If you are worried someone you love might be suffering from psychosis, you should understand how to identify the condition. Being able to spot the tell-tale signs of psychosis can help prevent a patient from harming themselves or others.
There are treatment protocols for all psychosis patients. For example, if you know a teen suffering from psychotic episodes, you should consider sending them to a residential program for troubled teens. Regardless of the patient’s age, treatment options are available to them to ensure they don’t suffer alone.
If you’re concerned with whether someone you know might be suffering from psychosis, you should have them see a general practitioner immediately. From the GP’s diagnosis, they will be able to recommend a specialist that will then devise a more specific treatment.
What Are the Signs of Being Psychotic?
Symptoms of psychosis vary and everyone will have a distinct set of symptoms and experiences. Typically, psychosis presents three distinct symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, and confused or disturbed thoughts.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations occur when someone sees, hears, smells, tastes, or feels things that don’t actually exist in the physical world.
When hallucinations are visual, patients might see colors, shapes, or people. Patients can also experience hallucinatory sounds and hear voices or other sounds. Touches occur when someone feels someone is touching them who isn’t there. An odor can occur that others don’t smell and tastes can appear to be present when the patient doesn’t have anything in their mouth.
Delusions
Delusions are fundamentally untrue beliefs. When patients have delusions they are typically rooted in paranoia or grandeur. For example, the patient might believe the C.I.A. is after them or that they are a world-famous singer or God. People who experience psychotic episodes are usually unaware their delusions are not real.
Confused or Disturbed Thoughts
Patients with psychosis sometimes have disturbing, confusing, or disrupted patterns of thought. They might have rapid speech patterns, disturbed speech, or a sudden loss in their train of thought.
Are People with Psychosis Psychopaths?
“Psychosis” and “psychopaths” are not part of the same diagnosis. Psychosis is an acute condition that can be treated effectively and often features a full recovery. Psychopaths are people who have antisocial personality disorders which means they might lack empathy or the capacity to understand how others feel, manipulate others or have a complete lack of remorse for the harm their actions caused.
People with antisocial personalities often pose threats to others because of their violent tendencies. However, most people with psychosis are more likely to harm themselves than others.
What Causes Psychosis?
Psychosis isn’t a condition by itself. Other conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression are the most common triggers for psychosis.
Schizophrenia- Condition with a wide range of symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions.
Bipolar disorder- Mental health condition that causes abnormally high and painfully low moods. These highs and lows are known as mania and depression.
Severe depression- Depression can cause symptoms of psychosis.
Traumatic stress and physical conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease and brain tumors can also cause psychosis. Drug abuse is another known cause of psychosis. The cause of your psychosis often has a direct influence on the duration of your psychosis.
How Do You Diagnose Psychosis?
If you have psychotic episodes, you should see a general practitioner immediately. Treating psychosis as soon as possible is critical. A general practitioner will look at your symptoms and eliminate other causes as possibilities. General practitioners should ask the following questions when evaluating your condition:
- Whether you’ve been taking illegal drugs.
- The status of your mood.
- Your day-to-day functioning.
- Your family history of medical conditions.
- Ask about your hallucinations.
- Ask about your delusions.
- Ask whether you have any symptoms.
From this analysis, your general practitioner should be able to recommend you to a specialist.
How Do You Get Someone Out of Psychosis?
To communicate with someone with psychosis, you must be supportive and avoid judgment. Communicating with someone who has psychosis can be challenging because they might be difficult to understand, speak abnormally fast, have difficulty concentrating, or use words or phrases you might not comprehend.
To ensure a healthy communicating experience, you should speak clearly but listen attentively. You should also be empathetic to how the person feels. Avoid confrontation or challenging the person on their beliefs and experiences.
What Happens If Psychosis Is Left Untreated?
Psychosis therapy typically includes some form of therapy that helps people change their thoughts or behaviors. In some cases, hospitalization might be necessary to stabilize the patient and ensure their safety. The most favorable outcomes of psychosis result from effective treatment. Psychosis left untreated, on the other hand, can result in death.
Death is the worst effect of untreated psychosis. More commonly, psychosis leads to permanent changes within the patient’s brain. The more relapses and episodes a patient has, the more likely they are to experience permanent changes within their neurochemistry. Over time, these changes might become irreversible. There’s also no specific change that can be clearly identified on an MRI and diagnosing psychosis can be difficult.
Psychosis Poses the Risk of Suicide and Harm to Others
Having psychosis increases the risk of suicide and harm to others. That’s why it’s critical for patients and their loved ones to understand the risk. Suicide rates are abnormally high among those suffering from psychosis. Some patients with psychosis might also do things that put them in danger due to their delusions.
This illness can potentially cause them harm and they might need assistance from family, friends, or go to the nearest lotus behavioral health to ensure their safety. Patients need a comprehensive treatment plan to prevent them from harming themselves or others. You can also create a crisis plan for people so patients have a list of people they can confide in if they suffer an episode.
You should also remove any firearms or weapons the patient could potentially use to cause harm to themselves or others. Psychosis often results in impulsive behavior. With erratic thought patterns that include hallucinations and delusions, having weapons is out of the question.