’Schizophrenia is a natural reaction to a stressful situation only every situation is perceived as being stressful, its prolonged’
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Stress is only a part of it.
Genes is the main culprit.
After studying trauma with the help of a psychologist, I’d have to agree this has some truth to it. Especially seeing as we have agreed that stress has been my main triggers for psychosis and the episodes I have had.
i’m starting to think that schizophrenia is a natural reaction to stress which means those genes are not faulty, they are doing what they are supposed to do, only thing about it is coming down off of that stress response,
i think we get stuck.
after prolonged exposure we get stuck on the fight or flight response and we can’t come down, but this is a natural instinct that we use in order to survive.
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Prolonged stress does not cause voices or delusions, it causes PTSD and OCD. I deny your proposed definition.
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Stress makes the voices louder and more frequent though
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I think it’s the other way around. Sz makes people more prone to stress, and makes us worse at tolerating it.
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That’s true. It can do that.
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It could be a self defence reaction. I don’t think so patients react to everything with stress.
Wouldn’t it depend on how you define ‘natural’ ? Most people don’t respond to stress by becoming delusional, hearing voices and paranoid. The fact that most people don’t strongly suggests there are other factors involved beyond stress or trauma.
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I don’t think psychosis is a natural reaction to stress any more than cancer is a natural reaction to smoking cigarettes or brain damage is a natural reaction to inhaling solvents.
Psychosis is by definition not normal.
yeah some brains can’t hold, but many others thrive on stress and deadlines.
I guess I always drank beer, couldn’t relax.
I agree that it is a natural response to prolonged stress. Or for me it was, at least. I strongly believe that (almost?) anybody can get psychotic with the right amount of stress or trauma. Not everybody has the same tolerance to stress, but if it’s too much for them specifically, they can get psychotic.
It is not talked about a lot, but psychologists told me and I found studies that confirmed that lots of people with PTSD get psychotic symptoms. From a big research study: “approximately 52 percent of people who reported having PTSD at some point in their lifetime also reported experiencing a positive psychotic symptom.” (…) “The researchers also found evidence that the more PTSD symptoms a person was experiencing, the greater the likelihood that they would also experience positive psychotic symptoms.”
And lots of people with schizophrenia have PTSD. I’ve even saw studies where they said 98% had traumatic experiences.
I don’t think it’s the only causative factor, but it’s an important one. And it gets way too little attention in psychiatry in my country.
In my case, it makes a lot of sense. I was initially diagnosed with acute stress disorder by a psychologist. Eventually, it morphed into other, more severe diagnoses.
My dissociation was a way for my body and brain to protect me.
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yes, agreed, but for me only during the trauma
after all these years, PTSD has gotten better for me
I think it just takes time, maybe the anti anxiety pills are helping somewhat?
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Good that PTSD has gotten better!
I don’t take benzo’s. But the AP is decreasing both psychotic symptoms and PTSD symptoms. The PTSD did get a bit better when we were finally freed from the cause of ptsd… I still have anxiety, nightmares and triggers, but no full dissociation anymore where I’m “away” and no complete terror atm.
yeah, good.
About the only thing is I can’t watch any violence
not even a good action show
I might start to shake and get real uncomfortable
I try telling them on Facebook, don’t send me those videos.
I think stress can exacerbate psychosis, severe stress is a risk factor for me, but that is not the same as seeing stress as the sole factor for the development of psychosis.
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nahdont agree with that statement @daydreamer
whats the start of it then? the trigger that starts the ball rolling, if i look as far back as possible in my case i would say, i was worried about something which caused stress and then i think i started to disassociate from the world.
i know what you mean about ptsd’s though as my cuz has recently been struck by it, but that can lie dormant and even that has an initial stress/trauma