About Psychosis
About Psychosis
Basically, psychosis is a significant condition of the mind, when a person loses touch with reality. This may be because:
1. They end up believing things that other people don’t believe, or
2. they hear or see things that other people don’t, or
3. They find that their thinking becomes very muddled, hazy, confusing or simply bizarre (weird thoughts that may scare or even amuse the person thinking about them).
This is not a definition you will find in complicated textbooks, but many people find this definition easiest to understand.
What happens to someone with psychosis?
The person may become quite preoccupied with this new experience. They may withdraw from their normal life and find it harder and harder to be with other people and do the things that they used to do. In some cases, people with psychosis. just like people with any other 'condition' like asthma or diabetes, may carry on with their lives and 'cover up' the condition because they may think it is not worthy of seeking help for. Ultimately, anyone with psychosis is still a person. A person with hopes, fears, a heart, friends, family, and an individual personality like anyone else!
Some people become completely consumed with their new beliefs, believing that they are being singled out in some way. Often people say they think that people are out to hurt them, or that they feel very special, almost like they feel some special purpose has been given to them. Other people feel like they are being watched or talked about by other people. The list goes on. As you can imagine, this is a very significant experience for the person involved and may have a strong influence on their lives
What consequences does psychosis have on someone’s life?
When people first experience psychosis, it may not be significantly strong. They may feel some small things go wrong. They often seek help for anxiety or depression, or end up taking drugs or alcohol because these things help people escape from uncomfortable feelings.
It is also true that in some cases, the psychosis itself can be started off by someone taking drugs. Cannabis has been thought of as a potential cause of psychosis. Many people smoke cannabis, and although most people just feel the ‘high’ and maybe feel a bit slowed up or ‘hung over’ the next day, they carry on as normal. Some people, however, are just vulnerable to cannabis. They end up feeling high or paranoid, but the difference is they end up feeling permanently different. They may want to smoke more of the drug because it helps them, to feel better for a little while, but in the long term it does make things worse because it interferes with normal thought processes.
People with psychosis may not function well in school or at work. They may feel unmotivated, or too anxious, to go out of the house. They may also end up having arguments with friends and family or neighbours or even strangers, accusing them of things or feeling like people are ganging up on them or trying to influence them using spells, drugs, poisoned food, etc.
Some people may end up in trouble with the law. Occasionally they may feel threatened by people and keep phoning the police or the ambulance for help; other times they may end up trying to hurt themselves by accident (not thinking clearly and being careless) or deliberately, because they feel so desperate that they think the only way out is to try to kill themselves! This is very unfortunate, and we hope that people with psychosis are helped out of their situation well before they end up feeling so desperate.
Am I the only one?
No, far from it. A lot of people will experience some form of psychotic experience in their lifetime. In Gloucestershire there are about 100 new people every year experiencing psychosis for the first time. In Britain as a whole, every year over 100,000 people get help for psychosis.
