- Hi everyone, so today I wanna talk to you a little bit more about something that's come up
in a lot of my other videos, the term psychosis. So I wanna discuss what
exactly this means. So psychosis affects
the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves and can make it really hard for an individual who's
experiencing psychosis to distinguish between
what's real and what's not. The experience of
psychosis can vary greatly from person to person, and it can come on
gradually or very suddenly. A first episode of psychosis
can be a really frightening, or confusing or distressing experience because it's a really
unfamiliar experience to the person experiencing it. And it can kind of feel
sometimes like a loss of control over your own behavior,
thoughts or feelings. So for me, my first full-blown
real episode of psychosis was a really, really
frightening period of time where I couldn't differentiate between what was real and what was not. About three out of every
100, or 3% of people will experience an episode of psychosis across their lifetime. It affects both men and women equally, and it occurs across all cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds or statuses. It usually, or onset usually occurs in the late teens to early 20s, so it's important to note
that psychosis is a symptom, not an actual illness. A mental or physical
illness, substance use, or extreme trauma or
stress may bring it on. So there are typically three stages which categorize an episode of psychosis, the first being prodrome, the second being acute and
the third being recovery. So these stages can last
for varying periods of time. So during the first
stage, the prodrome stage, or the prodromal stage, the individual starts to
experience changes in their self or their behavior, but
they haven't started to experience clear-cut
psychotic symptoms yet. The second stage, being the acute stage, is the stage where symptoms
such as hallucinations or delusions, or very odd or
disorganized speech or behavior starts to emerge as well. It is during this stage that treatment needs to be established
as soon as possible in order to treat the psychotic episode. So the third stage is recovery. So within this stage, it usually takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for a person to start to experience recovery. So, and during recovery, the symptoms become less
intense or disappear completely. Some of the symptoms that
occurred in the acute phase may linger within this recovery stage, but for the most part, people experiencing a first
episode of psychosis can and will recover completely. So the actual symptoms of
psychosis are often characterized as positive or negative symptoms. Now, I did another video,
which goes further in depth into what positive negative symptoms are, which you can check out at the link here, but just to kind of briefly go over what the positive and negative symptoms that go along with psychosis are, I will just kind of
briefly go through them, as well as my own experiences with them. So positive symptoms are
behaviors that are added to a person experiencing psychosis, so they can include things
like hallucinations, delusions and disorganized speech or thought. So delusions are false
beliefs that are held that are not grounded really in reality. So for me, a really common
delusion that I have when I'm experiencing psychosis is that doctors are using
medications to poison me or to harm me in some way, or
using them for mind control. That's a really common
delusion that comes up for me when I'm experiencing a psychotic episode. Another example of a psychotic episode that I was experiencing, where I was experiencing a delusion was when I received an injection, and I was in a period of psychosis, a medication injection
for my schizophrenia, I thought that the medication was poison, and so I had the delusion that
I needed to cut off my arm in order to get the poisonous
medication out of my system. And so I kind of had to take some steps to make sure I kept myself
safe during that period. But that was a really strong
delusion that I was holding that was a little scary
to deal with and manage. There are also hallucinations
which can include hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling,
or feeling something that is not really there. So common hallucinations that I have when I'm in a psychotic
episode include hearing voices. So this can kind of vary in intensity, and that's kind of another
thing to kind of be aware of when you're talking about
psychotic episodes and psychosis is that there are varying degrees to which it can be present. But during my psychotic episodes,
when they got really bad, I would experience command hallucinations, so I would hear voices
telling me to do things, and usually it was around self harm. So I was experiencing command
hallucinations to harm myself or to put myself in dangerous situations. I also experience hallucinations, though, that are a little bit more
casual or nonthreatening, so I can experience idle
chatter or whatnot as well, which is not quite as severe. So again, there are varying degrees of severity of psychosis. Another hallucination that I experience during psychotic episodes
are visual hallucinations. So I oftentimes see bugs,
or one time I saw a man who was trying to break into my car, so again, the varying degrees of intensity in terms of hallucinations. I also experienced olfactory
hallucinations sometimes where I smell, generally
they're bad smells that I can't identify and I
can't locate the source of. But again, it's really kind
of disorienting and confusing and a little bit scary to
experience these hallucinations during psychotic episodes because it's not really clear
what is real and what is not, and it can be hard to make
that distinction sometimes. So another positive symptom
is disorganized speech, thoughts, or behavior. So this take the form of
finding difficulty concentrating on following a conversation, or it can be switching back and forth during or in your speech,
so in conversations, switching back and forth
between topics really often. For me, it usually takes the form of not really being able
to follow a conversation as well as I normally can. So my thoughts get really
disorganized and confused, and it can be hard to kind of keep my
thought pattern organized. It can also take the form of being unable to
complete everyday tasks, which is something that I struggle with when I'm experiencing psychosis. So everyday mundane tasks
can be even more difficult or seem even more difficult to complete. So negative symptoms include
normal functioning being lost or reduced, and they can include things such as restricted emotion
or facial expression, restricted speech, difficulty
with generating ideas or thoughts, reduced
socialization or motivation and reduced ability to begin tasks. So it's important to note
that these negative symptoms kind of look a lot like depression. So this is something
that I have quite a bit of difficulty with when
I'm experiencing psychosis, in terms of all of these
reductions in normal functioning. So I typically struggle
quite often with motivation. I also tend to sleep a lot more when I'm experiencing negative symptoms and to just kind of be
more lethargic and tired. I also tend to just kind
of withdraw into myself, and I can stop speaking to
people, and I just really recede. So there are some other symptoms that don't fall within
positive or negative symptoms that go along with psychosis as well, and these can include cognitive symptoms. These can include
difficulty with attention, concentration and memory. These other symptoms can also
include mood disturbances or sleep disturbances, substance abuse, or suicidal thinking or behavior. It is often difficult to know what exactly causes a
first episode of psychosis, but research is showing that a combination of biological factors,
including genetic factors, can increase a person's likelihood or can increase a person's
risk of developing psychosis. For these people who are
at an increased risk, a psychotic episode can be triggered by a multitude of environmental factors, such as increased stress
or substance abuse. And imbalance in brain
chemicals such as serotonin or dopamine can also play
a contributing factor. A person who is experiencing
psychotic symptoms should have a full medical
assessment to ensure or to rule out any physical
illness that may be the cause. When treating psychotic episodes, medications called antipsychotics
are typically essential. They can help prevent relapse and further episodes of the illness, and they can also help to
relieve some of the symptoms that a person is experiencing
during a psychotic episode. So even while I'm on medications, I can still experience
breakthrough symptoms that still occur. So breakthrough symptoms
can include little bouts of hallucinations, or
delusions, or paranoia or any of the symptoms
that I mentioned earlier that are just in smaller doses and that are a little bit more manageable than full-blown psychosis. So it's important to make
this kind of differentiation between the varying
degrees of these symptoms and what full-blown psychosis really is. So it's my opinion that psychosis is really when these symptoms
start to become debilitating to your everyday life and they interfere with
your everyday life. So if you're experiencing
any of these symptoms that I've talked about in
this video of psychosis, make sure to have a
discussion with your doctor about what this might mean in
terms of possible diagnosis or possible treatment options. So thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video,
please give me a thumbs up and make sure to subscribe
for future videos. Also make sure to check
out my Patreon page with the link is in the description below if you want to help support
the creation of future videos. Thanks again for watching
and have a great day, bye. (contemplative music)
