“Mrs. Doctor, am I schizophrenic?” and the following statements: "I'm losing my mind, I can't control my thoughts, I can't distinguish between reality and fantasy." You can imagine how worried the person asking this question is. Perhaps you may have asked yourself these questions at some point in your life.
In this case, we need to ask two questions:
Are we afraid of losing our minds, or are we confused and unable to distinguish the facts?
If we are just afraid of losing our mind, we probably have an anxiety disorder and we can recover in a short time with medication and psychotherapy. What if we are truly confused and have trouble discerning reality? If we think that things that have not happened have happened and we are in danger. If we think that people are working against us and that we have undertaken great tasks such as saving the world, but we cannot continue our daily lives..
Psychosis; In short, it is a thought and perception disorder. It is our five senses perceptually perceiving things that do not exist in the real world, while being unable to distinguish reality. Psychosis; While it can accompany Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Alcohol-Substance Addiction or medical diseases (thyroid dysfunction, neurological diseases, etc.), we can talk about Schizophrenia in cases where no underlying cause can be found and it exists chronically.
Antipsychotic drug group is used in the treatment and the response to the treatment is quite good. Psychosis; It mostly occurs in attacks in Depression and Bipolar Disorder. In this case, drug therapy is mostly used during attacks. In medical diseases, such as thyroid dysfunction; When the thyroid problem improves, psychosis tends to improve as well. Sometimes, in cases of psychosis due to alcohol and substance use, the psychosis ends over time when alcohol and substances are stopped.
In summary; Not every psychosis is schizophrenia. However, the treatment used is usually antipsychotic drugs, and many patients, even those with schizophrenia, can lead normal lives with treatment. Just as untreated Diabetes is devastating (high blood sugar destroys organs over time), untreated psychosis or schizophrenia can be devastating in terms of brain functions, as well as socially and socially.
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