Mental Health Awareness - What is Psychosis?

Hello everyone, welcome to our next wellbeing blog. 

This week we are focusing on how we can raise awareness as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.

Today’s blog is about Psychosis.     

At Prospect House, we have used the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ as a framework for our approach to Mental health and wellbeing. This comprises of

5 different elements:

Connect - Making time for relationships with friends, family and colleagues and elsewhere within your community.

Be active - Exercising, physical activity and enjoying good health.

Take notice - Being aware of the world around you and reflecting on your experiences.

Keep learning - Trying new things and challenging yourself.

Give - Doing something nice for others, volunteering, making yourself and others happy

What is psychosis?

Psychosis is a term used to describe when a person interprets or perceives reality in a different way to those around them. If you experience psychosis, you may process the world around you differently to other people. You might see or hear things that others do not. Or believe things other people do not. Some people describe psychosis as a "break from reality".

There are different terms used to describe psychosis. Such as “psychotic symptoms”, “psychotic episode” or “psychotic experience”. If you are experiencing psychosis for the first time, this can sometimes be called “first-episode of psychosis”.

Traditionally psychosis has been seen as a symptom of mental illness. But this isn’t necessarily the case. Psychosis is not always because of a mental illness. There are many theories about what causes people to experience psychosis.

You may not find it helpful to think of your experiences as symptoms of a mental illness. You may have a different reason as to why you experience psychosis. For example, due to traumatic experiences you may live with psychosis.

The way you experience psychosis may be different to the way someone else experiences psychosis. Some people make a complete recovery from psychosis.

This page will use the word ‘experiences’ to describe what you may go through if you have psychosis. In mental healthcare, your experiences may be referred to as ‘symptoms of psychosis’.

Common symptoms of psychosis are:

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Cognitive impairments

These symptoms are described in further detail below.

Hallucinations

These are when you see, hear, smell, taste or feel things that other people don’t. For example:

• hearing voices or sounds other people can’t,
• seeing things which other people do not see,
• tasting things when you haven’t had or eaten something,
• feeling someone touching you who is not there, or
• smelling things which other people cannot.

Hearing voices or other sounds is the most common type of hallucination.

For example, voices may be:

• female or male,
• someone you know or someone you’ve never heard,
• in a different language or in a different accent to your own,
• whispering or shouting,
• friendly and nice, or
• negative and disturbing.

You might hear voices sometimes, for example only for a few minutes, once a month. Or you may hear voices everyday that last for hours at a time.

Delusions

These are unusual beliefs that other people within your community do not share, even though they feel real to you.

For example, you may worry:

• that you are being followed by secret agents or members of the public,
• that people are out to get you or trying to kill you. This can be strangers or people you know,
• that a chip has been planted in your brain to monitor your thoughts, or,
• your food or water has been poisoned.

There are different types of delusions that people experience. For example, you may think you are a very powerful person or that you’re God. These kinds of thoughts are called 'delusions of grandeur'.

You may not always find delusions or your unusual beliefs distressing, although people often do. You may be able to stay in work and function well even if you have these worries.

Cognitive impairments

Cognitive impairments are ones that relate to mental action. Such as learning, remembering and functioning.

Some cognitive impairments associated with psychosis are:

• concentration problems,
• memory problems,
• difficulties in understanding new information, and
• difficulty making decisions.

Causes

What causes psychosis?

Nobody knows exactly what causes psychosis, researchers have not identified one single cause. There are different reasons why you may experience psychosis. It is thought that most people who experience psychosis, it is due to their life experiences. Which are largely out of their control. ,

Psychosis can be:

• part of a neurological condition such as dementia, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,
• triggered by a brain injury,
• a side effect of medication,
• an effect of illegal drugs such as cannabis, or
• an effect of illegal drugs or alcohol withdrawal,
• triggered by menopause, or,
• triggered during times of severe stress or anxiety.

Some people also experience hallucinations if they are very tired.

Research shows men from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are more likely to experience psychosis. In addition to this, research also suggests that voice hearing experiences are different across different cultural backgrounds.

Below we have described in further detail about how life experiences, genetics and brain chemicals may lead to psychosis.

Life experiences

There is evidence that stressful life experiences can cause psychosis. In particular, abuse or other traumatic experiences. A review found that over ½ of clients that were in hospital for mental health problems had either been physically or sexually abused as children.

As stated, research suggests there are many different types of life experiences that can trigger psychosis or make you relapse. These include:

• stress, or anxiety,
• drugs and alcohol misuse or withdrawal, ,
• homelessness,
• delirium. This is a state of mental confusion which may follow a serious physical illness or an operation,
• grief, divorce or separation,
• childbirth
• racism, and
• tiredness.

Genetic causes

Research suggests that mental illness can run in families. But at the moment it isn’t possible to separate genetics and life experiences to work out the cause of mental illness.

Brain chemicals

Research suggests that changes to your brain chemistry can cause psychosis. But it’s not known why the chemicals in your brain change.