Meltdown or Psychotic Episode?

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Hello all,

I had a rather disturbing experience yesterday involving my friend, who has been told it's likely she has AS and is waiting on an official diagnosis.

My friend had been drinking heavily and suddenly became very depressed. She then ran into her neighbour's garden and started yelling "this is my house, I should live here!", so I ran to get her mum, but she was asleep and couldn't hear me knock on the the door. I went back to my friend and she was sitting, huddled up, crying and claiming she lost her ring, and needed to find her ring.

Eventually, I was able to get her mum and when we found her again she was yelling nonsense about the previous owners of the house. We tried to get her to come into her own house, so she could calm down, since it was after 1am. She wouldn't come with us, and obviously we didn't want to leave her there, so we tried to drag her home, but she tried to punch me, then ran away from us and started screaming and yelling nonsense. She then tripped and fell flat on her face, and we had to hold her on the ground because she was completely out of control. Her dad called an ambulance because we didn't know what else to do. When the ambulance arrived my friend started accusing one of the paramedics of raping her, and they said they couldn't take her to hospital if she didn't want to go (she refused to go). Her mum coaxed her to come into the house, but she aws still rambling about her missing ring, despite telling her we could get it in the morning, and still accusing the paramedic of raping her.

I was really upset over the whole ordeal, as I have never seen anyone behave like that before, never mind my friend. I was supposed to go into work today and I couldn't go in because I was so physically and emotionally drained.

I have AS and have had what I think is a meltdown, but it was nothing like how she was behaving.

Could this have been a really severe meltdown, or something more serious, like a psychotic episode?

PS. Today she said she was angry with her mum after "how she treated her last night", even though we had to restrain her because she was going to hurt herself. She doesn't seem to care about how her behaviour impacts on other people. Her mum and myself were really upset, and I don't think she has a right to be angry with her, but that's besides the point.

That was psychotic. In my opinion.

Yes, psychotic
A meltdown you might not be thinking straight, but while in meltdown mode thing do NOT pop in your head that are not happening, like this.
It COULD have been brought on by the heavy drinking, then the next day she might be remembering it as something totally differnt from what actually happend.
I am guessing she is over 18? This would be the only way the ambulance would have been alowed to refuse taking her. If it happens again I would advise her mother calling the psych center at the local hospital or the police. The police or the psych center could force her to go to the hospital if she is in a psychotic episode and cant think straight. So if there is a next time, call one of them first before you have a ambulance come.
Here is a good site I found explaining
http://www.mentalhealthcare.org.uk/content/?id=120

Thanks for the advice.

The next thing I want to ask then is whether or not someone with AS can have a psychotic episode? Or could it be that she doesn't have AS, but something else (schizophrenia, BPD, etc)?

Yes to all that, can have AS and have psychotic episode, or could not be AS and any number of things going on. A evaluation is important so hopfuly this does not happen again. If it happend once there is a good chance it will happen again, but next time might be much worse, hard to tell. When I was little, a relative had psychotic episode and chased me around with a knife, you dont want anything like that to happen.

Too late, she tried to stab her dad last week 8(

has she been experimen ting with halucinatory drugs (marajuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, to name a few) recently? and shizophrenia is unlikely in this situation, because that is more based on paranoia, and this sounds more like a drug thing than anything to me.

SO SO Sorry to hear that, is she getting help now, hopefully at a psych center or hospital? Psychotic episodes are usually set off by stress, and there could be a number of differnt things causing this to happen. If she is getting the help she needs then hopefully they will work it out and she will be fine and home before you know it.

I spoke to the AS psychologist who runs the support group we both attend, and she said that medication can sometimes react differently in someone with AS. My friend "G" is on tons of meds for depression, chronic pain, etc, so meds+alcohol= disaster. The psych said she would speak to my friend after easter (they're both going on holiday).

I spoke to my G's friend "C" about this and she said she has been dealing with this for years. She hasn't spoken to G in a while because she was tired of sitting in hospital after yet another overdose, being told that G's liver could fail at any moment, only to have her recover and get drunk the next week.

I spoke to G yesterday and she didn't even acknowledge the incident, which makes me think she either doesn't know, or care, about how her behaviour effects other people.

i dont kn because im not a doctor, but ive only been psycotic once in my life and it happend a few years ago, i had to be hospitilized for it and i remember just staying in one position for hours starring and feeling like i was melting like an ice cream cone on a hot day. one of the doctors thought i had catonic schizophrenia, thankfully i didnt get diagnosed with it because it has never happend since. my life was a mess then, and i think i was just at a severly low point in my life and that should never happen again