This posting, drawn from content on my previous website, explores themes of strength and resilience, loss and healing, and I believe it still offers hope to those navigating life-changing situations.
This is a powerful story shared by Dee, detailing an individual’s terrifying experience with psychosis. With her permission, we share this account in hopes of raising awareness and offering encouragement to others facing similar challenges. it’s a powerful reminder of the fragility, and resilience of the human mind. (shahd 2025).
The Morning Everything Changed
Denise’s day began ordinarily enough. Annoyed by her mother’s voice urging her out of bed, she reluctantly complied and went through her usual morning routine. But as she sat down at the breakfast table, something shifted dramatically.
Looking up to complain of feeling unwell, Denise realized the person across from her looked like her mother, but wasn’t. “For a few seconds, I wondered why this person was pretending to be my mother,” she explained, “then everything in the kitchen seemed to darken.” It wasn’t simply dimming lights; it felt profoundly different not like a power outage during a favorite TV show, but something far more unsettling.
A World Distorting
Denise described seeing a greyish light surrounding this imposter’s head as everything around her appeared dim. She found herself inexplicably back in her bedroom, with the “fake mother” standing over her, asking how she felt. It turned out Denise had collapsed and been carried to bed without her being consciously aware of it.
Shortly after, a man speaking softly like a doctor told her it was just one of her “funny turns,” assuring her a few days rest would be enough. But this reassurance only fueled her confusion. A voice inside her head erupted: “What funny turns? What the hell is he talking about? You’ve never had a funny turn in your life!” The questions spiraled, where was her real mother? Was anyone involved in this deception?
The Attempted Escape: Descent into Unreality
After two days confined to bed, Denise decided she needed to get to the police. She devised a plan: escape through her bedroom window, navigate the garage roofs below, and seek help. Her bedroom was on the second floor of a tower block with external garages running alongside it. It seemed like a simple process.
Hanging from the windowsill, bracing for impact, Denise described a prolonged fall… only to land in water with a jarring splash. “Bracing myself for impact, my short drop to the garage rooftops seemed to last much longer than I’d anticipated.” She thrashed and sank into darkness.
She regained consciousness to find a man in a yellow jacket kneeling beside her, her real parents weeping nearby. The reality? She had collapsed at the breakfast table and been rushed to the hospital. A paramedic revived her with a defibrillator. What terrified her most was discovering none of it actually happened.
The Diagnosis & A New Path
Denise learned that her experience wasn’t a kidnapping or a conspiracy, but a psychotic episode triggered by severely low blood pressure causing her heart to stop momentarily. The vividness of the imagined events remained hauntingly real for years afterward.
Interestingly, she discovered the family lived nowhere near a tower block, the detail was entirely fabricated by her mind. The only truth within her delusion was that her bedroom window could be used as an emergency exit in case of fire.
A friend suggested this firsthand experience with mental distress could be channeled into a fulfilling career. Today, Denise lives in America and works at a mental health facility, finding purpose in helping others. She reflects: “I often think of that one incident years ago, and how lucky I have been it was my first and last encounter.”
Understanding Psychotic Episodes
A psychotic episode is a broad term encompassing various mental health conditions, including schizophrenia. In the UK alone, approximately 220,000 people are currently receiving treatment for schizophrenia. These episodes can manifest in many ways, often involving hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there) and delusions (firmly held beliefs not based in reality). While often associated with pre-existing mental health conditions, psychotic episodes can occur unexpectedly in individuals with no prior history.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, please reach out for help:
NHS 111: Call 111
Samaritans: 116 123 (https://www.samaritans.org/)
Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/
Author: Denise E Middleton. It may not be reproduced in ANY form. “© 2014 Denise E Middleton, Author retains ownership”.
The author of this story gave Medibolism.com, now known as Quill And Tales, express permission to publish their work on line, and has been faithfully recounted for this page.
Note:
I believe this story is a solid foundation showing how unknown health problems, and if you accept she had had a Psychotic episode mental health can strike anyone. Young, elderly, rich or poor from any and all walks of life. Psychosis and mental illness are incredibly diverse, and Dee’s story represents just one individual’s journey (Shahd 2025).