A pregnant mum says she was convinced she was Jesus and that the devil was in hospital with her after developing prenatal psychosis.
Stacey Gee from Wigan experienced the terrifying hallucinations and became plagued by delusions after she fell pregnant with her second child.
The 31-year-old already had a son Joey, eight, with her partner Danny, 34, when she found out she was expecting again.
But the second time around she suffered a complete change in behaviour, brought on by a combination of hormones and underlying mental illness, the Daily Star reports.
"It was honestly the scariest time of my life,” Stacey said. "My senses were so heightened. I was shaking and panicking.”
Stacey was on holiday last summer with Danny and Joey when she first noticed her worrying symptoms.
She then found out she was pregnant, so put her unusual behaviour down to changes in her hormones.
But a few months later, Stacey began having hallucinations and became obsessed with the number seven, buying food in packs of seven and feeling compelled to repeat actions seven times.
She also became convinced she was seeing dead relatives.
Her sister Sarah Bacon grew so worried she called the police. Stacey was taken to hospital, sectioned, and monitored by medics. She was told she was suffering from prenatal psychosis and bipolar disorder.
But her psychosis worsened, and she became convinced she was Jesus, even breaking seven pieces of bread on to the table and offering them to nurses.
"I started predicting things like when my family members were going to get married and die," Stacey recalled. "Then I was fixated on my grandad, nan and auntie who had passed away.
"In hospital I was reading people’s palms. I walked into the kitchen and told everyone the devil was in there. I even saw a nurse’s face change from green to red like a traffic light.
"I thought the devil was coming to get me."
Doctors prescribed medication usually taken to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia, to ease Stacey’s condition.
After three weeks the medication kicked in and she was able to manage her symptoms and return home.
"I was interacting on a normal level by this point so I returned home, with the support of mental health nurses still coming to see me,” she said.
"I had ups and downs, but generally I was much better."
On March 16, after a 48-hour labour, Stacey gave birth to healthy baby Issac and has had no problems since.
She now wants to raise awareness of prenatal psychosis.
"I’ve probably been bipolar for my whole life, but because of my hormones it brought the psychosis on,” she explained.
"I’d never heard of it and I was desperate to speak to somebody else who had been through something similar, but I couldn’t find anyone.
"It could happen to anybody, so people need to be aware of it. I got to 30 without having an episode. Someone else could experience something similar."
