Condition : Psychosis

Condition Psychosis

What is psychosis?

Psychosis causes you to see things differently from those around you. Another way of describing it is that you lose some contact with reality.

If you experience symptoms of psychosis, it is often described as having a psychotic episode.

The three main symptoms of psychosis are:

hallucinations – sensing things that appear real to you but only exist in your mind, such as hearing voices, seeing people who aren’t there, feeling bugs crawling on your skin or your internal organs moving, or smelling or tasting things that aren’t present
delusions – having strong beliefs that are not shared by others, like a belief that there's a conspiracy to harm you, that you can control the weather, or that an external force is controlling you
disordered thinking and speaking – seeing links between things that other people don’t and racing thoughts, resulting in difficulties with concentration, not completing sentences, switching topics suddenly, and generally very fast and stumbling speech

These symptoms and can cause severe distress and changes in behaviour.

Psychosis can be a symptom of a mental health problem, such as:

schizophrenia – being unable to distinguish your own thoughts and ideas from reality
psychotic depression – experiencing hallucinations and delusions while having severe depression
bipolar disorder – having episodes of low mood (depression) and highs or elated mood (mania)
postpartum psychosis – having symptoms of psychosis that start soon after giving birth (usually within the first two weeks)
severe stress or anxiety
drug or alcohol misuse

If you have a family history of psychosis you may be at higher risk of psychosis.

The following physical health problems have also been known to trigger psychotic episodes in some people:

conditions affecting the brain, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), a brain tumour, or dementia
sudden illness or injury, such as a high temperature or head injury
a lack of sleep
side effects of prescribed medicine
low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia)
a serious infection, such as syphilis or malaria
HIV and AIDS