O/T Psychotic Decompensation - Repairing the damages of the drugs/Iodine[?]?

Hey guys, I'm back on the board. I don't know if this is the right place for this but I'd like to share the painful experience I've just gone through .

I still don't understand how this happened but I've just spended 2 months in psychiatry. My therapist told me today that what I probably experienced was a psychotic decompensation, I don't know if anyone on the forum is familiar with this. Well, I don't know where to begin, here is how I vaguely remember the events:

In the week of October 10th, after a sleepless night and an argument with a friend, I suddenly went from very happy, self-confident to a no confidence at all, very depressed, I started to become paranoïd about everyone, to the feeling that everyone was angry at me. Then a few days later, on October 14th, I started to have delusions, that I was in a reality show, that everything I saw on TV, heard on the radio or read on the internet was aiming at me. I had completely lost the contact with reality. My parents, very worried to see me in that state, drove me the the emergencies, where I had a complete bloodwork done. Everything was perfect, except for one thing: TSH, abnormally elevated they told me with the value of 6µUI/mL CS, can you comment on this please?

Long story short, on October 17th, I was driven to a private psychiatric clinic, I can't recall of anything that happened of that day. I still thought I was in a reality show, that every other person I encountered in the hospital was an actor, I believed everything was scripted, that even the drugs were fake. Now that I know what they've given me, I thank god that I've managed to get out of it with all my mind, or even alive. Here's the list are the drugs they put me on:

Invega (9 mg),an antipsychotic/neuroleptic
Seroquel XR 800, then 400 then 200
Flurazepam, a benzodiazepin
Lexapro (20 mg), the famous SSRI antidepressant

Needless to say that I pretty much became a vegetable. It took a month before I "wake up" and realized that yes, I was in a real mental hospital, that all that happened was only my erroneous interpretation of reality. The medical staff and my relatives kept telling me that maybe it was because of the 12,5 mg of iodine I took for a month and a half that maybe I harmed my body with it (but at the same time, that the drugs were all good, yeah right ).

I got back home for new years eve and managed with the help of a psychiatrist and some supplements to get rid of the Invega, the Seroquel and the Flurazepam. I am gradually reducing my Lexapro dose and hopefully, I'll be safely off the drug in two weeks.

So CS, others, what do you think, do you have an idea of what deficiencies or ailments can cause this type of psychotic/(schizophrenic?) episode? of what supplements could help me to prevent it from happening again?
Could it be the iodine by I don't know releasing toxic metals into my brain?
Also, do you know the potential damages or imbalances that the drugs listed can create and how to correct them?

Thanks in advance for the replies .

I remember you as a very disagreeable person. You completely brushed aside that anti-depression drugs can cause some hairloss. With your personality, I'm not surprised you are facing these issues now. I hope you don't take that as me disrespecting you; just my observation.

As for the Iodine, did you take it with the companion supplements? Were you salt-loading as well? Did you take breaks? And were you on Lexapro before this episode?

Sorry to hear what you went through.

Don't mean to answer for CS but if I had an issue with it one of the first things I would do is check if I had an HPU/KPU issue and correc it.

Would also want to avoid dairy, wheat and sugar.

Would also buy a Static Gen II or Pyro Energen to take care of any possible viral issue (borna virus) and use everyday and then use sporadically the rest of your life to keep all viral issues at bay.

And in case you were toxic with bromine would recommend salt loading protocol which should be done with all Iodine use anyway. Bromine is knocked lose with Iodine supplementation but would highly doubt such a small dose of Iodine caused such an issue and thus would have been extreme toxic with bromine before supplementation. Interestingly, medications such as finasteride contain bromine if I'm not mistaken.

Course there are other issues, but that's what I would think of right away.

hope this helps

Were you on prescription drugs when this happened?

Thanks for your answers

I'm already avoiding dairy and am trying to keep wheat comsumption to a minimum. I only eat some sugar from some 70% dark chocolate and the rest from fruits and juices.

To answer to zerx and NWD, no I was not taking any medication before or when it happened. At the time, I had stopped Lexapro 4 months before.

@zerx - I understand your criticism, when I look at my older posts, I can't even believe it was me who wrote some of the things , I had some remarks in my daily life too, I think I got a little too much excited because of my hair results or something :p

Little question about wheat/gluten: I've been tested for gluten and the results was that I was absolutely not allergic to it, so do you think I can get away with eating some?

Fred, it sounds like you had a really intense experience. Are you having any paranoia now? Do you know if anyone in your family has had a similar experience?

I am just thinking off the top of my head here but I noticed the correlation between stopping the SSRI and decompensating. I know that correlation does not equal causation but do you think that stopping the SSRI made you vulnerable? Increased stress can make someone more likely to stop sharing the same reality as others and I can only imagine that it was really scary.

I have been on SSRI's since I was 12. At that time I had pretty awful OCD. I no longer have OCD, and this is without psychotherapy. Some do not believe that there are neurological reasons for anxiety, depression, psychosis, etc. but I do.

If you are determined to get off the SSRI's then I feel as though it would make sense to start therapy- otherwise you are removing something without having support there to help identify unhelpful thoughts. Therapy can change the brain neurologically in a similar fashion as SSRI's. What do you think?

Hi Fred I'm just about to run out somewhere for a while, but wanted to mention that an elevated TSH can be caused by usage of iodine. It's not a bad thing, however most medical professionals are trained to think it is. Iodine usage can cause a transient rise in TSH within the first 6-months of usage.

The TSH test itself is not a reliable diagnostic indicator and has been proven to be inadequate. Unfortunately, it is a test that many take seriously. In my experience, it should be taken with other tests to confirm any sort of abnormality.

You still haven't told us if you were taking the Iodine with the necessary complimentary supplements.

A possible explanation of what you experienced could be that maybe you didn't come off the Lexapro slowly enough when you stopped it 4 months before. Maybe your brain was still very dependent on it and couldn't function correctly without.

Also, it could be an adrenal issue (long shot I know). If you took Iodine to fix your thyroid but didn't do anything for your adrenals, then that can stress you greatly. I've done that once before and I had serious problems with stress.

Plus, if you had a lot of Bromine in your system, you couldn't just take Iodine and sit back waiting for things to fix themselves. You have to salt-load so as to push the Bromine out and let the Iodine replace it.

One final point. I noticed you took 12.5mg of [you didn't mention if Lugols or some other form of Iodine]. I used to take very little of Lugols per day and noticed I wasn't getting any benefit from it. After asking in another forum that specializes in Iodine, I got advised that the best thing to do was to use higher doses of it. After upping my dosage, I started feeling better.

And I wish you all the best Fred.

Even though I know the vast majority in here don´t trust articles written by psychiatrists, here is an interesting link showing that thyrotoxicosis can induce psychosis - http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/561834_3

There´s also an intersting thread about this: http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1335329#i

The bottom line is that iodine most certainly had something to do with this. Supplements aren´t always that innocent, as it is usually said in this and other forums.

As to the drugs they gave you, it wouldn´t make sense to use both Invega and Seroquel (specially 800mg!). Seroquel as extremely strong anti-H1 properties and it´s very sedative. Besides that, using two antipsychotics at the same time doesn´t make sense unless you are talking about treatment resistant schizophrenia.

As to the escitalopram, I can´t also find any logic in it. You mentioned mood fluctuation and psychosis. That would warrant a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, not of unipolar depression with psychotic features. In this case, mood stabilizers would be the most correct answer, and would have probably avoided a two month stay at the clinic (half of that time, probably).

As to you stopping the escitalopram 4 months before. There´s no way you would still be suffering withdrawal symptoms of it, specially symptoms severe enough to cause psychosis. Your episode was acute and probably related with other circumstances and/or psychiatric disease.

FredtheBelgian wrote:Little question about wheat/gluten: I've been tested for gluten and the results was that I was absolutely not allergic to it, so do you think I can get away with eating some?

Definitely no IMO. Anyone who went through what you went through or went through even smaller issues needs to avoid 100% avoid all gluten and dairy. Period. Corn and soy would also be good if you can as that can also cause issues.

You see, tests do not work for gluten intolerance! They can tell if you have a sensitivity but when they come back negative does not mean you do not have a sensitivity to gluten. So again, they can only tell you if you have a sensitivity but they cannot rule out a sensitivity. Can't stress that enough.

Also can't stress the importance of food as well in cases such as this. 100% avoidance is needed and not 95%. Even at 95% of avoidance may not work.

I remember watching a long lecture from Dr. Blaylock who is one of the world's authority on brain issues from excitotoxicity on mercolas website. One of the most striking things about that lecture is how he would talk about how correcting the diet from people in a mental home and a very larger percentage their condition was reversed. So long as they avoid those foods that I mentioned of wheat, dairy, corn and soy, they had no issues at all. I bet if you tried stopping "100%" avoidance of these products you'll see just how addicted you are to them. The more addicted you are to these products (which also means processed food as processed foods contain those foods for a reason), the more likely you are to be sensitive to them. So again, in general the foods one is addicted to, the foods that one has a hard time giving up are usually the foods that are causing them harm. The worse the addiction to such food the greater the harm, in general.

Really amazing information when you think about it. Everyone is on all these medications and even extreme cases are able to be reversed just on diet alone!

And again, HPU/KPU you definitely need to look into! Especially if you burn easy in the sun rather than tan. What HPU/KPU means is there is a severe nutritional deficiency of a couple very cheap vitamins that causes a defect in the ability to remove heavy metals and such from the body.

I know in the early part of the 20th century is it was shown those who were in a mental home (I'm guessing 45%) were in their because of being extremely toxic in bromine. Back then there was bromine in medication and such causing issues here. Salt loading protocol http://www.breastcancerchoices.org/drshevin.html would be the answer for bromine issues. In short, I would highly doubt Iodine caused an issue for you at that low dosage unless you were at an "extreme" case of having bromine in your system. You'd probably would have to have been living off of brominated drinks such as Gatorade, orange drinks or Mountain Dew for your whole life. Iodine wouldn't have been a good idea though if you were not on a salt loading protocol to detox the bromine knocked lose when taking Iodine.

Anyhow, there definitely is hope and no need to ever go through that again in the future. I know other people may think they are invulnerable to something you went through but the truth is almost everyone I come across on the street has some form of derealization going on. Almost everyone. It's amazing.

hope this helps and good luck to you.

Hey Fred, glad you're back man! Know that your example of will shown on this site and the changes you have fought for aren't unnoticed.

I've spent my fare share of time with Psychiatrists, and I have had similar experiences to yours. The first couple of years detoxing and coming off of the medications are the hardest and every issue that is buried in your body will have to be completely re-felt before you end up dealing with it.

I can give no advice that hasn't already been given, rdkml's advice especially as I feel that he's one of those forces I've come across that would be responsible for my life being still intact.

Stay strong, I hope this works out for you man. It will, with time and patience.

I can't thank you enough for those answers. Sadly, I was salt-loading with wright salt, and was cautiously following the iodine protocol, I took only 1g of vitamin C instead of 3g. I was taking iodine in the form of Iodoral (12,5 mg), half a tablet for half of my iodine intake period and a full tablet during the second half.

Maybe it's not really the most important thing at the moment, but I'm still thinking and obsessing about my hair, and that I had found some sort of magic bullet with that iodine thing, even though I did not see any positive result hairwise after 1 month and a half. Do you think the iodine is a no-no for me from now on? I'm currently taking a Kelp supplement with only the classic RDA (150 mcg).

Right now, the state of my hair does not seem so good to me, but my relatives say they don't see any difference, maybe it is just me or because it is cut short, or possibly because I'm still a bit depressed, but nothing major. I've just got back on the top 6 and hope everything will turn out alright.

Thanks a lot for your support .

There are also some case reports of acute changes in thyroid status followed by episodes of psychosis.

FredtheBelgian wrote:I can't thank you enough for those answers. Sadly, I was salt-loading with wright salt, and was cautiously following the iodine protocol, I took only 1g of vitamin C instead of 3g. I was taking iodine in the form of Iodoral (12,5 mg), half a tablet for half of my iodine intake period and a full tablet during the second half.

Maybe it's not really the most important thing at the moment, but I'm still thinking and obsessing about my hair, and that I had found some sort of magic bullet with that iodine thing, even though I did not see any positive result hairwise after 1 month and a half. Do you think the iodine is a no-no for me from now on? I'm currently taking a Kelp supplement with only the classic RDA (150 mcg).

Right now, the state of my hair does not seem so good to me, but my relatives say they don't see any difference, maybe it is just me or because it is cut short, or possibly because I'm still a bit depressed, but nothing major. I've just got back on the top 6 and hope everything will turn out alright.

Thanks a lot for your support .

If you have any kind of thyroid disorder, I would suggest that you try higher dosage of Iodoral together with higher C, Magnesium, Boron, Selenium, and high dose B2 and B3. Take the Iodoral in the morning on empty stomach. Take the others with breakfast. Then in the afternoon do the salt loading; if you don't pee a substancial amount with 45 minutes, salt load again. And don't overlook your adrenals during this time. In fact I think you should take something to fix your adrenals before you embark on Iodine. I suggest either adrenal cortex or topical pregnenolone(thanks CS!).

hairze wrote: Supplements aren´t always that innocent, as it is usually said in this and other forums.

Indeed, taking the supplements recommended here on this forum caused me severe diarrhea and lead to the diagnose of lymphocytic colitis!
Before taking these IH supplements my bowel movements were perfectly fine.
I started a thread about this and expected to get some feedback but I hardly got any reply.
It seems that people don't want to hear about the negative side-effects that taking supplements can cause.
And no I am not talking about detox symptoms, in my case it was permanent damage!

Hope you get better soon fred!

Sterkte!

this is just my 2 cents, but i would say it was played in large part by the iodine. I think you induced hyperthyroidism and people with psych problems seem to really react strongly to iodine resulting in anxiety.

There's no shortage of hits when you google "hyperthyroidism psychiatric symptoms". Here's just a paragraph from one:

Symptoms of hyperthyroidism can mimic those of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Psychiatric symptoms can include psychosis, paranoia, anxiety, social withdrawal, intrusive thoughts of violence or bizarre sexual ideation, cognitive impairment, apathy, depression, mania, irritability and emotional lability. Patients can have subclinical (low level) hyperthyroidism co-existing with the psychiatric conditions or vice-versa. Lithium can be helpful for some patients with mood problems co-existing with subclinical hyperthyroidism.

Hypothyroid will make you tired and depressed, hyperthyroid can make you a serious paranoid nutcase. 4 months out on lexapro is not going to suddenly cause this.

You may want to google "histapenia and histadelia". They are psychiatric disorders treated in orthomolecular medicine of too much or too little histamine, which is used as a marker for methyl/folate ratio. You may be an over/under-methylator.

As has been mentioned, if you have adrenal problems, boosting thyroid is not good.

BTW- Don't worry too much about "breaking from reality". There are as many realities out there as there are people. Each mind literally creates its own world and no 2 are alike. What I'm saying is that there is no "real" or "universal" reality when you are talking about mental and cognitive processes. Reality is just what is happening before the mind commentates on what is happening. Most people take the commentary to be more real than what is actually just happening.