she needs help and so do i!

[JJ16]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and also new to needing support and help being a friend of someone with psychosis. 

I have a lot of questions. i really need the help and support as i honestly dont know what to do. i dont even know where to start with getting help let alone helping my friend! 

so my friend is like a sister to me. We have gone through so much together. her and her mother took me in when i really needed a place to live. 
unfortunately we lost touch for a couple of years. life just got in the way, but our relationship has always been very strong. her mother recently passed away. her and her mother were extremely close. they lived together. they shared everything together, even there dog. who her aunty took away when her mother died. i cant imagine the loss she would be feeling, the many emotions that she would be going through... 

after a couple of months of talking on messenger I finally went and saw her...

i knew it was going to be very different, especially with her mum not being there but i was not prepared for what it was and in all honesty it was hard to be around her. even harder to hold a conversation with her.

she has had psychosis in the past. i should mention that in the past i believe her psychosis is drug induced, i think. as far as i know she is still using meth. she is taking what the doctors have prescribed her as well but are they even doing anything if she is still using? i dont know how it all works. she keeps saying that she is trying and going to get off it, but she has been saying that for as long as ive known her. i'm an addict myself, 2 years clean, so i know what she really means when she says those things. when anyone, even the doctors say that the meth isnt helping she goes into a psychosis of everyone being against her. once again as far as i know she has not gone more than a week with out using. 

i have never seen her in this way. she has completely lost hold of all reality. before you could change the subject and she would happily go with it and have a conversation. she wouldnt bring anything up for a while. but this time, there was no interest at all in subject change. i did not know how to respond to what she was saying either and i think i said the wrong thing as she went really quiet... i could tell she wanted me to leave. she ended up asking me if i was going to catch that uber. so i went home. i have messaged her and said i was worried about her but she has not replied or gone into the message yet. she recently got a puppy too, and i am scared for the little pup. it was very scared and timid, not what a puppy should be like. i know she would never intentionally hurt an animal, but even she said a few times that she was scared she might hurt her.

i would love and need to get support on how to respond to what she says. help with any resources that could help me help her get some professional help with getting off the meth, help her feel safe around her own doctors. or suggestions on what i should do, where i could go from here. to be honest i feel like i need help with needing help. my heart is breaking for her. i cant imagine the fear she would be feeling

but mainly, she is a beautiful soul and she doesnt deserve to go through what she is going through. i would like to do everything in my power to help her find peace and find herself again. 

thank you 

 appreciate you all

[Ru-bee]

Hi @JJ16 and welcome to the forums.

I'm so glad that you've found this space and are looking for support in this. It's a really hard position to be in, and it's clear how much you care for your friend and how worrying this last meeting was.

I'm going to put in some info and resources below so that you can have a few different avenues to check out, but first I just want to check in on how you're going? Do you have any supports who you've been able to lean on lately?

You mention that you believe your friend's previous psychosis was drug-induced, and while we can't know for sure, it could be a factor since psychosis and drug use can sometimes feed into each other - If you have experienced psychosis in the past, then you're at a higher chance of drug use triggering another occurrence of this, and if you use drugs you are at a higher risk of experiencing psychosis and can lead to longer term psychotic symptoms. If you want to learn a bit more about this you can check out this resource.

For help specifically with addiction, this page has a few different free helplines that you can contact for advice, or you can encourage your friend to contact.

It can be really tricky when talking to someone who is experiencing psychosis, there's a helpful resource with tips on this here 

I don't want to bombard you with info so I'll leave that here, but I also want to encourage you or your friend to contact the SANE helpline on   1800 187 263 if you need some more immediate support.

Take care - Ru-bee