What is it?
Psychosis is when a person has lost some contact with reality, resulting in severe disruptions in thinking, emotion, and behavior. Psychosis can have a severe impact on a person’s life. Relationships, school, work, other usual activities, and self-care can be difficult to initiate or maintain. Disorders where psychosis may appear include: schizophrenia, psychotic depression, schizoaffective disorder, and substance-induced psychosis
Signs and Symptoms
Changes in emotion and motivation:
- Depression
- Anxiety, fearfulness
- Irritability, extreme moodiness, sudden outbursts or highly emotional reactions
- Suspiciousness, feeling that people are out to get them
- Blunted, flat, or inappropriate emotion
- Change in appetite
- Reduced energy and motivation
- Significantly increased sleep
Changes in thinking and perception:
- Difficulties with concentration or attention
- Sense of alteration of self, others, or outside world
- Odd ideas (feels they or others have changed or are acting differently)
- Unusual perceptual experiences (reduction or greater intensity of smell, sound, or color)
Changes in behavior:
- Sleep disturbance social isolation or withdrawal
- Reduced ability to carry out social roles
- Seeing things and hearing voices that are not real
- Severe problems in making and keeping friends
- Social isolation
