SEQUELS of a Psychotic Outbreak

A psychotic break is a serious condition that can overwhelm the people who suffer from it as well as their family and friends. Its causes are multiple and the meaning of its appearance can vary. Although they are brief episodes themselves, what happens next? Was it an isolated occurrence? Can the outbreak reoccur? After a psychotic episode, many questions and doubts arise about the health and future of the person who has happened to it. In this Psychology-Online article: Aftermath of a psychotic break, a review will be made of what a psychotic outbreak is, its symptoms, what to do if we are faced with a case and the possible consequences that it can present.

Index

1. What is a psychotic break
2. Psychotic break: symptoms
3. How to deal with a psychotic break
4. Psychotic break: treatment
5. Aftermath of a psychotic break

A psychotic break can be defined as a rupture of reality temporarily, that is, the person suffering from a psychotic outbreak experiences delusions and hallucinations, altering the perception of it and understanding of reality for a short period of time, without being able to clearly distinguish fantasy from real. The causes that can cause a psychotic outbreak can be varied and depend on both biological and psychological factors. Among the many causes is the

It is important to distinguish that a psychotic break is not the same as schizophrenia, although its symptoms are similar. The schizophrenia is a long-term and stable psychotic disorder, whereas psychotic outbreaks are abrupt, temporary and can be given in isolation or as part of another psychological disorder such as schizophrenia or Bipolar disorder.

The most characteristic symptoms of a psychotic break are the following:

• Hallucinations: sensory stimuli appear that do not correspond to reality. You see, hear, smell, or feel things that are not real. The most common hallucinations are auditory, hearing, for example, voices that may or may not have coherent speeches. Visual hallucinations are more rare, although they can occur.
• Delusions:They are false beliefs, that is, they are erroneous beliefs about real events, people or objects and it is absolutely certain that these beliefs are true. For example, the belief that the person is constantly being spied on by an acquaintance or family member. In the following article you will find the different types of delusions.
• Disorganized language and thinking: thoughts are incoherent, confused, unclear, and meaningless. There is a tendency to jump from one topic to another without a clear structure in the speech, making it difficult to understand. Language also becomes disorganized and incoherent, making it very difficult to establish a conversation with the sufferer.
• Disorganized behavior: his way of acting is totally inappropriate in the context where he is. They can be unpredictable and impulsive.
• Catatonia: You may also have psychomotor limitations, such as becoming immobile or extremely rigid, or temporarily mute.

What to do before a psychotic break? When a person has a psychotic break, the first thing to do is assess how severe you are, that is, to be able to determine if the outbreak poses a danger to the affected person (self-harm) or to the others, to avoid any damage, try to determine the origin of the outbreak and check the status cognitive. Once the safety of the affected party and the third parties has been assured, the contact emergency services or hospital assistance to be able to hospitalize you. While you are in contact with the person and the health services have not yet arrived, it is preferable to try maintain a calm environment and reduce the anguish and confusion of the affected person, speaking in simple and direct terms so that it is easier for them to understand what is happening to them. It is also advisable notify family and friends of what just happened and try to get the most trusted people to be with her.

The treatment of the psychotic outbreak is as follows:

• Psychiatric treatment: the main treatment is from antipsychotic drugs such as haloperidol or olanzapine.
• Psychological Support: to facilitate coping with the situation with information, tools and support. It is also essential to address the problem with families so that they can improve patient care and support. In addition, it is important to take care of the mental health of family members.
• Help from the environment: people close to the affection for a psychotic outbreak will be the pillar of their social support and will have an important weight to improve their prognosis and quality of life.

Having a psychotic break for the first time is an experience that can completely alter your life, can become the beginning of a psychotic disorder or a serious warning regarding drug use. Even if it is not the first time, people who suffer from psychotic breakouts in a relatively cyclical way they live them in an agonizing and exhausting way because of their mental illness, just like the people who take care of they. These can develop the caregiver syndrome.

With appropriate medical treatment and psychological care, someone who has suffered a psychotic break after a short time can stabilize and return to their day to day normally. To determine the presence of future sequelae after a psychotic episode you have to look at the causes of it. In the beginning, people who have had a substance abuse outbreak are very likely not to return to suffer an episode in your life, since it has been an exceptional case, but as long as the consumption behavior is avoided abusive. In other cases, in people suffering from schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or another psychotic disorder, the probability that psychotic outbreaks will reappear are much higher and even deteriorate the quality of life.

One may wonder, therefore, Can a psychotic break be cured? And the answer is technically no. The flare itself is the manifestation of a complex interplay of underlying factors and problems that eventually lead to these characteristic psychotic symptoms. A way to fully treat its causes has not yet been found. But, does a psychotic break have a solution? For this question the answer is more encouraging. While it is true that the causes cannot be eliminated, its appearance can be avoided as much as possible through the aforementioned pharmacological and psychological treatment, improving the lifestyle and having a good support network. In the worst case, if a psychotic outbreak is suffered, the quick action by the people around the affected person will be of total importance to reduce their discomfort.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Aftermath of a psychotic break, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Psychosis Prevention Program. Retrieved July 16, 2019 from: http://www.p3-info.es/view_article.asp? id = 4 & cat = 1
• Vispe Astola, A., Hernández González, M., Ruiz-Flores Bistuer, M., & García-Valdecasas Campelo, J. (2015). From acute psychosis to the first psychotic episode: towards chronicity. Journal of the Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry, 35(128), 731-748.