Topic Tuesday **closed** Psychosis

[NikNik]

Tonight we will discuss psychosis.

Do you care for someone who has experienced a psychotic episode? For some of us it can be scary and overwhelming and I'm sure a lot of us have felt helpless and even a bit lonely in our experiences.

During Topic Tuesday this week (26 May) we will share our experiences about caring for someone who has experienced a psychotic episode.

Some of the topics we will touch on include:

• Noticing symptoms during the onset of an episode
• Care plans to manage episodes
• Tips for working with psychotic symptoms

Read about the experiences of carers, people with lived experiences and health professionals to find out ways you can support someone experiencing psychosis.

Nik

[CherryBomb]

 Good evening everyone!

Welcome to our members who RSVPed @Linmerc @AllAboutMissy and @Baboo, and welcome to our special guest @Former-Member. @Former-Member is a registered counselling psychologist who is going to share some information/strategies to support someone experiencing psychosis. But, as always, we are very keen to hear from you - our members - to hear what expertise you can share from your own experiences.

I thought I'd start with putting forward this question:

What are some of the symptoms people can look for to possibly detect the early signs of psychosis?

[kenny66]

as a person suffering psychosis from schizoaffective disorder mostly the warning signs are really just slipping into an alternative dimension.

I speak differently and mostly cant put things together. I lose the ability to count and speak logically.

Pre onset is either mania or depression, always.

kenny

[soul]

My partner experienced a psychotic episode which has landed him in prison. He had a psych evaluation done that was unhelpful - just a questionnaire and a quick chat. Now we have lodged an appeal against the severity of his sentence. In hindsight I thought his symptoms were all stress related and were something we could handle but looking back he was a ticking time bomb. Prior to the event he hadn't slept for days, was highly strung, talked non stop and became very agitated.

[Linmerc]

Evening all
Early signs of psychosis is confused thinking (losing touch with reality)
Delusions (false beliefs)
Hallucinations (sees, hears, tastes things that are not real)
This is my first time so please excuse me if I do something wrong
Linmerc

[Shadow]

I find I withdraw from friends and activities and use a lot of alcohol or prescription meds.

[Former-Member]

Good evening CherryBomb and hello Forum!  It's great to be here. Even though it can be quite a frightening topic, I hope we all end up feeling a little better informed for having shared our experiences.

Can I just say at the outset, before I even get into listing some of the changes you may see, it’s really It’s important not to blame yourself if you're in the position of having missed the early signs of psychosis.  It's an illness that often affects young people (onset is often between 15 and 30) and there are so many behaviour and mood changes going on at that point in their lives that it can be easy to miss the start of a more significant change.  And sometimes your loved one will be so scared by these new thought patterns that they’ll try to hide them so that no-one will think that they are ‘mad’.  They can be invested in you not working it out. 

[Former-Member]

Having said that, what you may see is changes in mood, shifts in normal routines and behaviours and, perhaps most tellingly, the expression of strange new ideas. Sometimes psychosis will be all too apparent. You might observe your loved one reacting to things you can’t see or hear. An internal direction (voice/thought) has them staying away from windows. Sleeping in a different spot. Seemingly talking to themselves. New behaviours that point to a shift in their reality from one that was shared with us (cars parked outside belong to neighbours) to one that is unique to them and often quite frightening (cars parked outside are there because they are being spied on and followed).

Other times, it’ll be more subtle. It might start with increasing isolation and a tendency to avoid normal routines. Now, this could be a symptom of depression rather than psychosis. It all depends on what’s driving the change. Is the isolation is about sadness and a lack of energy (so possibly depression). Or is there some newly paranoid thinking that is stopping your loved one from wanting to be with friends and family. It’s only by gently asking questions that you’ll know the difference.

It would be great to hear about anyone’s experiences in observing these changes. If you are caring for someone who has experienced psychosis, how did it present? What did you see?

[kenny66]

With one episode I walked in circles four hours, even when I was put into the MHU and medicated.

Smelling something strongly sometimes happens and sometimes I can taste metal.

Loss of reality is the main feature for me with the voices and all the other stuff that goes with SchizoA.

My flat mate says that it is very obvious when i start to get that way.

kenny

[CherryBomb]

Thanks @Former-Member @kenny66 @Shadow @Linmerc and @soul for your insights. Sounds like everyone has quite different experiences/symptoms, and some similarities.

Do you find these symptoms change from time to time, or do are usually consistent so you can usually tell when you might be heading into an episode?

What do you usually do first once you start noticing the symptoms? What should carers do during these intital phases?