not really real. For example: I was only like 50% sure that someone was following me...the other 50% of me knew that it was an irrational fear. (I hope I'm not being confusing)
If your sense of reality is off and you are also being told by others that it is off...then I would be concerned and seek further psychological/psychiatric eval.
I HAVE heard of people with bipolar getting mania with psychosis that comes with their mania episodes. I have heard of this from my psychiatrist.
It is also possible to be "schizoaffective" which means that you have some type of schizophrenia with your mood disorder(bipoloar in your case).
It sounds like you need further evaluation hun.
***big hugs***
Feel free to keep us updated.
I have CPTSD from the first half of my life, "growing up" in a household with a severely bipolar and borderline psychotic Mother. Making matters worse was the fact that she was miss-diagnosed so many years as Schizophrenic, and in most cases the treatments (particularly in the 60's and 70's when Bipolar wasn't really known) for Schizophrenia made Bipolar disorder worse.
I'll say that your symptoms, from my experience and knowledge, do not represent nor is consistent with PTSD or CPTSD at all. Someone may say that your hallucinations and/or the "watching TV" experience are akin to flashbacks and/or disassociation in some way, but again based on my experience and knowledge, it's not.
That is not to say that you don't have some component of PTSD, or have PTSD outright.... just what you describe is not consistent.
I will say that your comment:
>> thought it was psychosis, but i'm on geodon and lamictal
>> and i have been for a while and it's still there.
concerns me, only because no one can guarantee that any particular drug(s) work for everyone all the time, and it sounds like you may be assuming that.
Either way, you're welcome here. I hope you find the peace you seek and deserve.
D
"I forgot who my boyfriend was......."........It could be very severe symptoms of PTSD, like when vets lose sense of where they are and think they're back in Irak or else where....
Be safe, if you can tell your doc asap.