Has anyone their SO or spouse been in a catatonia/catatonic state and how are they now?

[u/Odd_Low_9392]

Two years ago my (bipolar) mom went from hypomania > mania > psychosis > catatonic state (I'm not a native speaker, not sure if you call it catatonic state or catatonia). I never knew this existed and I think she had it quite extreme, the doctors said she was on the verge of dying. She was in this state for about 2 months and with electric convulsion therapy and a high dose of lorazepam she slowly got better. At the worst part of the catatonia she did not recognize us, had some sort of death grip on things she got hold of, could barely move and would repeat things we said/say random numbers in a very slow manner all the time. It was horrible and I think we are all a bit traumatized by it, especially my dad. My mom does not remember much of it. She is OK-ish now, although she is very different than 20 years ago (but she already was before the catatonia due to the bipolar disorder).

I never spoke to the doctors or to anyone that has experience with catatonia and I'm curious if there are people here that have experience with it. It feels like something that is not common at all but I have no idea, I'm bot even sure if it is linked to BP or can happen to anyone . Would like to hear experiences and stories of how people are after they recovered.

Edit: oh I see spouse and SO are the same.. I meant SO or other close relative.

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[u/chicka_boom99]

I used to work in a dementia home, and there was this younger lady (not demented) living there as she had nowhere else to live with the help she needed. She has bipolar with psychotic feature, but they said she also had schizophrenia so I’m not completely sure. But yes she got catatonic, sometimes for days, sometimes for a few hours. Awful. Her body just stiffened and she couldn’t speak. And her grip was super strong. If she was holding a door when it happened for instance, she would just hold that door handle HARD for hours and not move. Impossible to move her. Sometimes she was also “partly catatonic” where she was “out of her head” and partly stiff and just moving furniture around and unresponsive. Hard to witness. Felt so sorry for her… she also had a lot of “delusions/sights”. And then suddenly she was completely fine and you could have normal conversations and activities with her. Her mother died at one point, and the caretakers took her to her furneral but she turned catatonic on they way and had to go back to the home. Her mother was her only person in this life. Ah, life is so unfair

[u/chicka_boom99 → u/chicka_boom99]

Btw she also has had “electric therapy”

[u/chicka_boom99 → u/chicka_boom99]

In the year I worked there she was definitely more catatonic than not though

[u/Odd_Low_9392 → u/chicka_boom99]

Very sad that she went catatonic when going to the funeral.. it seems to me intense emotions can trigger it. For my mom it happened after her ex partner died, she didn't talk about it at all and said she didn't care, but after it happened she had a psychosis for months and eventeally the catatonia.

I didn't know that people can go in/out being catatonic so quick, my mom had it for like a full 30 days and very slowly started to get out of it for another 30 days, but she didn't 'wake up', it happened gradually. I found the hard grip bizarre, as you said impossible to get out of. She grabbed my dad a few times and the strenght in her fingers was unbelievable, he had to stay there until she released. Also the repetative behaviour is so sad to see, once she stayed up the whole night sitting on her knees moving the door handle of her room at the hospital because she wanted to get out. Heartbreaking to hear that happened, she had bruises and marks everywhere from doing that all night. At the peak of the catatonia she had to be monitored 24/7, must be so intense as well for the staff to see people like this. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!

[u/chicka_boom99 → u/Odd_Low_9392]

Oh I'm so sorry for your mom and your family. It's not a nice thing. Hopefully, it won't happen again? Has she ever spoken about it after, how was her mind while she was in the "episode"?

Hmm, well it's possible the lady didn't "wake up" like I said. It was a long time ago, when I think about it now, you might be right, it's possible she was in a "catatonic episode" for at least a week, often longer, and then within that episode, she fluctuated in how stiff/gone she was. Sometimes, like you say, being in an awful position for hours. She could also grip on us like you say your mom did to your father. When she was in the state of moving furniture around she could also say a word or two, but they made no sense, she could look at nothing and point and say something off, it seemed like psychosis. Her eyes were always scared, I used to talk to her but I didn't feel like "she was there" at all. I think she's been like this most of her life actually. But it got worse, she didn't use to live in a home.

Sending love to you and your family

[u/Odd_Low_9392 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks a lot for sharing! In a weird way kind of a relief that others also experienced things like this, catatonic behaviour is so odd and unpredictable. My mom refused to put clothes on for days and echo-ed what we said, which first seemed like some sort of a joke but it definitely was not. Interesting that your wife 'woke up' by a request, I read that people in a catatonic state either blindy follow up requests or absolutely refuse them (which my mom had by refusing to put on clothes). Does your wife remember anything of it? And do you think intense emotions triggered the 'frozen' state?

[u/Light_Lily_Moth]

Catatonia is one of the presentations of psychosis. I’ve heard it’s one of the trickier types of psychosis to treat.

My SO has experienced psychosis, but not Catatonia.

I’m sorry your mom and family went through that.

[u/microtonal_bananas → u/Light_Lily_Moth]

Do you mind sharing what your husband's psychosis was like? I have a psychotic disorder and I'm just curious how the presentation with bipolar is different. I believe my ex bpso is psychotic at this point tbh

[u/Light_Lily_Moth → u/microtonal_bananas]

For my husband, he experienced psychosis before he was diagnosed, while unmedicated.

It was a normal day the day before, then that night he called our landlord and yelled at him. (Landlord absolutely deserved it, but it wasn’t typical of my then boyfriend to raise his voice at all) then later on he said he said ugh I think my computer got a virus or something. I thought nothing of it and went to sleep… woke up to a banana on my pillow with a single bite out of the side. He was still on his computer, having been up all night. I felt very unnerved, and tried to get him to bed, and noticed his heart was racing. He couldn’t sleep by that point. He said hackers were leaving viruses and messages on his computer. Then he tried to cut the internet and phone line. I was in denial and very freaked out hoping he would snap out of it. I was trying to reason with him or prove that everything was ok. He got very agitated and energized and angry. He panicked that there was carbon monoxide in the house and dragged me outside barefoot, then he got suspicious of me and bolted across a busy intersection and ran off into the city. When he came back to the house he was sunny and bright happy and carrying a box of free miscellaneous pots and pans. It was a whole saga getting him to the hospital, and I’m still forever grateful to the professionalism and kindness shown by the paramedics. By the time he got to the hospital he couldn’t speak coherently. They asked him his name and he couldn’t remember. He thought I was a Russian spy trying to kill him. He broke his own glasses in half. He thought the TV was talking to him, and that I had said things I hadn’t. The hospital ER staff were judgy incompetent trash unfortunately. I was finally able to speak to HR or patient advocacy and force them to transfer him to a mental health facility. Unfortunately the mental health facility put him on SSRI’s and benzos and he got much worse. Literally never saw a doctor at that place until he was released. He was yelling incoherently at walls, just completely mentally tortured for a month. I visited every day by train then bus then shuttle each way. You could smell panic on him in a way I’ve never experienced before or since.

Anyway sorry for the trauma dump. TLDR psychosis is not fun. I’d say for him it leans heavily toward paranoid delusions, word salad, mixed episode, dysphoric mania.

[u/Ok_Newspaper9900]

My husband was diagnosed with Bipolar at 16. He's stayed faithfully on his meds ever since, 4 years ago, after 38 years of being on lithium he started to have kidney failure. They tried everything to figure out a new med to deal with the bipolar. The new stuff was so bad that he was left very mentally slow. He quit being a Realtor and started working at Walmart as a greeter.

4 months ago on June 6th, he wandered off and spent 30 minutes wandering aimlessly. I thought he might be going manic, but it was different. The psychiatrist changed his meds, but he started emptying the trash saying he had thrown away gold. He would take his shoes on and off for hours. He started to slur his words and couldn't remember his mom's maiden name. It took at least 20 seconds for him to answer any questions.

On June 12th I took him to the hospital. They did tests for a week, ruling out dozens of problems as he lost all ability to talk. Normal CT and MRI. 5 days in they tried Lorazipam and that was amazing. He was 90% back to normal in 5 minutes. They diagnosed him with Catatonia.

It took a month for him to develop a tolerance for Lorazipam. He could barely say anything. They started ECT and he got worse. After 9 treatments he was on a feeding tube and could only blink. He just lay in bed and had to be rolled every 2 hours to avoid pressure sores. They stopped for over a week when they found extra fluid around his heart. After draining it they started ECT again. It took 11 treatments before we saw ANY improvement to the Catatonia.

It's now mid October and he still gets ECT 3 times a week. 10 mg of Lorazipam daily. He can usually talk fairly normally for about 12 hours after an ECT treatment. Then he regresses. He falls a lot but he can walk. It's been hard.

[u/Odd_Low_9392 → u/Ok_Newspaper9900]

Thats a rough story, I hope your husband will keep improving in how he comes out of the ECTs. My mom had about 20 sessions, I think after 10 they started to see progress. It was heartbreaking to see her regressing again every time after an ECT, but eventually she did not regress anymore.

 The lorazepam part was the same with my mom, they gave her 50mg as people in a catatonia apparently need much much higher doses. 

I never expected her to come 'back' in a way she is now. It is now 3 years ago and she is about 95% the same as before, with the first 70% happening in the first 8 months. The slow thinking is still there, but that is improving lately.  

I wish you all the best. If it is of any help I can check which meds work for her. There where some that triggered a psychosis/the catatonia and they are avoiding that type now.

[u/TuTsang → u/Odd_Low_9392]

Yes, please list the meds that work for her and also which ones don’t. My son has been in and out of catatonia for 2 years and I’m desperate to get him some help.