[msaragon28]

My sister has psychosis. I just want to understand where all this generates from. Was it something that environmentally triggered it? Or it just happened? What is your thought process like? Where are all these thoughts and stories generated from? I mean please help me understand what really is going on and what its like to live with this condition.

Much appreciated.

[faerie_moon_x]

Your question is nearly impossible to answer, but I will try.

Living with psychosis is like living in a world where one day you wake up and everyone around you says the sky is green. But, when you look up, clearly it's blue. And everyone argues with you saying, "No, it's green and it's always been green, what's wrong with you?" But, you clearly remember it's always been blue and you can see clear as day that it's blue, and in fact you remember everyone used to say it was blue. But, no one believes you and tells you that you're crazy. Plus, you feel fne but everyone is telling you that something is wrong with you and you're sick, illgocial, and wrong. And this is very frustrating and lonely because no one believes you and nothing you do turns the sky green like everyone says.

Or alternately (as in my experience,) people "play along" for their own amusement. "Oh sure, the sky is blue." But then later if the delusion/hallucination goes away you realize you were just a big joke to everyone around you. (That's my personal experience but the first example is the more common experience it seems.)

That's the closest I can come to answering your question.

As for where it all comes from is under debate. No one really knows but there's some research about chemical imbalance, brain difference, and genetics. But, there are people who disagree.

Thought process seems completely locial and rational, no reason to think anything was wrong. What's your thought process like? It's exactly like that, except everyone around you telling you you're delusional.

Some people think there are triggers others it just seems to happen, but I think there are triggers. For me my trigger was a building.

Where do the thoughts come from? No idea. Where do any thoughts come from? Probably the same place.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by msaragon28

My sister has psychosis. I just want to understand where all this generates from. Was it something that environmentally triggered it? Or it just happened? What is your thought process like? Where are all these thoughts and stories generated from? I mean please help me understand what really is going on and what its like to live with this condition.

Much appreciated.

So the medical model suggests that there are differences in the dopamine and glutamate (neurotransmitter) pathways in the brain. There could be changes in levels but this has never been seen, its more likely that there are changes in the receptors for those chemicals, subtle changes in the signalling portions of the receptors, not really in the total amount of protein. The actual answer is scientists don't know for sure yet. So science says this is 80% genetic and 20% environmental so you need a trigger. For me I got really stressed out about a talk I had to give and some other stuff. That was my environmental trigger.

Because I'm in remission I'll be using the past tense here. My thought process was just like yours except that random things I thought were facts ended up not being true. I saw more connections than I should have. For example I was trying to decide what type of spiritual being I was and there was a magazine called mother nature in the pdocs office so naturally I decided that I was in fact mother nature and that magazine had been left as a clue.

The talk I had to give was for a conference by the AGA so I thought the AGA wanted to increase my membership level by letting me work in the psychic AGA where people simply talked in their heads (I was hearing the voices of other AGA members). So where stuff comes from is taking an occurrence and then jumping to further conclusions, I'm hearing voices therefore I must be psychic. They are the voices of AGA members so there must be psychic AGA members, and now they are talking to me because they want me to join.

Most of my hallucinations/delusions were pleasant adventure type stories so I didn't have a hard time until I realized that the voices weren't real then they turned scary so you have to be careful with reality checks. If your sister asks you if something is real or not you should be honest but if she doesn't ask don't go out of your way to point it out. Knowing the stuff isn't real doesn't make it any less scary because it still is real to you, you can't just shut it off or blink it away. Its like faerie says,would you believe it if someone told you the sky was really green when you can see with your own eyes that its blue? Anyway for me it went from pleasant dream like stories to nightmares but for a lot of people it is always torment. I know input can make some difference in what stories develop...I started watching a lot of Pixar movies because the were gentle but still made for adults, other things were just too scary for me. I couldn't play video games because killing anything was just too real. I had to really protect myself from input that was scary to prevent scary output in my mind. This is totally different for everyone. Anyway hope that answered your basic question, let me know if there's anything else.

[Frokly]

i'm not too sure on the science but it usually said to be chemical imbalances and receptors miss firing or neurological pathways building up wrongly... at least that's what i hear and read the most and care about the most. all i know is medications actually do help me, in short term and long term so its important that your sister takes her medications, i'll pray for the best for you and your sister.

on the experience side, i just had a minor relapse... so i can go into detail of my experiences... my first psychotic episode was when i was 13 lasted for 3 years... at this time its difficult for me to cope emotionally so i didn't take care of myself properly, wouldn't bathe for 5 months 3 months and even if i bathed i would do it with my clothes on... this for me was due to thought insertion... its a symptom of psychosis whereby you think people are inserting thoughts into you or in my case i thought i was telepathic.... had serious issues with social situations where people could hear my thoughts in school and everywhere i go... so i became socially awkward in school got bullied badly everyday and was always crying every night during those years... depression coupled with psychosis is a really bad experience really really bad...

that was my first episode just psychosis with delusions of being telepathic and being socially awkward.... the first relapse or second episode was the horrifying one... where people were following me around... i drove thousands of kilometers looking for people in a small country and got killed 7 times... i literally hallucinated that i was being chopped up on my bed i got stabbed to death multiple times and got dosed with acid until i melted... but i kept coming back to life... people were after me... and people i cared about got sexually abused, tortured and killed and i ressurected them... so starting till now is where i had delusions of grandiosity....

so for my third episode since march last year uptill now... its mostly delusions of grandiosity and things are really really mild... i think i'm a god... i think i have powers... and i think i can read peoples mind... i talk to celebrities in my head... of course the story goes i'm mad... but i talk to hundreds of people through out the course of the day all in my head... and people watch me day to day in my life... with japanese technology....

so key to remember is that no matter how crazy or unrealistic your sister sounds... her delusions are usually bound together with coherent and logical things... things that are difficult for her to dispute rationally just because her receptors are firing away in the wrong places and also due to other things like chemical imbalances, usually these delusions are as real and as logical as faith or belief or as real as your dog or your cat walking around the house and when you have hallucinations they are usually coupled with delusions and at times these experiences can be really horrifying... but key to remember here that drugs do actually work but also key to remember that these drugs are sometimes meant to last a life time and are sometimes difficult to come off of...

sorry for the long post i hope you can ask in more detail so i can spend more time explain whatever i can explain... to help you out...

i wish the best for your sister and you, good luck and best wishes

Frokly