Overcoming a psychotic episode

Izabela was born in Macedonia in 1989 and moved to Canberra in 1991. Her parents divorced when she was six years old. Izabela’s mother now lives in Tasmania and her father and stepmother live in Serbia.

Izabela’s mother has schizophrenia and Izabella recalls many times her mother would be talking to herself or was abusive and violent. Izabela ran away when she was 14 to live with her father and stepmother in Canberra.

In January 2017, Izabela had a psychotic episode, which lasted for seven months before she was hospitalised. Over a two-month period Izabela stayed in three different psychiatric wards in Canberra, and was visited by various psychiatrists and social workers.

The year leading up to the psychotic episode was one of the hardest periods of Izabela’s life. She had struggled with depression and during that year she had stopped spending time with her friends and withdrew from her closest family members. She found life truly horrible.

The trigger for Izabela’s psychotic episode was stress. Her employer at the time was undergoing a large restructure where people were made redundant and she feared she would lose her job. Her fear became reality in January 2017.

Izabela began having delusions, hallucinations, and talking to herself a few months before she was made redundant. She believed that someone had taken over her mind, and that she had been given drugs, and that her father had molested her when she was a child. She believed she was in a relationship with someone and they would be together forever. None of these things were true.

One day during the episode, Izabela was in her apartment when her father, who travelled from Serbia, arrived with police officers and the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team. The team asked Izabela some questions and advised that she needed to go to hospital for care.

When Izabela tried to leave the Calvary Hospital Psychiatric Unit, staff advised her that she was still unwell and needed to stay. From there, Izabela was transferred to the Adult Mental Health Unit facility where she stayed for another month. During her stay, the psychiatrists asked her questions and put her on antipsychotic medication.

While in hospital, Izabela’s apartment was repossessed by its owner, who wanted to live there, and she was given one months’ notice to vacate the apartment. A family friend assisted by putting her things in storage and gave her a place to stay once she was released from hospital.

Izabela is very aware that the turn of events could have left her homeless and mentally ill, and she is grateful it didn’t.

The antipsychotic medication took six weeks to take effect and stop the hallucinations. The delusions remained until two weeks after she was released from hospital. The medication caused her to have involuntary twitches and movements, but those eventually went away.

Once a month, for 12 months, Izabela saw a community psychologist, who advised her she was doing well and could continue treatment with a general practitioner.

After being out of work for ten months, Izabela won a position at a small consultancy firm in Canberra. Although she initially believed she was ready to go back to work, she postponed her start date to visit family overseas. By the time Izabela returned to Canberra, she considered herself fit and ready for work.

It has been 12 months since Izabella’s psychotic episodes begun and her outlook on life now could not be more different. She sees the importance of taking care of herself, surrounding herself with good people, and being grateful.

Izabela is not sure if she will have another psychotic episode but will continue taking the antipsychotic medication and recommends anyone with mental health issues to seek treatment and if needed, to stay on their medication.

When reflecting on her psychotic episode, Izabela believes it is the individual’s choices and thoughts that define the kind of person they are. She tries to choose the path of good and light, no matter the circumstances. Throughout her psychotic episode, she felt like she was in a tunnel, knowing she would eventually come out of it and now feels so much stronger in herself. She can trust her thoughts again, able to let go of her fears, accepting people as they are and not trying to change them.

The changes Izabela has made in her life, includes actively taking time out for reflection and awareness. She ensures to take care of herself by limiting stress and getting a good night’s sleep. She has grown closer to her family and talks to them on the phone once a week.

Izabela reminds herself in stressful situations of what she has overcome, and this allows her to remain calm.

Feeling the happiest she has ever been, she walks around Lake Burley Griffin while listening to her favourite music, catches up with close friends regularly for lunch or a movie and, like many people, she got hooked on Game of Thrones and sulked about the ending.

Izabela considers herself a normal person who has been through an extraordinary situation.