Article by JMCK, September 30, 2010
Just as a matter of interest, today, on NPR (National Public Radio), a psychiatrist affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital was interviewed about the hospital's efforts at intervening in cases involving psychosis as a precursor to full-blown schizophrenia. The symptoms described by this psychiatrist sounded VERY much like what TIs report as having been experienced.
The Hospital's website was was considerably less informative, so, I did a wider search to find a psychiatric organization that repeated the information furnished by the MGH psychiatrist during today's NPR interview. I found such a site.
Take a look at the following:
http://www.eppic.org.au/phases-psychosis
The page discusses "The Phases of Psychosis."
Regarding the "active phase" of psychosis, the following information is furnished, which you might want to read closely:
"The active phase of psychosis is characterised by the presence of positive psychotic symptoms which include thought disorder, delusions and hallucinations, and negative symptoms, such as loss of motivation and withdrawal.
Hallucinations are sensory perceptions in the absence of an external stimulus. The most common type are auditory hallucinations, where a person may hear voices or other noises when no-one else is present. Other types of hallucinations are visual, tactile, gustatory and olfactory, where people see, feel, taste, or smell stimuli which are not present. These are less common and an organic cause may be evident in these situations.
Delusions are fixed, false beliefs out of keeping with the person’s cultural environment. They may be sustained despite proof to the contrary. These beliefs are often idiosyncratic and very important to the person, but hard for other people to understand. Delusions often gradually build up in intensity, being more open to challenge in the initial stages, before becoming more entrenched. They can take many forms. Common types of delusions include:
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* Persecutory delusions; where the person believes that they are being, watched, followed, or talked about in a negative way, or that people are planning to, or actually, harming them
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* Grandiose delusions; where the person believes that they have special powers or abilities
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* Delusions of reference; where the person believes that television shows, songs, or newspaper/magazine articles are referring to them
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* Somatic delusions; where the person experiences unusual beliefs about their body or appearance, for example, a part of their body is abnormal, or 'rotting'
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* Passivity delusions; where a person believes that others are putting thoughts in their head, or taking thoughts out of their head, or that others can read their minds [aka "mind-control" - jmck]
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* Delusional guilt; where the person falsely believes that they are responsible for negative events, such as natural disastersFor this reason, TIs need to be particularly careful about how they characterize their symptoms and experiences."
A Word to the Wise T.I. thanks jmck for this insightful information.