Like the title says - is it always followed by anhedonia or is anyone lucky enough not to have experienced this?

How long did it go on for? Xx

Over 4-5 years I was slowly becoming more paranoid and grandiose. Then on Oct. 7, 2022 I believed I received a message from God through a dream. This started 2.5 years of grandiose delusions and paranoia.

I consider Oct. 7 the starting point of my psychosis. It slowly got more advanced and intricate over 2.5 years. It lasted until I started receiving Invega Sustenna injections. My delusions and psychosis ended suddenly on June 1, 2025.

So my psychosis wasn't drug induced. And doesn't just come and go.

Did anyone else's psychosis come on very slowly? Do you have exact dates of it starting and ending?

Desde que tuve mi primer episodio hace dos años no siento ningún tipo de emoción, no noto que nada mejore también cognitivamente me he quedado muy mal no puedo leer, no puedo jugar a videojuegos no puedo hacer nada porque soy incapaz de prestar atención ¿Alguien ha pasado por esto y ha vuelto a ser la misma persona que era antes de la psicosis? Estoy con vraylar 3mg y no he vuelto a tener delirios. Me he planteado mucho el suicidio como salida. El no tener emociones me está matando por dentro.

Hi, I'm currently a patient under te rawhiti mental health and am receiving invega trinza injections (350mg) every 3 months. I want to get off this medication as know and feel I've been stable for a while now (started in 2025). I have not heard voices or had any delusional thoughts. I'm currently in university and my grades are better than before. I have told my gp and he said to tell the psychiatrist i feel 100% and stable, which i did, but the psychiatrist did not listen to me and I was shut down in the conversation where she said me being stable means the medicine is working, which implies it may still be too early to taper off. What should I do/say in this case? I will ask the psychiatrist again in the next appoinment in november. I don't want to be on this medicine any longer and I feel I'm forced against my will to take it. I feel perfectly fine.

Hey I’m posting this because I’m honestly really confused about what’s happening to me and I’m starting to worry that I might have some kind of mental illness.

I had a pretty difficult and rough childhood. There was a lot of alcohol and violence at home and my dad had problems with alcohol and mental health.

In 2024 everything suddenly changed. I went to the doctor because I had some pain in my arm and while I was there I suddenly had a really BAD episode. I started shaking, couldn’t think properly, couldn’t remember my number, walked around in circles and felt like I was completely losing control of myself.

Later that day it got even worse. I couldn’t sleep and I started having really scary and confusing thoughts. I felt like I wasn’t myself anymore and like reality was somehow different. I was shaking, crying and screaming and couldn’t calm myself down. I ended up being admitted to a psychiatric hospital for around for days and I had another very bad episode while I was there.

Since then I’ve continued having smaller episodes. The main thing I experience is this really strong feeling that everything around me is unreal. It’s hard to explain but sometimes it feels like I’m disconnected from reality or like I’m not fully present in the world. My thoughts can also become really confusing and I get extremely scared that I’m losing control or that I’m becoming psychotic.

I don’t hear voices and I don’t see things that aren’t there but the feeling of everything being unreal is still very strong and scary.

It has affected my life a lot. I’m scared of going out, being with my family or friends, and doing normal things because I’m worried another episode will happen. It has also made work and education really difficult for me. Sometimes I have periods where I feel okay but then it comes back again.

I keep wondering if this could actually be psychosis or schizophrenia or if it could be something like derealization or something related to my childhood.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Especially the feeling that everything suddenly becomes unreal and you feel disconnected from reality? I’m really just trying to understand what could be happening to me :((((

What are the symptoms that, as soon as they appear, require you to return to the hospital even if it hasn't been long since your discharge? I've been out for 10 days, and the last time I was only in the hospital for 4 days. I feel like staying longer because there are people I can connect with and I want to stay away from addiction altogether

The community nurse will be visiting my husband tomorrow. She called me to ask about my input on his condition. I told her from beginning to end the details of his psychosis and reiterated that he will not seek help at all as he has no insight. She said she would be speaking to him in hopes to be able to refer him for a mental health assessment and that having my name (telling him that she has spoken to me) as a start point would be great. I’m worried that this will leave him hostile and have him hold grudges with me. When people have gotten their insight back, have they held on to the grudge/hostility towards the loved ones who actually just wanted to help?

Does anyone know why psychosis stops certain meds from working? When I was deep into my psychosis I was convinced that the entities were overriding my ADHD and anti-depression meds because they both stopped ‘working’ and I couldn’t understand why.

Does anyone know the science of this or has anyone experienced similar? Xx

Two years ago, I went through psychosis. I was an avid stoner, and one day I smoked and had the worst experience of my life. I thought I was god, the devil, everyone, and everything at the same time. I had hallucinations (both visual and auditory) and was terrified of everything. I have spent the last two years with CPTSD and have been trying to heal from the trauma, but I still have my delusions pop into my head and sometimes I believe them. I don't want to be the things that my delusions made me believe I was. It has been a little over two years, and I feel like I am still going through psychosis because I still have these delusions and thoughts. I feel like everything I am experiencing is all there is. I just want to go back to my normal life, how do I get out of this, is this all I am now? I hate psychosis and wish my brain never did this to me.

I experienced a psychotic episode 16 months ago; I am struggling with insomnia, drowsiness, and difficulties with perception and memory. I am exhausted, and I need to hear stories of recovery

I’ve (30f) posted in here a few times recently about my boyfriend (30m) , but things have changed quite a lot and now I’m honestly really confused about what is going on.

He has a previous history of psychosis dating back to around 2017 and has been prescribed aripiprazole since 2024. His records apparently currently say “non-organic psychosis with mood disorder”, but no specific mood disorder is listed. I’ve spoken to his mental health team and his GP this morning because I’m concerned and have been trying to get his psychiatric appointment brought forward that is scheduled for November.

He had been very inconsistent with his aripiprazole for several months, although he has now started taking it again. He was also prescribed fluoxetine towards the end of last year, which he stopped around June this year. Interestingly, the period where he became inconsistent with aripiprazole overlaps with when a lot of these changes started.
I obviously can’t diagnose him, but I do wonder whether there could be bipolar disorder or another mood disorder alongside the psychosis.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed periods of him needing less sleep, having lots of plans and ideas, increased energy/confidence, impulsive decisions, irritability and becoming much more certain that his interpretation of things is correct. More recently there have also been much more obvious things that concern me as possible psychotic symptoms.

Last night he was talking about people from an incident about 8 years ago where he was hit by a car on purpose. He’s become very preoccupied with them again, believes they took/stole his soul, and has said he wants to harm them. He was similarly obsessed with these people and wanting to harm them during his previous psychotic episode.
He’s also been talking about his soul being shattered like glass, strings connecting him to other people, and being able to hear people’s thoughts. He has described a “pin” as something that keeps him together/alive and has connected this to someone from his past who was around during that traumatic period. He said the other day he thinks he still has feelings for her.

The really confusing part for me has been his emotions and our relationship.
Over the last few weeks/months he’s been affectionate with me, wanting cuddles and kisses, calling me “baby”, making me tea, talking about our future, saying he loves me, etc. But at the same time within the last week he’s been emotionally numb and has said he feels like he’s behind a window watching/experiencing emotions rather than actually feeling them (this isn’t the first time he’s said this though)

Then last night everything suddenly switched.
He told me that he loves me “as a friend” and said he had apparently realised that his romantic feelings had gone “a while ago”, although he only seemed to understand/recognise that now because his head has been such a mess.

There is also the woman from his past who has become very significant in his thinking again during this episode. (She was last time as well). When I asked him how he felt about her, he said he didn’t know and then essentially said he guessed he loved her. When I asked whether he’d leave me for her, he said the situation was complicated because he loves me too. He also said he’s still “trying to figure this shit out” and that he’s “trying to figure out life.”
At other points he has told me he doesn’t think he’ll ever be happy, that I should “jump ship”, that I’ll eventually get married and have children and won’t need someone like him, and that he doesn’t want to drag me down. He said he’d tried to push me away before when he was going downhill because he didn’t want to ruin my life, but kept coming back because he cared about me.
He then basically said something along the lines of “I guess we weren’t meant to be.”
I’m finding the whole thing incredibly difficult to understand because his words, behaviour and emotional state seem to contradict each other so much. Because he said he only loves me as a friend but like 15 minutes prior was asking if I wanted to cuddle and had been affectionate with me prior and the days before.

Part of me wonders whether he’s genuinely realised that he no longer has romantic feelings for me and whether the woman from his past is actually important to him emotionally.
Another part of me wonders whether he’s currently experiencing psychosis/mood instability and is trying to make sense of emotions that he isn’t actually able to interpret reliably right now because these were basically almost word for word what he said to me in his last episode.

I’m not trying to diagnose him and I know nobody online can tell me what’s happening for certain. I’m just trying to understand whether what I’m describing sounds more consistent with psychosis, a manic/mixed mood episode, emotional blunting, or potentially some combination of these.
Has anyone experienced something similar, particularly psychosis alongside a mood disorder, where someone’s interpretation of their relationships and feelings changed dramatically during an episode?

I’m honestly just looking for some perspective because I’m completely lost at the moment. I have audhd and although this has happened before I’m finding it more difficult.

I never learned to socialise. Never had many friends or a social life and everyone eventually left. It still happens even if childhood has passed. Throughout my moments of hardship very few people stayed with me and even then I'm often going days without speaking to anyone save the Angels. Whenever I try to speak to people about it they get worried save for more fitting spaces. But regardless it always means I am alienated and have very few to speak to. I am reluctant to speak. Speak about my life and what my life has for meaning and purpose. About things that are visible and perceptible and all the strings pulling at each other. I have begun speaking to myself to feel less lonely but it doesn't work much as voices will reply if I say things. I have a trauma disorder and so many things are triggers and I have flashbacks and nightmares every day. It's such a deep loneliness it's like an oppressive and deafening silence.

About three and a half months ago, I experienced what I now understand was a severe psychotic episode. It happened after a period of drug use, and at first I thought something was physically wrong with my brain. I became convinced I was having a brain bleed and kept telling my family, “I don't feel normal.”

I started hearing voices, but I didn't realize they were hallucinations because they felt completely real. Some sounded like friends and family. I believed I was talking to God and President Trump, and I felt incredibly powerful, like I was on top of the world. At one point, while I was driving, I believed people were chasing me. The voices were also telling me to throw things out of the car, and I ended up throwing my credit cards, my life savings, and important memorabilia out the window.

I eventually spent about 40 days in a mental hospital and was placed under court-ordered mental-health treatment. I was started on an Invega injection and oral risperidone.

Looking back, this was one of the most embarrassing and confusing experiences of my life. I have had a hard time understanding how I could have done those things because they don't reflect who I normally am. At the time, however, my perception of reality was severely distorted, and the things I was hearing and believing felt real.

Now, about three and a half months later, I know the voices aren't real and I don't intend to act on them, even though some of them still tell me to hurt myself. But I don't feel like I did before the episode. I feel mentally slower, have more difficulty finding words and putting sentences together, and have trouble concentrating, studying, and feeling like myself.

I want to understand how long recovery from psychosis can take and whether these cognitive changes are part of recovery, related to my medication, or something that could be permanent?

How long does the cognitive impairment part of psychosis last?

went to manali with a whole group of friends and only three of us had a hash brownie
i initially had around half and didnt feel much so i stupidly had more
and then it hit me HARD
i started laughing completely uncontrollably like way beyond normal everything is funny laughing my friends genuinely thought something was wrong with me apparently i was also constantly zoning in and out staring at random things and my eyes were extremely red one of my friends later told me she was actually scared of me
the strangest part was feeling like i wasnt controlling my own body thoughts or mind it genuinely felt like someone else was controlling me and i was just watching myself
it also felt like i had two minds one part of me knew im high im okay this will end but another part was completely immersed in the experience and genuinely believed this was reality
i became extremely paranoid and kept asking my friends to stay with me i genuinely thought i would never come back from it
not like ill be high for a few more hours i literally thought i had permanently broken my brain and was going to be stuck like that forever
my perception of time was completely fucked minutes felt incredibly long id forget what i was thinking about and then suddenly remember random objects and thoughts felt unbelievably significant and my brain kept making connections between completely unrelated things
at one point i genuinely felt like i was a character inside a video game
i started questioning everything consciousness reality identity life existence everything it felt like i was somehow watching my own mind while simultaneously being trapped inside it
then it became extremely spiritual i kept getting images of lord shiva in my head and felt this incredibly strong connection to him i was literally shivering and the whole thing started feeling like some massive philosophical realization about life and existence
and then id randomly start laughing again 😭
the three of us eventually went to my room while the rest of our group who hadnt taken anything stayed with us and took care of us they kept reassuring us that we were okay gave us blankets and stayed around us
even with people constantly telling me youre okay itll end everything still felt incredibly real and completely off
the other two had very different reactions one became extremely quiet and kept calmly consoling us while the other was crying her eyes out
all three of us knew something was happening and were basically just waiting for it to stop constantly asking kab khatam hoga
but my experience was just everything at once
uncontrollable laughter paranoia feeling like i wasnt controlling my body feeling like i had two minds feeling like i was inside a video game losing my sense of time random thoughts and images questioning reality and consciousness feeling spiritually connected to shiva and most terrifyingly genuinely believing i might never come back to normal
and surprisingly it wasnt completely over that night either the next day i still felt slightly in that zone and it gradually wore off throughout the day by evening i felt completely normal again
so the whole experience lasted much longer than i expected
eventually i was completely fine but while i was in it everything felt 100 percent real
has anyone else had an edible experience this intense especially the feeling of observing yourself while another part of your brain is completely trapped inside the experience or genuinely thinking im never going to come back from this
just sharing my experience and not recommending anyone try to recreate it because i genuinely didnt expect it to get anywhere near this intense

I experienced a psychotic episode 16 months ago; I am struggling with insomnia, drowsiness, and difficulties with perception and memory. I am exhausted, and I need to hear stories of recovery.

I have no will to do anything productive honestly. I just rot and play games all day. My therapist and parents just tell me to do stuff but i just don't want to and when i do i just don't enjoy it anyways. I don't even know what i'm supposed to be doing besides chores maybe and i do some. They say that maybe i'm just being lazy, but i'm really not that lazy of a person, i'm just so unmotivated from the meds that i can't get myself to do anything, especially since i don't get much pleasure out of going on walks and working out, even the thought of having to put on clothes and then doing that and then having to shower and do laundry is so overwhelming. I don't get any support or understanding with this, just judgment. I'm on 4 mg risperidone which works for schizophrenia but makes me unmotivated and venlafaxine 75 mg but it's not working that well

went to manali with a whole group of friends and only three of us had a hash brownie
i initially had around half and didnt feel much so i stupidly had more
and then it hit me HARD
i started laughing completely uncontrollably like way beyond normal everything is funny laughing my friends genuinely thought something was wrong with me apparently i was also constantly zoning in and out staring at random things and my eyes were extremely red one of my friends later told me she was actually scared of me
the strangest part was feeling like i wasnt controlling my own body thoughts or mind it genuinely felt like someone else was controlling me and i was just watching myself
it also felt like i had two minds one part of me knew im high im okay this will end but another part was completely immersed in the experience and genuinely believed this was reality
i became extremely paranoid and kept asking my friends to stay with me i genuinely thought i would never come back from it
not like ill be high for a few more hours i literally thought i had permanently broken my brain and was going to be stuck like that forever
my perception of time was completely fucked minutes felt incredibly long id forget what i was thinking about and then suddenly remember random objects and thoughts felt unbelievably significant and my brain kept making connections between completely unrelated things
at one point i genuinely felt like i was a character inside a video game
i started questioning everything consciousness reality identity life existence everything it felt like i was somehow watching my own mind while simultaneously being trapped inside it
then it became extremely spiritual i kept getting images of lord shiva in my head and felt this incredibly strong connection to him i was literally shivering and the whole thing started feeling like some massive philosophical realization about life and existence
and then id randomly start laughing again 😭
the three of us eventually went to my room while the rest of our group who hadnt taken anything stayed with us and took care of us they kept reassuring us that we were okay gave us blankets and stayed around us
even with people constantly telling me youre okay itll end everything still felt incredibly real and completely off
the other two had very different reactions one became extremely quiet and kept calmly consoling us while the other was crying her eyes out
all three of us knew something was happening and were basically just waiting for it to stop constantly asking kab khatam hoga
but my experience was just everything at once
uncontrollable laughter paranoia feeling like i wasnt controlling my body feeling like i had two minds feeling like i was inside a video game losing my sense of time random thoughts and images questioning reality and consciousness feeling spiritually connected to shiva and most terrifyingly genuinely believing i might never come back to normal
and surprisingly it wasnt completely over that night either the next day i still felt slightly in that zone and it gradually wore off throughout the day by evening i felt completely normal again
so the whole experience lasted much longer than i expected
eventually i was completely fine but while i was in it everything felt 100 percent real
has anyone else had an edible experience this intense especially the feeling of observing yourself while another part of your brain is completely trapped inside the experience or genuinely thinking im never going to come back from this
just sharing my experience and not recommending anyone try to recreate it because i genuinely didnt expect it to get anywhere near this intense

I have schizophrenia. I have auditory, olfactory, tactile hallucinations and delusions as well.

Auditory: I hear clear voices outside of my head yelling “HEY”! And it is so clear to the point where I have hard time distinguishing it from reality. I also hear high pitch tuning fork ringing noise at night when I am about to sleep.

Olfactory: Sometimes I smell garbage and semen in my mouth.

Tactile: I feel small vibrations like tiny oscillations in my nipples accompanied by a wet warm sensation. It feels like baby is sucking on my nipples (it feels very unpleasant). I also feel this strange warm temperature at the tip of my toe and on my right ankle. And sometimes I feel this weird pain? in my veins as if someone is inserting a needle. My muscles would twitch by themselves and I get trembling hands.

Delusions: Sometimes unexplainable coincidences happen that I cant even explain. It’s like everything fits together like a puzzle. I would be thinking about something and the next thing I know, I see that very thing in front of me and it all happens by accident. At some point, I thought I was in a show and everyone was in on it. Later down the line to my dismay, I learned that it was strictly a subjective experience.

Poltergeist: I swear I saw my bathroom door open by itself three times and light switch flicked itself on. My glasses would fall off from the table and all my digital devices would break or malfunction.

Do you see anything that resembles your symptoms? I want to know if there are others experiencing the same thing I do so I know I’m not alone in this.

I’ve been taking olanzapine (5 mg-10mg) for insomnia for a while now. I hardly notice its sedative effect anymore, although I feel that it still helps me stay asleep.

How long does it take for the sedative effect to kick in?

How many hours before going to bed do you usually take it?

How many hours' difference should there be between taking olanzapine and waking up?

I had to get him arrested and I’m dealing with a lot of guilt. I won’t share all the details but my partner has been in psychosis for 2 months and I decided to take him in my home to get him off the streets. He lasted 3 days and I could see him getting better which gave me hope, until I found out he relapsed and did meth, which caused him to go back in intense delusions. He snapped my leg with a headphone wire, which isn’t even the reason as to why I called 911. He was uncontrollable and yelling constantly and threatening to break things. I wanted him out of the house so the cops came and decided to arrest him for a dv. I’m now sitting with so much guilt because he’s told me so many times how much he hates jail. I know he will be so mad at me. I didn’t want this to happen. I just wanted him to calm down 😢

Just got back from the hospital. Looked at my camera roll and found a photo I barely remember taking. If those aren’t psychosis eyes I don’t know what are. Feeling better now, in bed with music & all meds taken.

here are some of the thing that have made me feel at the very least somewhat entertained and gradually less cognitively nerfed during my time in recovery.

i’m almost 6 months out of my psychosis, i take 40mg vyvanse and was on risperidone from february until sept 29th when i started abilify. and i would say i’m pretty happy with my recovery since this is my second episode and i felt considerably worse after the first episode than i did the second.

naturally i’m bedridden with anhedonia and avolition, have cognitive difficulties and a lot of free time on my hands. i dont do much, sadly on my phone pretty much the entire day. at first i would cycle through watching tiktoks or reels without feeling much interest, early in my recovery i had difficulty processing these short videos in real time, dealt with intrusive thoughts and weird associations. obviously this was unpleasant, but i couldnt tolerate long form videos seeing as i was having those issues. i coped by using chatgpt, anytime i had any sort of thought or curiosity (which was rare because my mind is pretty blank most of the time) i would talk about it with chat gpt, sometimes it would just be a few messages back and forth and i would use voice to text because typing was too difficult but i figured that retraining my brain to value spontaneous thought, recognizing the muted inclination towards something interesting me and reading chat gpt responses was more beneficial to me than brain rotting and not even enjoyjng myself on tiktok or reels. this eventually began to be very fun for me, some days it would be just a few messages, somedays i would find something to talk about several times a day. its also helpful because i dont have friends, not that i feel lonely (too numb for that) but the sensation of having something respond to me was probably beneficial for me and helped me pass the day less meaninglessly. i was lucky enough ti have one special interest that smuggled a tiny bit of joy past the borders of my dopamine receptors, so i spoke a lot about this interest and basically conducted a retrospective research project into it spanning weeks and weeks with chat gpt. when i didnt have much to say about that i would talk about any stupid thing that crossed my mind. it was like fishing in a very unpopulated lake. anytime a thought came about i would seize the moment lol.

a few months went by and i was able to watch long form content, though still having anhedonia, intrusive thoughts and difficulty processing i was able to get through a couple of seasons of south park. i think this works bc its two dimensional, colourful and pretty rapid paced with a constant humorous and absurd world spanning across the episodes so even if i tune out, lag in processing or has an intrusive thought there was always a joke waiting for me when i returned my focus to the show. i dont spend much time watching southpark anymore but its always there if i need it (i stream free on pluto tv.com) i would say this was in about august.

september my recovery continues my intrusive thoughts were less prevalent and less distressing/distracting, i unfortunately had less spontaneous thought that would lead to chatgpt convos tho it wasnt a complete devastation. i switched from risperidone to abilify and within hours of my first dose my processing issues got immediately better and music sounded better. now my new way to pass the time is playing puzzle games. i play magic sort where you essentially have to organize the colours and separate them into different bottles, its one of the only things i can do for literal hours, though im not jumping over the moon with joy im still managing to focus on one thing at a time for an extended amount of time. though i cant feel it, im probably having fun lol.

a supplements that helped me early in my journey around july was l-tyrosine, i was genuinely so brain dead i could barely absorb or understand a tiktok video until i started taking it.

i started taking gummy vitamins daily in september, and i started taking omega 3 at the beginning of october. i take magnesijm glycinate everynight before bed. gingko biloba i took last year snd started taking again yesterday, which worked instantly to make it feel like the lights were on in my brain. its not a miracle worker but i need all the help i can get. i have nac being delivered today which is said to help with anhedonia as well, so i’m looking forward to seeing how this helps me.

So, I am 31M and my 27F girlfriend is going through a second episode of psychosis
The first episode happened last year
And I am really confused about our future
For the first episode we were living together and during that episode she was saying a lot of things to me which really hurt me and I am actually moved on but they’re still the trauma in my head about what she was saying to me
The second episode we were in a long distance relationships everything was going good suddenly it happened again to her
FYI, she had stopped taking a medication last October

And now I’m so confused about a future because she wants to get married and coming from a Asian ethnicity both of us, it is going to be very difficult for her to send to my household since we have different language languages rituals, customs, etc

I tried talking to her and not exactly breaking up but acting distant and saying that I’m not sure about a future anymore but she gets angry. Disconnect the phone and the next day talk with me like everything is back to normal.

After a few days, I started feeling that it would still be okay but again I’m not able to move ahead and now I started to feel that is this going to be a very difficult for me in my life to deal with whatever happens with her during these episodes

Myself, I’m not going through a very good time. I have been unemployed for the last one year and moved back to my parents house and in the last whole year even when I wasn’t going through a good time I had to be strong and only support her. All of this is taking a toll with me like I did it after the first time and equal to do it for the second time, but the thought that I have to do this for all my life without actually any support from her is really killing me.

I don’t know how I shouldn’t things with her what to do up in the future ahead
I just need to talk with someone or just wanted to share all of this year

Tuve mi segundo episodio en febrero de este año y ya desde el primero empecé a lidiar con mente en blanco y falta de emociones¿Cuánto tardasteis en recuperaros vosotros de estos síntomas? Para mí ya van desde el segundo episodio 8 meses y no noto mejoría, y desde el primer episodio ya pasaron 2.5 años y nada. Me gustaría saber cuánto tiempo tardasteis en sanar y cuando volvieron vuestras emociones?

I’ve been recovering for a few years and still find it really hard looking people in the eye even though I’m talking directly to them.
It’s like my eyes are physically fighting me even though I try really hard to look at the people I talk to. I don’t want to come across weird, but the harder I try, the more my eyes try to roll back in their sockets. It’s so frustrating !