Psychosis is a serious mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality. Traditionally, it is often considered a disease or health condition in itself, but the transdiagnostic perspective suggests that we can understand the nature of psychosis as a common symptom in a number of mental illnesses. diseases.
It is this approach that we will address in this article, thus taking into account the concept of the term psychosis as a means of denoting the fact that an individual has sensory experiences with things that do not exist or beliefs that are not based on reality.
- During a psychotic episode.
- The individual may experience hallucinations or delusions; You can see or hear things that don’t exist.
- Which can be incredibly scary for the person and therefore also for those around you.
Classic signs and symptoms of psychosis include hallucinations, delusions, disorganization, thought disorders, catatonia (lack of response) and difficulty concentrating. Depending on the cause, psychosis may appear quickly or slowly.
The same is true for schizophrenia. Although symptoms may start slowly and start with milder psychosis, some people may experience a rapid transition to psychosis if they stop taking their medications. Milder initial symptoms of psychosis may include:
Hallucinations can affect any of a person’s senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) with psychosis, but in about two-thirds of schizophrenic patients, hallucinations are auditory: they hear things and believe they are real when, in fact, they don’t exist.
Psychosis is classically associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and, although there are other symptoms, one of the criteria that defines schizophrenia is the presence of psychosis.
A recent report by the British Psychological Society (October 2017) provides an overview of the nature of psychosis that challenges common knowledge of this mental illness.
The report provides an accessible overview of the current state of knowledge, and its findings have profound implications for both how we understand mental illness. about the future of mental health services.
Many people think that schizophrenia is a terrifying brain disease that makes people unpredictable and potentially violent and can only be controlled with medication; however, this report suggests that this view is false.
The report, titled “Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia: Why Do People Hear Voices, Believe in Things Others Find Strange or Seem Disconnected from Reality?”, raises interesting questions about these mental illnesses. Let’s take a closer look:
The report concludes by stating that much more needs to be invested in prevention depending on how we treat ourselves in our society; in particular, poverty, racism and homelessness, as well as child abuse, neglect and harassment, must be addressed.
Concentrating resources only on solving existing problems is like cleaning the floor, but ignoring the source of a leak.