Can it make u crazy?

[gothiclovemonkey]

 
Can having all those toxins in ur body make u insane?
I have missed dialysis, and when i do, it seems i am alot crazier than i normally am... (which is just a scary thought!)
i really almost wonder if thats not been my problem the whole time.
I have been under mental health treatment since i was about 11.... i lost my right kidney at the age of 10. Maybe thats just coincedence, but it would make sense.
Can I claim kidney failure has caused my insanity? lol
 

[RichardMEL]

Well missing dialysis will increase the toxins that much more, and as we all know those can cloud the head that much more. Insane? I don't know about that.

[Genlando]

I think that the toxins can mess with us mentally.  My wife says that I became so cantankerous prior to going on dialysis that she wanted to shoot me.  I also was constantly disoriented; I had to use my car's GPS to go anywhere (including my daughter's house).  Additionally, my analytical skills diminished. I was a network engineer before I got sick.  About a month or so before I was diagnosed with ESRD, I got to the point that even simple problems--things that should've taken just a few minutes to fix--would take me hours to resolve.   I spent almost 10 hours at a client's site troubleshooting a problem the day before I went into the hospital.  I shouldn't have spent more than half an hour fixing the issue.

About a month after I went on dialysis, my wife suddenly realized that I was driving around town without my GPS.  I didn't even notice until she mentioned to me.  She also says that she cancelled the contract that she took out on me, now that I've gotten sane again.  My children also say that I'm a lot easier to get along with. 

So, I suspect that you're right. 

[Steve-0]

I know I get a little crazy when my toxins are high.  In fact, I went "insane" before I was diagnosed.  I was harsh, rude and mean to friends - I wrote a three page letter to one friend condemning her.  It wasn't good.

I think that kidney disease can lead to mental impairment.


~Steve

[jbeany]

I do think that kidney failure toxin build up can certainly have mental effects.  They use drugs to alter chemistry in the body to treat all kinds of mental illnesses, ilike depression, bi-polar, etc.  So the altered chemistry from kidney failure could produce changes, only negative ones.  Really, if messed up potassium levels can stop your heart, what could all the other things out of wack be doing to your brain?

I know that I'm in much less of a fog mentally now that I have the transplant, and it's not all due to hemoglobin levels!

[gothiclovemonkey]

She also says that she cancelled the contract that she took out on me, now that I've gotten sane again.

ROFL ur wife sounds like a fun good woman!
I really did wonder, because ive seemed to have gone insane, really bats**t insane lol ive always been a bit wacky but now...wow.
i forget mid-sentence what i am going to say too... and get lost going place ive been too
im just glad this IS "normal" for us, and im not completely psycho. just a lil psycho

[Restorer]

I think it's not just all the toxins and imbalances, it's also all the mental and physical stress that goes with dialysis.

[Dodgedude2001]

I do know when I got sick I was in-need of dialysis for about a month an now I have a really really hard time remembering anything b4 that month. I know Im not crazy, but it did echa-skech my head.......

[RenalSurvivorDotCA]

In the months before I was diagnosed with ESRD, my mind was in a fog. I was making mistakes, (stupid mistakes) at work. When I finally collapsed and was brought to the hospital the toxins were built up so much that I became delirious, not knowing where I was. My first dialysis was delayed even more as I pulled out my chest line in my stupor. I'm told they had to restrain my hands.

All I remember was going into hospital on Sunday and then being moved from ICU to the regular unit on a Monday. I said "That's not bad...only one day in ICU".  They all looked at me strange and said "You've been here for 8 days." I had lost a week being totally delirious.

[gothiclovemonkey]

wow this is ... informational. Thiis whole time I had just assumed im nuts, turns out most of it may actually be from esrd....
I mean, yes, ive always kind of had depressive issues, but who hasnt right lol

i love this site! Thank you all for sharing with me. It really does help to know these things, especially when i do feel nuts like this.
some days i feel like im not even remotely myself.

[RightSide]

Can having all those toxins in ur body make u insane?
I have missed dialysis, and when i do, it seems i am alot crazier than i normally am... (which is just a scary thought!)

You're not crazy.

A good rule of thumb is:  If you think you're going crazy, you're not. (Genuinely psychotic people can't tell the difference.)

Having said that, renal failure is known to produce the following mental symptoms:

Lowered mental alertness
Trouble concentrating
Confusion
Anxiety
Depression
Seizures

In myself, I noticed how hot-tempered and emotionally unstable I was before my ESRD was treated.

In fact, a good psychiatrist, when presented with a new patient with obvious mental symptoms, will first try to rule out all physical causes--like renal failure--first.

[KICKSTART]

YES !

[albiecl]

I definitely agree that renal failure can make you depressed, resentful and abit all over the place as that is how I often feel.

[Riki]

Mental illness runs in my family, so I was thinking that it was just my turn. *L*  I'm sure that my best friend has noticed things in the 3 years that we've known each other.  She's the one that I go to when things start getting out of control.  I tend to get paranoid, and thinking that people have ulterior motives for the things that they say or do.  I've even targeted her before, but I'm lucky that she's smart enough to know that I'll eventually come to my senses and realize how nutty I'm being

[gothiclovemonkey]

Mental illness runs in my family, so I was thinking that it was just my turn. *L*  I'm sure that my best friend has noticed things in the 3 years that we've known each other.  She's the one that I go to when things start getting out of control.  I tend to get paranoid, and thinking that people have ulterior motives for the things that they say or do.  I've even targeted her before, but I'm lucky that she's smart enough to know that I'll eventually come to my senses and realize how nutty I'm being

sounds like me and my bestie lol



Id also like to say this....
Today I was feeling really physically unwell, and i realized that yesterday i didnt feel this way, which is odd, because all week ive felt like this, anywho, i noticed i forgot to take my meds yesterday! SOoooo i looked it up, there were all of my symptoms INCLUDING DEPRESSION! (why my dr thought putting a person with really baaaaaaaaad depression on something that causes depression... ill never know.)
So not only do we get to be a little batty due to dialysis itself, but also our meds? yay

[Restorer]

Yep, meds make us feel bad too. I don't know about depression for the ones I have, but my clonidine and maybe the metoprolol make me really tired and energyless, and all I want to do is go home and sleep; and the Sensipar sometimes upsets my entire digestive system.

But then, if I forget to take them, my heart reminds me halfway through the day by jumping all around. 

[Riki]

Mental illness runs in my family, so I was thinking that it was just my turn. *L*  I'm sure that my best friend has noticed things in the 3 years that we've known each other.  She's the one that I go to when things start getting out of control.  I tend to get paranoid, and thinking that people have ulterior motives for the things that they say or do.  I've even targeted her before, but I'm lucky that she's smart enough to know that I'll eventually come to my senses and realize how nutty I'm being

sounds like me and my bestie lol



Id also like to say this....
Today I was feeling really physically unwell, and i realized that yesterday i didnt feel this way, which is odd, because all week ive felt like this, anywho, i noticed i forgot to take my meds yesterday! SOoooo i looked it up, there were all of my symptoms INCLUDING DEPRESSION! (why my dr thought putting a person with really baaaaaaaaad depression on something that causes depression... ill never know.)
So not only do we get to be a little batty due to dialysis itself, but also our meds? yay

I'm not on any meds, so I don't have that excuse.  I've gotten really good at hiding it from everyone, so the only people who know what's going on is me and my best friend.  I think my mom probably knows when things are getting bad too, but she's in denial and refuses to acknowledge that something might be wrong.  I've been doing some research on some of the things that I do, and I if I thought my GP was competent enough, I'd take it to him, but he's a dunce and a first class a-hole, and my neph is a narcissist who decided that the hemo patients didn't need clinic visits anymore.