daylia--(I'm a licensed clinical social worker, not a psychiatrist, but since I work in the public system my practice consists of people who tend to be much more severe in their illness than a private practice therapist commonly sees.)

Regarding your question--who knows? And I'm not sure it matters. What matters is you took action that was meaningful to you and it helped.

When my sister died from breast cancer I was with her. Immediately after she died I had the experience of "feeling" her consciousness move through my brain--like butterfly wings--and the thought was inserted "Janie, it's beautiful, I don't know why I was so afraid."

Did that really happen as I experienced it, or did I have a brief psychotic reaction to the overwhelming stress and loss of her immediate passing? I had never had a psychotic experience before, but I also had never sat with a sister as she died either. I'll never really know, and it really doesn't matter. I was comforted and helped through the moment by the experience, what ever that experience was.

Janie