Psychosis
It is normal for any us to have strange experiences now and then, like hearing noises when we’re very tired or seeing things out of the corner of our eye. However, when we experience psychosis other things can develop; the following is a list of the types of thing that can happen.
However, the experience of psychosis is very individual so any combination of these or other experiences might be present. Of equal, often greater importance is how the experience makes the individual feel.
- We might feel like we’ve changed in some way, or developed some special powers
- We might be aware that our thoughts might not be working as well as usual, and we also might begin to worry that thoughts are being put into or taken out of our head by someone or something else
- We might worry that everyone around us can hear our thoughts
- We might think that newspapers, television or the radio has specific meaning for us or is written directly for us
- We might be hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling or physically feeling things that other people can’t
- We might also be worrying about things in a way that is out of character for us, like worrying we’re being watched or followed, or that there is some kind of conspiracy against us
- We might feel like we are somebody different, perhaps somebody famous
- We might have lost our energy, interest in the world or emotions
As you can imagine it makes sense that some of these experiences can be at times frightening, but equally some might be exciting.
Psychosis is complex, and there is no agreed way of identifying the cause of it for everybody. One way to see it is as a combination of genetic factors and life experiences, whether these experiences are recent or long ago.
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