Published May 26, 2016
Abbyrose
12 Posts
This might sound wild, but has anyone else who has worked in psych for a while ever have a schizophrenic or psychotic patient say or know things about you that's impossible for them to know? In the past few years, I've had a couple patients say things that I thought, "that's weird, how would they know that?"For example, one patient who was actively responding to internal stimuli, was laughing and chatting away with himself, stopped and turned to me and said you and Abby (my daughters name) were playing scrabble. Then resumed his self-talk....Earlier that day, I was playing words with friends with Abby! Another instance, a couple nights after having a friendly debate with a coworker about prolife vs pro choice, a pt came up to me and said "I have a message from God....'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet ...". We were not around any patients and it was the middle of the night when my coworker and I were talking....
Okay, i realize these and a couple other circumstances could be chalked up to me reading into things, but a couple nights ago the wildest one yet was when a pt said "Bill wants you to know he's okay..... I'm picking him up on my satellite" I calmly said "ok, anything else?" He said "he loves you"...my dad died 5 years ago, and his name is bill.... I told a coworker who later asked him "who is Bill that you were talking to?" The patient who is black (my dad white) said "he's my brother.....Well, (pointing to his skin) not my brother, brother. My Catholic brother". Again he was on point. We are Catholic.
Anyone else have stories like these?? I find it fascinating!!!!
OldDude
1 Article; 4,787 Posts
I'm not a psych nurse and have never worked in a psych facility and I truly thank God for psych nurses. So this isn't coming from psych nursing experience but I'm 100% convinced there are people walking this Earth who have such ability to communicate with those gone before us. I would not be surprised if there is a psych connection in those who can...or maybe they don't have a psych condition at all but it is "us" who have the psych condition?
LemonAide
26 Posts
When I was a CNA I worked in a locked Alzheimers unit. One of my favorite patients was this cranky old doctor most of the other staff couldn't/wouldn't care for him cause he was on the violent side. He was always talking to people or things that weren't there. Anyway one night when I was tucking him in he said I have a message for you, "your husband wants you to know he's okay and that you are a good mother". Chances are that could have been random but my husband had been dead two years when he told me that. Took everything I had to keep my cool and not cry. I never and still don't bring my personal life to work there's no way he had any idea I was widowed at such a young age. It was really weird.
Get2theChoppa
210 Posts
... No.
Davey Do
10,608 Posts
Yes!
https://allnurses.com/psychiatric-nursing/psychotic-psychic-923578.html
cayenne06, MSN, CNM
1,394 Posts
Well, I always wonder about theoretical quantum effects at the biological level. We know there are more dimensions than we can perceive, and we really don't know if time has an inherent directionality due to the law of thermodynamics or some other physical law that we don't yet understand. Birds rely on quantum effects for migration. Plants rely on it for photosynthesis. I like to speculate wildly that some of the "paranormal" perceptions might in some way be explained by that. And if I accept that (completely baseless) premise, it is plausible that disorders/variations in neurochemistry or neural circuitry could allow some quantum effects to manifest more consciously. But that is nothing more than an idle thought experiment.
Chaoticdreams33, MSN, RN
299 Posts
I have not had this happen with a patient. But on a somewhat related note, there is a psychiatrist at a local mental health agency who doesn't believe in treating psychosis/hallucinations with medications. instead he runs a group teaching patients how to best use this "gift." I end up seeing a lot of his patients in the ED, just saying. í ½í¸
Scarlettz, BSN, RN
258 Posts
I posted a similar post about this a few months back when I had a weird experience when I first started psychiatric nursing. One morning I had a woman come up to me at the medication window, somewhat in a frenzy, and said "Who's Chloe!?" (Name has been changed for story) and I just looked at her with a deer in headlight look because it was the name of my daughter. She does not have a common name, no one there shared the name, and I was new and had not shared any personal information with anyone. I finally said, "I don't know?" And then she replied, "She woke me up!" I was of course freaked out at first but then I became less scared and more intrigued by this experience. I wish I asked her something more then, but didn't think of it.
I also had a patient who I was concerned about his liver function. He was on Depakote and I was concerned that it was hurting his liver and it was on my mind a lot. One night he was real manic and said to me, "Don't worry. I have a strong liver." I wanted to ask him more about it, but he was distracted by someone else.
WinterLilac
168 Posts
My experience is probably just pure chance but we had a client who was constantly delusional. A schizophrenic stemming from years of LSD abuse who never made much sense when he talked. I remember I was prompting him to do his usual ADL's and commented later to a colleague (behind closed doors) "I hope he doesn't think I'm trying to Mother him". Later on he came to the office and out of the blue said "You've been my mum for a long time eh?".
When I was a nursing student in a secure psych ward, I remember asking my nurse buddy if maybe, just maybe, people with schizophrenia really were being monitored by the FBI because they really could communicate with aliens?! I expected him to laugh at me but he said with a straight face "I've wondered that too" and walked off.
steph8
1 Post
I just had an experience like this today! I had a pt who has schizophrenia but has been stable for years on meds although they still hear voices from angels. The pt told me very personal things I cannot disclose here that only a handful of people on earth know. No way to find this very specific info on social media or anywhere. I never thought there could be a link but now I do. I hope someone researches this because I'm not finding much out there. Very interesting.