Psychosis on a spectrum/dimensional

I think it is best to see psychosis as being a dimensional/spectrum thing rather than categorical (Yes/No).
The idea of a spectrum ranging from mild/transient episodes of psychosis through to severe schizophrenia. appeals to me.
If psychosis is on a spectrum then I am probably at the milder end of the spectrum.

Using a spectrum approach where do you see yourself as being?

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Without my meds----->I’m on the total psychotic end of the spectrum

With my meds-------->zero psychosis at all

I’m very grateful for meds

I would see the psychosis not as a single quantity by itself, but as the result of a number of characteristics. I pretty much see everything like that. There is very little black and white. It is mostly grey. As for me, I haven’t hallucinated that much, but I’ve had some terrific delusions. At one time I thought people were trying to get me to commit suicide. I took off to Texas.

Even in my psychosis it is spectrum experience, its just milder when not psychotic. Years ago when I first came to these forums I was really wrapped up in labels and medication, but time has proven both aspects to be less than fully truthful. Meds mediate but they do not cure. I find for me a more holistic approach is required to resolve the points of my experience that stand out dysfunctional. I am not really seeking to function like everyone else in society, so the work is a lot more rigorous and difficult. I am hoping to transcend, rather than recover function.

^ Surely you have to attain a certain level of recovery in order to transcend?

Psychosis is mild for me, when my moods (Mania/Mixed episodes) are stable.

For a while now (Years) I am not experiencing any kind of psychosis.

I am not any kind of official Mood Stabilizer and my Moods (Mania) have been stable - Go figure.

What remains is a lot of Anxiety with and without Paranoia, Fears, OCD etc…

Lately I have been feeling “Dead” - Lack of Motivation, Little to No pleasure, Apathy, Feeling Flat, Going to bed at 6pm in the Evening, etc…

Also, stimulating medications, Antidepressants can make me Manic and trigger psychosis.

Well as for delusions, I think there is something like a threshold that makes the distinction delusional/non-delusional categorical. Delusions can be lurking, and tempting, while you still think of them ‘as if’. Such that you’ll experience life ‘as if’ people are after you, ‘as if’ it is unreal etc. But then there is this point of no longer taking it in this ‘as if’ sense, where you’d fully endorse delusion. This seems to me to make for a categorical distinction.

If I look back at how my delusions set in, some were quite like flipping a switch. Suddenly ‘getting it’ (while in fact of course I’d be far from getting it) this sudden experience of everything making new sense now, because of the delusion. This did not hold for my paranoid experiences, these built up more gradually.

I see it as a spectrum also. Im a mild case. Floridly psychotic heavy case. On my meds I almost dont have it

I think I fit the as if category as I entertain the possibility of things rather than say for certain they are true.