There Is Hope for Recovery from Psychosis

A Personal Perspective: Five tips for healing from psychosis.

Reviewed by Lybi Ma

It’s widely known that people with schizophrenia are thought to have a bad prognosis. That is, their fates seem to be sealed and they are expected to forever be stuck and fall deeper and deeper into psychosis.

Some programs like OnTrackNY catch early episode psychosis and have shown promise for directing people with schizophrenia towards a more fruitful one where patients can potentially flourish. New drugs and therapies are being discovered more and more, but tools for getting out of psychosis remain few.

As a person who has lived with schizoaffective disorder for almost a decade, I’ve learned tricks that seemingly work to prevent and control psychotic episodes. Many of them are counterintuitive and might be uncomfortable cold, hard truths, but to achieve long-term healing one has to accept the conditions that they are given.

Here are five tips while you recover from psychosis.

1. Don’t give in to peer pressure.

   Knowledge about psychosis isn’t widely understood, and many people might think symptoms are a fun and quirky part of your personality when in reality they are debilitating and cause harm. Avoid falling for this social peer pressure, and try to understand the gravity of the situation.

   An example is excessive spending and traveling. On the outside many people can interpret frequent traveling as a sign of an adventurous personality. In certain cases, however, large trips can be planned while someone is in a manic episode with delusions. This mania can lead to excessive spending, and delusions can cloud someone’s judgment of knowing what destinations are safe, and how to navigate transportation and cultural mannerisms with reason.

2. Be realistic.

   Once you figure out that you actually have a problem, understand the limits of those problems. It doesn’t help to deny symptoms. Denying reality won’t help anyone get any better. Denying symptoms instead prolongs suffering and stalls progress. If you can’t confront the problem, how will you realistically know how to address its effects on you?

   For example, if you think every cute guy or woman is your cosmic soulmate, lover, or future spouse, it won’t realistically help you find a partner. This is your desire, but having a desire and projecting that into the present or future doesn’t help someone accomplish their goal. Living in a delusion will produce behaviors that work against your goal. If you think someone is your soulmate just by looking at them, you might start bombarding them with gifts, flowers, and letters thinking you will be with them forever. Most people don’t operate this way. But you can meet a healthy partner if you hold reasonable ideas and expectations about how relationships work.

   People can live a full life when they live within their means. That motto goes for more than just recovery–finances, social support, and capabilities can grow and expand once a person realistically understands the circumstances they live in.

3. Accept the mourning process.
   This is something that I don’t hear people talk about, even in psychiatric clinics. While recovering and being realistic, there will be a natural mourning process that happens every time you recognize a symptom.

   When I recognize a symptom that has controlled me more than I control it, I immediately start to feel overwhelmed. I realize the true impact it has had on me and become stunned, shocked, embarrassed, and upset that it has taken over so much of my life.

   Then I usually have a sense of internalized shame. I start to believe in stereotypes and realize that people who don’t have psychosis have seen this behavior all along. I buy into the idea that I should also shame myself.

   My self-esteem usually drops for a while and I oscillate between manic denial and depressive realization.

   I think, “Oh my God, my life has been derailed so much. How am I ever going to fix this?”

   Then I use the self-compassion I learned in therapy and remember that my symptoms are not my fault. I remember that I can heal. I can live a full life because I have seen other people do it. I don’t have to buy into other people’s ideas. I can do this.

4. Employ skepticism and rationality.
   A couple of tools that have allowed me to control my delusions and hallucinations are skepticism and rationality.

   Instead of acting on the assumption that my symptoms tell a true story about reality, I hold skepticism towards the idea that my mind is always functioning correctly and that it always represents reality correctly. It might not be something you want to hear, but by understanding that your mind has a problem (that can be overcome) with the way it processes information and reality, you can learn how to manage it.

   To do this one must have the underlying assumption that your brain doesn’t work like everyone else’s, and I have to be realistic to see what my individual differences are.

   As a coping mechanism, I call someone who is a reasonable person and has good judgment. Usually, this support tends to be a logical and grounded person. I tell them what I am experiencing, and I ask them, “Am I the second coming of Christ?”

   Then we analyze the evidence together. My support usually asks me questions. “Why you out of all the people in the world? What event happened that might have inspired this idea or thought? Does it help you to think you are invincible as a religious figure?”

   Ultimately we conclude that my delusion is likely false, and then the delusion subsides.

   Since I have schizoaffective disorder, mania and depression coincide with my symptoms. When I think I am an influential religious figure, my mania spikes. When I realize it is not true, I become depressed.

   Knowing how your symptoms affect you individually will help you protect yourself when you feel symptoms coming on.

5. Finally, have hope and maintain integrity.

   People with psychosis have enough to deal with. Internalized shame and stigma are unnecessary attitudes and actually stall progress long term. What helps me stay stable and believe in my own strategies and recovery is that I know that I have more knowledge than most people in this area and that there are reasonable people who I consider role models who encourage positive and helpful behaviors.

   Surround yourself with supportive friends and family who prioritize recovery and realism more than sensationalism and peer pressure. Having confidence that you are an individual who has to figure out how to live best for your life involves having the mature attitude that many people just buy into stereotypes and don’t think about it because they don’t have to.

Remember, stigma and stereotypes can change through individuals. The more people recover and understand psychosis, the more people can be advocates for themselves in their daily lives. You are not alone, and this blog is evidence of that.

Here is to healing!