What is Psychosis?

Psychosis is a word used to describe conditions that affect the brain, usually resulting in a loss of contact with reality. These experiences can seem so real that the person cannot recognize them as psychosis. They include:

• Positive symptoms
• Negative symptoms
  
• Cognitive symptoms

Positive Symptoms  

• Hallucinations - Hallucinations can take a number of different forms - they can be:
  1. Visual (seeing things that are not there or that other people cannot see),
  2. Auditory (hearing voices that other people can't hear),
  3. Tactile (feeling things that other people don't feel or something touching your skin that isn't there),
  4. Olfactory (smelling things that other people cannot smell, or not smelling the same thing that other people do smell),
  5. Gustatory experiences (tasting things that aren't there)

• Delusions - false beliefs strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness: for example,
  1. Paranoid delusions, or delusions of persecution, for example believing that people are "out to get" you, or the thought that people are doing things when there is no external evidence that such things are taking place.
  2. Delusions of reference - when things in the environment seem to be directly related to you even though they are not. For example it may seem as if people are talking about you or special personal messages are being communicated to you through the TV, radio, or other media.
  3. Somatic Delusions are false beliefs about your body - for example that a terrible physical illness exists or that something foreign is inside or passing through your body.
  4. Delusions of grandeur - for example when you believe that you are very special or have special powers or abilities. An example of a grandiouse delusion is thinking you are a famous rock star.

Negative Symptoms

• Lack of emotion - the inability to enjoy regular activities (visiting with friends, etc.) as much as before
• Low energy - the person tends to sit around and sleep much more than normal
• lack of interest in life, low motivation
• Affective flattening - a blank, blunted facial expression or less lively facial movements, flat voice (lack of normal intonations and variance) or physical movements.
• Alogia (difficulty or inability to speak)
• Inappropriate social skills or lack of interest or ability to socialize with other people
• Inability to make friends or keep friends, or not caring to have friends
• Social isolation - person spends most of the day alone or only with close family

Cognitive Symptoms

• Disorganized thinking
• Slow thinking

• Difficulty understanding

• Poor concentration

• Poor memory

• Difficulty expressing thoughts

• Difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT PSYCHOSIS

The following quotes about schizophrenia where obtained from various web sites:

        "The schizophrenic experience can be a terrifying journey through a world of madness no one can understand, particularly the person traveling through it. It is a journey through a world that is deranged, empty and devoid of anchors to reality. You feel very much alone. You find it easier to withdraw than cope with reality that is incongruent with your fantasy world. You feel tormented by distorted perceptions. You cannot distinguish what is real from what is unreal. Schizophrenia affects all aspects of your life. Your thoughts race and you feel fragmented and so very alone with your 'craziness.'" - Janice C. Jordan, a person with schizophrenia.

             I, a stranger and afraid, in a world I never made.
            —A. E. Housman

        "I cannot tell you how difficult it is for a person to accept the fact that he or she is schizophrenic. Since the time we were very young, we have all been conditioned to accept that if something is crazy or insane its worth to us is automatically dismissed. We live in a world that is held together by rational connections. That which is logical or reasonable is acceptable. That which is not reasonable is not acceptable." - Dr. Frederick J. Frese, a psychologist who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 25.

       "Some people may not be able to recognize the illness for what it is. The realization that your relative may never be the same again, may never get 'cured,' is too unbearable to contemplate. . . . There are those who push themselves to the limit. They never let go. They never get on with their lives. They wear themselves out." - "Schizophrenia: A Handbook for Families". published by the Schizophrenia Society of Canada.

      "Acceptance means that you have learned to look at your relative as he or she is now. Then there is room for hope, and you can begin to work for those things that will really make a difference in your relative's life." - father of a patient with schizophrenia.

     "I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I just choose not to indulge certain appetites; like my appetite for patterns; perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream."

– John Nash, A Beautiful Mind

     "Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart."

     – John Nash, A Beautiful Mind

For more information about psychosis, check out Schizophrenia.com.