What Is Psychosis?

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“I had a breakdown.” That’s typically when people hear about psychosis. But what does that actually mean? Because the word psychotic comes from the root of psychosis, there are obviously quite negative ideas surrounding psychosis.

To many, the word connotes: crazy, lunatic, or dangerous. But the word psychosis is more of an experience—something that happens—rather than a diagnosis. If you hallucinated or have had delusional beliefs, you may have had a psychotic event. You may be living with psychosis.

Psychosis does not mean you are dangerous. It does not mean you are “crazy,” and it does not mean you are hopeless.  

Psychosis Defined

The specific definition of Psychosis is a mental disorder in which the individual loses touch with reality due to a deterioration in their mental faculties.

There are 100,000 new cases of psychosis every year, mostly observed in people in their late teens to mid-twenties. It is commonly associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (or various other disorders) but can also be caused by drug use, both recreational and prescribed.

You may have experienced psychosis, but your diagnosis may be clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, extreme anxiety, or many other mental health disorders.

What Are the Symptoms?

Psychosis can be short-term, long-term, or occur sporadically throughout one’s life. An obvious way of recognizing a psychotic episode is observed through the main symptoms: abnormal behavior, disorganized speech, and an obvious disconnect with reality.

Knowing that you experience such a mental disorder can cause anxiety, fear, and confusion. It can also impact one’s life and interfere with daily responsibilities. Symptoms include, but are not limited to:

  • Delusions
  • Hallucinations
  • Aggression
  • Restlessness
  • Self-harm
  • Incoherent speech
  • Memory loss
  • Thoughts of suicide

What Causes Psychosis?

In the journey to understand “What is psychosis” you may want to know, “What causes psychosis?”

Psychosis can be triggered by several disorders or environmental factors. As we have mentioned, mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may trigger a psychotic episode. However, you can also experience psychosis because of a high fever.

Each person who has a psychotic episode will have a unique reason or cause. Some other factors that can generate a psychotic episode are:

  • Drugs or alcohol
  • Spiritual experiences
  • Abuse or trauma
  • Prescribed drugs
  • Grief
  • Insomnia
  • Genetic predispositions
  • Medical conditions (malaria, Parkinson’s, brain tumor, etc.)

Types of Psychosis

The following are the three main types of psychosis:

Hallucinations – hearing, seeing, or sensing things that aren’t there. Other senses may be distorted as well, such as smells and sensations occurring on the skin that do not exist. You may hear voices, see the dead, or perceive the world around you acting in ways that are contrary to physics.

Delusions – or beliefs in things that are nonfactual, specifically about oneself, others, and the world around you. They are typically beliefs that are contrary to the reality and perception of truth experienced by everyone around you. You may believe you can control the weather. But you would be the only person who believes that to be true.

Abnormal thoughts and speech – your thoughts move very quickly, and it is difficult to keep track, or your thoughts may jump from idea to idea very quickly through connections that only you can comprehend. This might be physically manifest through ramblings of incoherent speech that expose the sufferer’s incoherent thoughts.

See the story of this UK-based individual and his psychosis experience:

How Is It Treated?

Treatment can vary depending on the individual’s needs. Typically, one may need mental health therapy alongside antipsychotic medication. One popular form is CBTp or cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis. This is talk therapy that dismantles how a person thinks and feels and establishes coping mechanisms.

Treatment is particularly helpful when one has the support of friends and family. Family therapy can help with understanding the disorder, establish a plan for times of crisis, and help the sufferer cope outside therapy. This can also be achieved through community care, crisis hotlines, or treatment centers.

Lido Wellness Center can help you understand psychosis. Our team has experience with helping people journey through psychotic episodes as well as treating what may be the root cause. Our specialties in trauma and healing, anxiety, depression disorders, and bipolar disorders give us a unique set of tools to help patients find healing for the cause of their psychosis. Call us today to learn about our unique mental health treatment options.

 

Do I Need Antidepressants?

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Most likely if you are asking the question, “Do I need anti-depressants?” you are familiar with the depths of clinical depression and its myriad effects.

The grip of depression can lead you into a pit of anxiety, anger, and despair. And there are times when it feels like you would accept anything that could help you simply get out of bed without the dark cloud of nothingness surrounding you.

The short answer is, if you have feelings of depression for extended periods, antidepressants can help improve the quality of your life.

There is a difference between the emotions behind anger, depression, and anxiety and a clinical diagnosis by a qualified professional. While antidepressants can help you find relief, only a medical doctor or psychiatrist can prescribe them.

Of course, neither of these kinds of practitioners offer long-term psychological therapy. A psychiatrist may, but often they refer their patients to psychologists, counselors, or an outpatient mental health program.

Read on to find out when and how antidepressants can help.

What Are Antidepressants?

As the name suggests, antidepressants are a type of medicine that help treat clinical depression or prevent it from recurring. Antidepressants increase the activity of neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine) to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression. They work in different ways to balance your brain chemicals and give you relief.

Similarly, you can treat the symptoms of mild depression with a positive behavior change. Lifestyle adjustments like an improved diet, sleep schedule, and routine workouts can help lift your spirits on bad days. Additionally, your doctor can give you a short-term prescription to help develop life-changing habits.

Here are 8 ways to break the cycle of depression without medications.

Do I Need Antidepressants?

Depression is more than a few days of feeling blue. It is a critical illness that affects your mood, mental health, and general well-being. It comes with bouts of fear, hopelessness, worry, and endless exhaustion. The disease affects how you think, feel, eat, and sleep.

Often, you find yourself trapped in a loop of drifting between the past and present or the real and delusionary. When asking the question, “Do I need antidepressants?” make sure you examine your clinical depression symptoms. These may include:

  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Feeling guilty about how you live
  • Lack of pleasure in what you previously enjoyed
  • Indecision or reduced concentration
  • Negative thoughts about yourself and the world
  • Insomnia or too much sleep
  • Lack of appetite or overeating to cope
  • Irritability
  • Feeling worthless
  • Self-doubt

If you experience these symptoms and can’t shake them off, its likely you would benefit from antidepressants. But taking any medication or handling mental health issues—these are deeply personal. There is no blanket answer for everyone on this topic.

There will be side effects to consider. These range from nausea to insomnia to anxiety to reduced sex drive.

Other Options for Treating Depression

There are alternative options as well that have wonderful results in various settings.

TMS – Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is a treatment commonly used to improve symptoms of anxiety and depression. Using magnetic pulses for anxiety and similar mental health conditions works by stimulating certain nerve cells within the brain.

EMDR – Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a psychotherapy technique initially developed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And it has proven results in helping with depression, as well.

How Long Do I Need Antidepressants?

Once you start your treatment, it can take time to feel like your best self again.

It is usually suggested that patients stay on antidepressants for around 4-6 months. Ideally your more acute symptoms will have alleviated in that timeframe. While this is still a deeply personal decision, it is important to make the decision about how and when to stop taking medication with your psychiatrist or doctor.

In the midst of your journey, you may be in the place where a more expansive and intensive mental health program is the best option to help accelerate your healing. At Lido Wellness we offer three different options of intensive mental health programing.

PHP, IOP, and outpatient—ranging from most involved to least, feel free to find out more information on each or simply give us a call. Located in Newport Beach, California, our mental health facility is a balance of peace and treatment that can lead to deeper healing.

Living With Bipolar Disorder in Orange County

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Am I Bipolar?

Living with bipolar disorder can be a challenge. Here we explore some ways to stay healthy offer day-to-day solutions.

Most of us have heard about bipolar disorders. The various media and news outlets tend to cover it in a non-descript way. But that approach is not exactly helpful, and as a result very few of us really understand what bipolar disorder is. (The movie Silver Linings Playbook is an example of characters that may struggle with bipolar disorder.)

Even if you have been diagnosed with one of the types of bipolar disorder, you might not fully understand it and, more importantly, how to make sure you are living with bipolar disorder in a healthy way.

Bipolar Highs and Lows

Bipolar common knowledge is if you have bipolar disorder, you likely have times where you are very happy and times where you are very sad. That’s pretty much the extent of most people’s understanding.

The more complex term for this is episodes of mania or hypomania contrasted with depressive episodes. This is where the term manic depression comes from, the term that once referred to bipolar.

Though it is common to call them mood swings, they are fairly intense. And to qualify for a bipolar diagnosis, they have to have a significant negative impact on your life.

Bipolar Mood Swings

Bipolar Highs: During manic episodes, a person with bipolar disorder is gleeful, energetic, or unusually irritable.

Bipolar Lows: Depressive episodes have you feeling hopeless, sad, and without interest in pleasurable activities. Often, the mood shift is accompanied by emotional symptoms as they affect your sleep, thoughts, energy, and judgment.

Seeking treatment helps you live a good life despite the condition. However, there are simple, everyday habits you can adopt to get better control over your symptoms.

Living With Bipolar Disorder in Orange County

The worst thing you can do with a bipolar diagnosis is pretend it doesn’t exist. Bipolar Disorder Treatment comes with a certain degree of acceptance so you can move forward towards healthy change and wellness.

When you fully engage and participate in your treatment, you become an expert in your own individual journey living with bipolar disorder.

This may look like this:

  • You understand the symptoms and can recognize them before they become debilitating.
  • You actively research and explore available treatment options to ensure you lead a healthy life.
  • You work with your treatment professional to draw up a list of achievable goals to work on.
  • You develop trust and patience in the process.
  • You also learn to communicate your thoughts and feelings with your therapist.

Know Your Triggers

The symptoms of bipolar disorder are often a result of specific life experiences. Knowing your bipolar triggers helps you recognize an oncoming episode and take measures to protect yourself. The most common triggers of bipolar disorder include:

  • Stress
  • Irregular sleep schedule
  • Strained relationships with close friends and loved ones
  • Financial strain
  • Inability to adapt well to a new environment

*We go further into 10 bipolar triggers and how to manage them in this article.

Monitor Your Symptoms and Moods

If you have bipolar disorder, staying attuned to your thoughts, feelings, and environment helps you intercept mood swings. You are aware of subtle changes in your thoughts, moods, energy levels, and sleep patterns. When you monitor your symptoms and temper, you can prevent a minor change from turning into a full-blown bipolar episode.

Develop an Active Daily Routine

Your lifestyle choices affect your mood, energy, sleep patterns, and eating habits. Developing an active daily routine is a great way to get your symptoms in check and keep bipolar episodes at bay. One way to build an active lifestyle is to structure your life, so you know what to do and when to do it. Other positive ways to improve your life are:

  • Having a strict diet – Your body is what you eat. Watching what you eat and having healthy meals ensures you have enough nourishment and energy to keep you going.
  • Having a regular sleep schedule – the ups and downs of life can overwhelm you and affect your sleep schedule. Having a regular schedule ensures you get enough rest and are focused on what you need to do to survive every day.

Living With Bipolar Disorder by Getting Treatment

If you are currently living with a bipolar disorder and want help, Lido Wellness Center in Newport Beach offers a full PHP, IOP, or outpatient mental health program that is designed for whole life healing. Our team is available now to answer any questions about our unique program and specifically how we can help you manage a bipolar disorder. Call us today: 949-503-9655.

What Types of Personality Disorders Are There?

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A personality disorder is typically classified as long-term behavior that significantly differs from what is expected. Hmmm. Okay. This may or may not be helpful to you. It’s totally understandable to still be a bit in the dark about what a personality disorder actually is.

From day-to-day, each one of us may act “differently than expected.”

Do I have a personality disorder if I lied on my recent job interview?

I don’t really like most people around me; do I have a narcissistic disorder?

When are my behaviors easily explained as quirks and when do they slip into the realms of personality disorder?

To get a full answer to that question, a professional diagnosis is necessary. However, understanding what psychologists consider the range of personality disorders may help you gain an understanding of your (or a loved ones) behaviors. And help point you in the right direction.

10 Personality Disorders

According to the DSM 5, there are ten types of personality disorders. These disorders are categorized by clusters, with each cluster sharing somewhat similar symptoms and characteristics among its disorders.

However, the types of personality disorders will always have to do with how a person thinks about themselves (or others), how a person responds emotionally to stimuli, how a person relates to others, or how a person controls their behaviors.

Types of Personality Disorders

Below are the three categories of PDs with a very brief description of each.

Cluster A (Suspicious)

Personality disorders in this category feature unconventional behavior and include:

Schizotypal personality disorder –

A condition that fosters intense discomfort and a dislike for close relationships.

Paranoid personality disorder –

It causes a person to be overly suspicious and mistrustful of everyone around them.

Schizoid personality disorder –

Makes a person disinterested in creating and maintaining interpersonal relationships.

Cluster B (Emotional and Impulsive)

Characterized by symptoms full of drama and unpredictability, they include:

Borderline personality disorder –

BPD patients have a problem regulating their emotions and thus have low self-esteem, mood swings, and act on impulse.

Histrionic personality disorder –

Is accompanied by emotional instability and warped self-image. People with HPD crave approval from others and have attention-seeking behaviors.

Antisocial personality disorder –

ASPD patients don’t respect others and rebel against accepted norms and rules.

Narcissistic personality disorder –

People with this disorder think they’re better than everyone else and have no empathy for others. They have low self-esteem and lack self-confidence, which they mask by bringing others down.

Cluster C (Anxious)

People with these disorders typically experience frequent episodes of fear and anxiety. Disorders in this category include:

Dependent personality disorder –

people with this disorder are overly submissive and constantly need to be cared for by others. They often spend most of their time and effort trying to please others.

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder –

The condition makes a person obsessed about order, perfection, and control.

Avoidant personality disorder –

Characterized by feelings of inadequacy, people with this condition crumble when they’re negatively judged. They’re averse to social interaction due to the fear of judgment.

How Do You Get Diagnosed for Personality Disorder?

Each disorder has their own criteria for diagnosis. Typically, individuals must have two or more presenting symptoms to warrant a diagnosis. Some people will behave in ways that are representative of multiple disorders. It is possible to have multiple disorders present, and that’s called a mixed personality disorder.

The important thing to remember is you cannot diagnose yourself. Neither can your parents or friends. Only a certified mental health specialist can do that. That means a psychiatrist or psychologist. It is not something anyone can simply label you. If you truly have a personality disorder, the best next step is to get help fully understanding and managing it.

Steps to Take If You Suspect You Have a Personality Disorder

The first course of action if you suspect you have a personality disorder, the first course of action is to visit a professional specializing in mental health disorders. Certain types of therapies have proven effective in helping people with all types of personality disorders. These may include:

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Group therapy
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

In addition to these formal treatments, keeping a healthy body and mind have been helpful for others. This may include learning about your personality disorder, exercising regularly, finding support groups in your area, staying connected to people who love you, and avoiding drugs or alcohol.

Of course, the first step is reaching out for help.

If you suspect you have a personality disorder and are looking for help, call Lido Wellness Center in Orange County, California, today for a consultation and to find out what treatments might be available for you.