are you aware when your getting sick?

when your becoming sick and starting to have psychosis, are you aware somethings not right? what helps you, or what symptoms help you realize somethings not right? has this ever happened to you...? after my baby was born i was phsycially exhausted, yet 3 days after the birth, I still had not fallen asleep...that was the first inkling I had something wasnt right. I waited, a couple more days passed and i just plain couldnt sleep. I was also at the same time having alot of self accusatory thoughts like im a terrible mother, and i remember the sound of birds singing bothered me, it sounded like they were taunting me. This was the first time i had a psychotic break, it lasted about three weeks. sometime after that, i was diagnosed w/ schizoaffective (but that was seperate from the first episode which was hormonally caused postpartum psychosis)

please share any experience you had of getting sick and when you realized it

part of the reason im asking is i have been strugling for the past month with alot of troubling symptoms

i think right before i get sick im aware to some extent that there is something going wrong . But some of the paranoia is so intense i lose the ability to assess myself because it feels so real that it almost never crosses my mind that it might just be paranoia.

Hi. i have been for the last two years with a treatment for episodes of psychosis.
now i get to see more clearly when i am beginning one.

like you say, sleeping is a big issue, if i sleep not enough, ...for me six hours of sleep is not enough, my ears begin to ring and i catch all kinds of sounds, and i feel irritated.

also my thoughts begin to repeat themselves, i think a lot in images, so the image repeats itself over and over.....

or the contrary.....like with a computer, i open many programs in my head instead of doing one thing at a time, and it comes a moment when i can not think anymore. i am stuck.!

i get anxious, nervous, i begin with physical signs that the stress is growing and triggering my psychotic episodes....even dogs notice it..... they bark at me more often, i hate it!!

there are many signs that tell me, stop, let go!, change this path....
but sometimes, or often i think, .....just a bit more...i just want to get this done...
and things get worst.

it think is a learning process....
but first step is a Good Good rest!!! good luck!

I have only had one psychotic episode. The lack of sleep was a HUGE indicator if I had only recognized it, which I did not because I don't sleep well anyway. I had been diagnosed with PTSD a year before and then in rapid succession 4 things happened that year later: an estrangement from my sister, my son told me he'd been molested by his step-grandmother, he had a heart attach and my 19 year old nephew fell while hiking 40 feet onto his head and was not expected to live. (He did) After my son's heart attach, #2 of the 4, I have a website that I arbitrarily designed in fantastic, crazy colors over a period of 48 non-stop hours. I didn't catch the signs, I thought I was so scared for my son! Crying a lot. No-one caught it. Then when #4, the news of my nephew came, I heard it, said OMG and that is all I remember for a week. When I came back, I slowly became paranoid, poring through phone records convinced that my husband was cheating on and on. I had my son convinced. No one suspected I was so fricking convinced myself, and I never saw the signs. I hope to G*d I would now, and also my family if it ever happened again. It was a nightmare.

No. I realize I was sick later. Wish it were a little different in that regard. Discipline I guess.