You know how you get to talking to someone? You may know the person very well or only slightly. This person you are in conversation with may also be someone you have intimate knowledge of, because he/she/they are your parent, sibling, bff, "ex"....or perhaps even your own child.
...and then they say it. Say what? Say "it", which means that whatever they are saying, "it"sounds insane as hell, that's what. Maybe they say "it" just once...and that was a month ago....and you haven't heard anything irrational since. Or...maybe he/she/they have kept talking about "it" once they recall they told you a first time. Everybody's situation is going to be unique when introduced for the first time to a loved one who is behaving actively psychotic. Just saying....
I remember talking with a friend's daughter one night. We were at the same place at the same time, and we got to talking. And then "it" came up in the conversation and I instantly knew she was in trouble. What did she say? She said she had conversations with ghosts and that the ghosts directed her in what she should or should not do when she's debating about what to do in a given circumstance or situation. Okay then. So.....
...I asked her about her spiritual world view to start, because sometimes people who sound insane are, in fact, merely practicing their own brand of their own spirituality/spiritual world view. I can't judge that. Neither should you. Of course, I don't know which brand of spirituality involves conversing with ghosts who also function as spirit guides....so that's why I asked her about her spiritual condition. As it turned out, she wasn't a religious person or even considered herself very spiritual at all. No affiliation with any specific group...no practices to do with sacrificing anything on any altars....nada. She just happened to talk to ghosts who suggested what she do when she wasn't sure about what to do in her own life.
Is that weird, by the way? Don't we ALL often wonder what we should do in our own lives when we don't know what to do? Who or what do "you" go to for support, encouragement, inspiration, and/or motivation in that regard? Here's a clue: don't go to whatever will give you supernatural "insights" that involves the use of a substance containing hallucinatory properties or the potential to cause hallucinations (too much adderall, too much anything "stimulant"-based).... Believe me, that route won't help you figure out your life in a good way. It never does. Devil's not stupid....
Then I asked her about her history with alcohol and/or drug use. Turned out she smoked a lot of weed. As in every day and multiple times a day. I asked her if there was a time when she conversed with and took the advice of ghosts before she started smoking pot. She said she didn't ever think about that before, but she sat for a while and considered her response. Then told me that she doesn't remember even ever thinking of and/or interacting with ghosts at all until recent years and yes, in fact, it was after she made a habit of smoking weed on a daily basis.
When it comes to psychosis, we all may "think" we know what it is and means...but we really don't. Why would we? I mean that's like expecting anyone who owns a car to "know" when it's broken before it takes an actual dump on the road and stops working altogether. Or, how to fix a car once it does stop working. Not happening. Same is true with psychotic episodes and the mental health and/or substance use/abuse issues that can create and/or exacerbate them. So....today's post is all about that. How to discern what's going on when you, or someone you love and care about, starts talking and/or acting psychotic!
So let's begin by defining psychosis. In all cases, psychosis may involve any one of four behavioral patterns which the rest of the world would not experience. First, hallucinations. Hallucinations may be auditory in nature (hearing things that are not "real" and happening in real life in the moment they are experienced), visual in nature (seeing things...), gustatory (tasting things), olfactory (smelling things), and tactile (touching/feeling sensations that are not "real" and happening in real life in the moment they are experienced). When it comes to the majority of hallucinatory experiences of people who do alcohol and drugs to whatever extent that takes them over the edge (of sanity), their hallucinations will be most often be auditory in nature, with visual hallucinations representing the second most common form experienced while under the effects of alcohol and/or drugs. Auditory hallucinations are also most common for people with diagnosed major mental illness(es) involving psychosis who do not indulge in drug and/or alcohol use and abuse.
So, what's an auditory hallucination like? It's like I'm sitting with you listening to you tell me about your ghosts who tell you what to do because they are your friends, and you believe I just said, "Oh, that's so nice! I wish I had ghost guides in my own life!"---when I DID NOT SAY THAT AT ALL! So, that's how an auditory hallucination can manifest itself. BUT, auditory hallucinations can also manifest themselves by hearing commands or hearing conversations inside (or outside) your own head. In other words, you are either being "told" what to do by the voice(s) you hear---or that voice/those voices are talking "about" you---and usually not in a positive way. Or...you may hear someone walking outside the door of your bedroom, or something scratching at your window behind you, or someone singing a song you hate in the distance...whatever it is you believe you are "hearing"---without being able to quickly locate and find its true source in real life---chances are very high it is an auditory hallucination at work. Just saying.
Next, visual hallucinations are not always like what we see in horror movies. By the way, do NOT watch horror movies if you have ever ever EVER experienced a psychotic episode, okay? Promise?!? Talk about infecting your mind with something that you can't unsee in the first place...and then it coming back up in some form when the psychosis returns for a second act. Not a good plan! Also, don't take acid. Puleeze DO NOT TAKE ACID! Taking acid when you already have issues with psychotic episodes is like voluntarily jumping into the ocean in the middle of nowhere, completely naked, during Christmas, up in Antartica, and you got asthma besides. The outcome will not be good.
Psychosis, when it pertains to visual hallucinations, may be no more "intense" than believing you see something out of the corner of your eye that would be like a "shadow" or "shadows" moving across your field of vision. You know and feel "What just happened here just now? Who was that?!"...but then it's suddenly gone. This is especially disturbing when your sense of "Who was that?" is accompanied by an auditory hallucination: "I heard the swift footfalls, and I saw only the shadow of somebody running across the kitchen as I stood in my foyer.." Yep, like that.
Visual hallucinations can also involve really seeing whatever and wherever when not considered or expected. Like driving down the road in your car, and every time you look up at a road sign or street sign...it says the same thing! Or talking to someone and their face suddenly becomes someone else's face instead of their own. Seeing your dog or cat talking to you. Not knowing where you are "now" in spite of the fact that last time you thought about it, you were in your bed and in your own bedroom. Stuff like that.
And yes, visual hallucinations can also involve seeing a giant man or a giant woman or a giant spider...whatever! Like you are in the middle of some horror movie and you can't do a damn thing about it!
Next post, we will talk about other forms of hallucinations before we get into the second form of psychosis which has to do with delusions (aka fixed false beliefs)...
Until next post....