For people with psychosis in early stage schizophrenia, early treatment is important. Patients whose psychotic symptoms go untreated for longer periods tend to have more severe symptoms and a lower quality of life, even after treatment.
New research published March 15 in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology finds that a longer period of untreated psychosis is also associated with less connectivity to and from the striatum, a part of the brain linked to antipsychotic treatment outcomes.
The problem other than getting treated or being eager to get treatment is having people around you to know that there is something wrong with you. When I got sick, only my sister figured out I needed to see a psychiatrist. I was ill for like more than a whole year.
Very true - and knowing “what might” be wrong with the person is hard too. But - overtime, educating the public will help solve these issues. In Australia they have public service announcements along this line - to help educate families and individuals.
In Australia they have the “HeadSpace” program, and in Canada they have public service announcements on the radio that helps to educate families:
This is the kind of thing that should be covered in high school health class, but in the US we can’t even agree on whether kids should be taught how not to make a baby.
I’ve always thought that I was sick enough to have the medicine work well for some reason. I don’t know how long I was psychotic, because most of the time I could communicate effectively in spite of my delusions.
Every time I see this it makes me feel bad because I went a long time without treatment. I couldn’t help it because I was a minor with parents who didn’t believe in or like the mental health field so there was nothing I could do.
There should be more effort to raise awareness in parents of possible signs of mental illness in their children and what to do about it as well as education about what the mental health system is and will do and isn’t and won’t do.
I’m very luck that I was hospitalized within days of when my illness was getting bad, the delusions I was having was like I was living in a movie it was insane.
