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Cocaine Delirium Psychosis

Our beloved son died recently from a jumping head first out of a window after heavy crack cocaine use. We think that his jumping was related to cocaine delirium psychosis. What is known about this syndrome?
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Avatar universal
Oh you spent so much time on your response and I hate to tell you that it is a very old thread...it is from 2007. However, anytime you want to post something just click post a question and go.... This forum is wonderful for info and support and I am assuming you are recovering from coke...we have few people here that used coke as their drug of choice (DOC) so your information could be helpful to others who come here to get their lives back! Glad you found us!! JoAnn
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Avatar universal
Maybe i can help a little, I really don't know if what happened to your son was the same but i have learned any info is of some help, even to rule it out. Please don't judge me or anyone else who finds themselves in the same position for they get more than anything that was due to them.

Cocaine can induce excited delerium which is a king of delirium excited and induced by the cocaine itself (in my case it was too much of it) Whilst the excited delerium is a result of that session of cocaine im sure there are other longer term effects of similiar nature. Anyway if what happened to your son was the same as my experience he would of taken far too much cocaine which led to an attack of excited delerium (thats the best i can explain it from a medical point of view) The main attack lasts as long as the cocaine is in the system but needs a long time to treat the after shocks, ie trauma etc. I learn this in retrospect and as my part of trying to overcome THE most horrific night of my life where i was in the midst of some sadistic kind of serial killer taking great joy slowly ripping my limbs/arteries piece by piece. I am lucky in some respects that my own brain conjured up visions of my lying in a pool of blood otherwise equally i could of been jumping out the window or much worse. I do not say this to conjure up stories but to emphasise the REAL FEAR beyond any dread i could imagine. It took me a number of days to get the courage to return to my apartment and even then this "killer" was with me wherever i went. One moment the lights went out i ran out of my apartment petrified with no clothes on and out onto the street too scared to go back (I did as the thought of what the hell am i doing soon consumed me).

I am now three months on and still cant sleep with any light on, i need to cancel out silence with music (works very well) and i think i am doing all the right things but from my own study of what i feel and can see online its a long process and something that nowhere prepares you for. I am guessing it will be a number of years before my brain gets over this and i can return to the normal meaningful life.

One thing can be sure though if it is the same as i experienced i can not blame anyone in the world for wanting to escape what they saw, it would of been the worst hell in the world.

So sorry for your loss, really, I toyed with softening my descriptions and not painting such a graphic tale but i would secretly want the truths even if saying peaceful things would of helped me in the short term.

Don't blame anyone in this situation, people try and do for many different reasons. I am slowly working out mine and for the better, maybe our own actions can make it better for those that are yet to experience the evil it causes.
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Avatar universal
I hardly know what to say for the loss you have suffered. I am very sorry you have lost your son. I agree with the above post that you should seek a professional opinion to help you understand what happened to cause the death of your son.

However, I have myself experienced cocaine psychosis twice. Once when I was sixteen I overdosed on cocaine and suffered a grand mal seizure.When I was taken to the hospital and woke up I experienced hallucinations that everyone was after me and caused a ruckus in the hospital with everyone chasing after me. Another time i had been up for several days smoking crack and again thought that Puerto Rican drug dealers had surrounded my car and they had bats in their hands and were yelling at us to get out so they could rob us.  
I guess cocaine psychosis is when you experience delusions and hallucinations and would be similar to a mental illness. I can see how such a state of mind could contribute to or cause dangerous situations.

leelee
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52704 tn?1387020797
I am very sorry for your loss.  I am the father of four, so hearing of the death of your son just puts a knot in my stomach.

I am also a Recovering crack addict.  I won't get into the long story of how a respected, 46 year old, father of four, successful professional does THAT, but I will confirm something you no doubt know crack is a very bad drug, that can do awful things to good people.  

The addiction generally hits, and hits HARD, long before the user would ever think possible and once you're truly addicted to crack all bets are off.  Everyone I know who smoked crack says that they were in WAY over their head before they knew what was happening.  It's difficult for me to explain, but stopping just doesn't seem to be an option when you're actively addicted to crack -- even when everything is going straight to hell and death or prison seem to be the only certain things.

I experience lots of hallucinations while smoking crack - so much so that it seemed quite normal to be seeing the impossible.  However, I'm not to well versed on the actual psychosis.  I did see it once, in a woman who had been smoking and shooting every day for a week.  It was really quite scary.  I was presented with a completely different person than the one with whom I'd been friends for the past 6 days - she didn't even look like the same person.  I still have a scar (now almost 2 years old) from where she came at me with a butcher knife because she "knew that [I] had sent up surveillance equipment inside [her] computer."

Although this Forum is good for what it is -- de facto, it's primarily a support group for folks trying to get off (and stay off) opiates -- it is perhaps not the best place to get the type of info you're seeking.  I would suggest that you consult with a professional who specializes in addiction treatment.  

Take care.
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