Hi Lola

This all sounds very difficult for you and I am not a psychiatrist or  
a psychologist in any form that i can help with a diagnosis.  You do  
not say if you are a nurse however if you are and your with the RCN  
they will offer confidential support with counselling and grant you  
five telephonic sessions very quickly if you need the support for  
yourself.  They are excellent.

You dont say how often your friend is being supervised by the crisis  
mental health team and to what extent nor what type of medication  
(name) she is taking and what her daily routine and sleep pattern  
is.  I should also mention MIND is also very supportive as is  
Breathing Space for support to you.  When your close to someone and  
therefore there is an emotional attachment to the issues/person this  
makes this issue extremely difficult for you.  The care team she is  
under has a duty of care to your friend so try not to take ownership  
of this though this is easy for me to say they too have  
responsibilities and should have done and still do risk assessment  
for your friend.

I dont know what to advise other than the direction with this and to  
section 18 to avoid potential for harm to self and that of others.   
In time once the correct treatment has been given a chance and time  
to be therapeutic your friend should hopefully see how unwell she had  
been and it may be an isolated event premeditated by a trigger and  
the support and treatment input will help avoid/reduce future  
occurence. She will reflect and be able to see what a good friend you  
are and the support of family.  Her illness be organic if there has  
been no trigger but once her understanding/input etc to manage this  
has been gained she can carry on with normal life following this  
episode all being well.

Dr Alan who is a GP on this forum and has extensive experience may be  
able to offer more concise help and support with your post.

However may i offer best wishes to you and thank goodness for good  
friends which you clearly are

Stephanie Nicoll
On 14 Apr 2010, at 15:46, Lola Wood wrote:

>
>
> Dear All,
>
>
>
> I have a friend who seems to be suffering from of some degree of  
> Psychosis or personality disorder . This all started in December  
> last year. She said she was preparing dinnner when she started to  
> feel unwell and described the experience is as if somebody had  
> given her something trippy. That night she started to hear voices  
> and the voices were telling her that she was going to be killed.  
> One of the voices was her brothers. She grabbed a knife and tried  
> to escape her boyfriend was with her all the time heard notthing.  
> He ate the same food as her and nothing.
>
>
>
> She then convinced herself it was her work that was doing  
> everything spying on her and trying to poison her. She stopped  
> eating at home and restorted to carrying any food with her. She is  
> under the mental health crisis team and an OH adviser.
>
>
>
> Now that she has not been to work for several months - she is now  
> accusing her friends and her boyfriend of doing all the bad things  
> that are happening to her.
>
>
>
> She is hearing a male voice when she is alone telling her not to  
> trust her boyfriend or her friends that we are out to get her and  
> cause her unhappiness as we betrayed her. She thinks that people  
> are talking about her when she is out shopping and they know things  
> about her.
>
>
>
> In December she was due to sell her flat and move somewhere else. I  
> think this may have triggered events. Her Father committed suicide  
> in his early 70's and that time neither her or her two brothers  
> were speaking to the father whose behaviour had become erratic as  
> he was convinced that someone was to get him.
>
>
>
> I have spent days with so she would not be alone and she is  
> displaying symptoms of paranioa. She thinks I am talking about her  
> all the time and that I am the one who is making her life  
> unbearable. I think that she is terrified. She has only started  
> taking anti - depressants. She thinks she is being bugged and that  
> is how people know so much about her. She says she has set test on  
> to people to see if they are betraying her. She says she is not  
> having a break down or suffering psychosis that she would know if  
> she was that she is intelligent enough to work it out.
>
>
>
> The Mental Health team have said to her to make herself feel as  
> secure as possible if people are out to get her. They have started  
> to weigh her incase the anorexia has returned. I do not think that  
> she is telling them as much as she is telling them. I know that she  
> would not harm herself but I do think that this more than a bit of  
> parnanoia and anxiety.
>
>
>
> Please help. I am at a loss and heartbroken that my best friend  
> thinks that I would try to jeapordise anything in her life!
> Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up now.  
> ******************************** Please remove this footer before  
> replying.
> OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html
> CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ 
> filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH

********************************
Please remove this footer before replying.

OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html

CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH