Honors Project: Psychosis: Awareness

Psychosis and Awareness

Who I am: Hello everybody, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. I am Prio, a verified listener, group moderator and intern, and as I am finishing my last week of my internship, I wanted to take the opportunity of doing my honors project on raising awareness on something that touched my life and the lives of millions worldwide; Psychosis.

Introduction: Now, when you imagine a psychotic person, what do you think of? Chances are you think of a person who acts completely crazy and is extremely dangerous to the people of their surroundings. However, that isn't true. A psychotic person simply is a person who goes through psychosis, a symptom of mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Psychotic persons could seem completely normal, do everyday tasks completely normally and act like any other normal person and for most cases, they aren't dangerous to others at all, just mainly themselves.

Symptoms: Psychotic persons can experience multiple and extreme changes. The main and most common ones being in concentration, thinking and behavior.

Concentration: Persons experiencing psychosis can have drastic changes in their ability to concentrate, follow basic conversations or even remember things that have just been said. For example, a psychotic child could be in class for an hour and a few minutes later not remember a single thing that has been said in the class.

Thinking: A psychotic person's thinking can be impaired when experiencing a psychotic episode, they could have delusions, meaning that they can be convinced of irrational beliefs, hear, see, taste, feel, smell something that just isn't there. For example, they can be convinced they there are ninjas on the roof of their home because they are hearing noises of the footsteps of ninjas, actually see people dressed in ninja outfits, etc.

Behavior: Persons experiencing psychosis can experience depression for no direct reason, so they could just lose interest in activities that they once enjoyed, stop spending time with friends or family, feel sad and alone and even have suicidal tendencies. They can also become happy for no reason, laugh at inappropriate times or get angry for no reason. For example, a person completely happy with their life and their friend circle can just randomly stop spending time with people, stay alone in their room all day and think of ending their life as they no longer find any purpose in living.

Statistics: According to the National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH), every three out of a hundred people are bound to experience psychosis at some point in their lives. That means about 10 million Americans have gone through, are going through or are in danger of experiencing life with psychosis. The people most at risk of experiencing psychosis are adolescents and young adults, where over 100 000 teens and young adults experience their first episode of psychosis each year in the United States.

Causes: Although pinpointing the exact causes of episodes of psychosis of a particular person is very difficult, there are many potential things that can increase the chances of experiencing psychosis. The main ones involve genetics (if any of your closed ones have experienced a psychotic episode in their life, there is a chance that you might too), sleep deprivation, certain drugs (like cocaine and heroin) and if you already suffer from disorders like Parkinson's Disease and Schizophrenia. It is also very difficult to prevent psychosis because nothing can be done until the patient already starts having attenuated psychotic symptoms(early non-specific warning symptoms like anxiety, depression and decreased motivation are not conclusive to psychosis).

Treatment: The main treatments for psychosis according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health(CAMH) are antipsychotic medication and psychosocial interventions.

When it comes to antipsychotic medication, also known as neuroleptics, there are two types: typical antipsychotics(traditional) like chlorpromazine, flupenthixol and fluphenazine and atypical antipsychotics(newer) which are clozapine , olanzapine, quetiapine ) and risperidone. All these medications have proven to be equally effective in treating the very first episode of psychosis as well as the last. They are usually started with small doses and it goes up from there. The psychiatrist will make sure to have regular checkups (2-3 times a month) to monitor the reaction and side effects of the drug. It depends on the person, however, some people react better to certain drugs than others, so psychiatrists do have to be flexible when it comes to prescribing the right medication. It is CRUCIAL that a psychotic patient does NOT stop suddenly his medication or without consulting his psychiatrist first as stopping suddenly or before the treatment has been terminated could result in going back to the psychotic state or even worse.

Psychosocial interventions involve all the therapies that can be given to help with psychosis which are: Supportive psychotherapy (normal regular 1-1 appointment with a therapist, Group Therapy(help the patient socialize), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT)(finding different ways to cope with life problems) and Vocational Counseling(To help get back to work life or school life)

My experience: I couldn't find the cause of my psychosis as I didn't have any closed ones diagnosed with psychosis, I didn't take drugs and I didn't have any existing conditions and there were no symptoms that lead up to the psychosis. So, comes to say, even if you are not diagnosed with a disorder or disease, you can still have the problem.

Psychosis completely disconnected me from society and reality and made my life a complete wreck. I lost connections with the people who cared for me, I would behave ignorantly, not talk to people, ignore what others said and I tended to frustrate people. I didn't do it on purpose, I was just in this angry, depressed, irritated, grumpy mood all the time. After I disconnected from the family and even more disconnected than I already was from society, I only had myself, but I wasn't alone with all the voices in my head.

Symptoms wise I had certain physical symptoms like loss of appetite, but the main ones were obviously psychological. I couldn't keep up with what was said in class, couldn't have any conversations with my teachers or fellow classmates, I was like a zombie roaming around the building except I was embodied in a normal teenager's body. I would regularly hear voices and sometimes see people that weren't there. I would have huge waves of depression that would last days, even weeks, I would come from school, lock my doors and just do nothing but watching videos online, I had difficulty getting up from bed because of the nightmare fueled nights I had and I even let go of my biggest interests and passions. I was a mess.

Thankfully, when I saw a psychiatrist, I was put on a medication called quetiapine which is one of the newer antipsychotic medications on the market and I also had regular therapy sessions that also helped. Over the course of two months (4 psychiatry sessions and 8 therapy sessions), I managed to rid all the psychotic symptoms and go back to my old life. But if it wasn't for modern medicine and rapid treatment, I don't know what would have happened.

What you can do to help: The fact that you took the time to read this is already a huge help, hopefully you will be more aware that anyone, even those who seem happy with no psychotic symptoms can experience a psychotic episode and hopefully, you are also more aware of how horrific a psychotic episode can be and what can cause it. I don't ask that you share this link with others, just share the knowledge and if you know anyone who goes through psychosis, don't be afraid of them, they are more dangerous to themselves than they are to you, so take the time to listen to them, make them feel that the voices in their heads are not the only voices that should exist in their world. It's a tough life especially for people with disorders like Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and if you take the time to make them feel heard, you would be helping them a lot.

According to the National Alliance for Mental Health(NAMI) who took many psychotic respondents for a survey, they found out that 1 out of 5 respondents reported that no one helped when the symptoms of psychosis appeared(non-specific like anxiety and depression). So, if you know someone that might be going through any tough time, talk with them, talk with the mental health community to get advice and suggestions on what you can do to help and what they can do to seek the help they deserve. You never know until you ask.

Lastly, I donate once a year to the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis(ISPS), which is a non-profit organization that gathers donations to help support the objectives of ISPS in advancing education, training and knowledge of mental health professionals in the treatment and prevention of psychotic mental disorders for the public benefit. If you can donate or encourage anyone to donate you would already be helping advance the cause.

Questions: Now, it's your turn!

Have you or a loved one dealt with psychosis and if so, what is your experience with it?

Do you know anyone who has psychosis, what did you do to help and what do you think you can do after having read this post?

Are there any tips or tricks that you have found on your own or from another source that could potentially help someone suffering from psychosis? If so, what are they?

If you had psychosis, did you hide it from the world or were you open about it?

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you all have a fantastic day. My name is Prio and this was my Honors Project on Psychosis awareness.

[Edited by Forum Mentor @RaCat to remove the names of the meds]