Prednisone Warrior Robert shares his tale of suffering psychotic side effects after taking high dose prednisone. Find out how long it took and what to expect.

Prednisone Psychotic Symptom Recovery

Written by Prednisone Warrior Robert

Dear Prednisone Warriors,

I would like to tell others of my very difficult experience with Prednisone, if only to help tell to allow those recovering from the psychotic symptoms read that recovery will come in time. My story deals with this very experience of having become psychotic due to Prednisone three years ago.

The background of my case deals with poorly monitored prescriptions which lead to me developing a blood disorder called polycythemia, which caused me to develop a very bad rash all over my body. I have a blog that outlines the entire ordeal, robertaurichblog.blogspot.com

To treat the polycythemia, over a three-month period, I was given three 10-day courses of 50 milligrams pills of Prednisone, and basically my mind suffered greatly. The final course, sent me into a full-blown psychotic event. This period lasted weeks, until I feel out of the mania, and became depressed and suicidal. To make matter worse, my actions while psychotic had become very bizarre and I was arrested. Due to this, a psychological forensics report was done, and I was indeed diagnosed as having gone psychotic, and the legal matters were understood and dropped.

Yet, recovery from this period of psychosis was very difficult to recover from. In the psychosis, I was hearing voices, I detached from reality, and energized with a sort of generalized hate. It could be Prednisone unmasked a latent mania, and while I thought I would never recover, over the course of about a year I did. And if you are dealing with post-psychosis, you will too.

My recovery was slow, and even today sleep does not come easily without nightmares. Yet, I was eager to learn about the experience of recovery from others while I was in bad shape. I think the best thing to remember is that you will need to trust medical experts, even if this means more medication. Trust me. Once someone goes psychotic, sometimes there will be a need to “break the cycle” of anxiety and such. I also listened to a lot of ambient music online, and whatever you do, do not drink alcohol. Try to get into a good sleep routine, and find people you can talk to, daily, about what you are going through. Reach out to help-lines if needed. When you can, get outside and do something social, if only to walk your neighbourhood. I picked golf as you can talk to people, or play the course on your own.

Don’t measure recovery by the day, but by the month, yet I found that many people expected a quick recovery as you may not “look” sick. But trust yourself, and a professional mental health expert, because I can tell you that the stigma of psychosis is very strong, and most people will have no clue as to what you are going through. 

I was once told that recovery is two years until there aren’t any symptoms of the psychosis, and five years until full recovery, and nearly three years into this process, that seems about right. But always remember, you will recover, the brain is a complicated organ, and these things cannot be rushed. But you will recover. Stay strong!