Don’t let the monster get me again!!!!!

Going insane is absolutely terrifying.

Photo by Samuele Giglio on Unsplash

The way we deal with psychosis right now is not okay and compounds the terror the victim is feeling with the extra agony of social disgrace, insensitive or even callous treatment, and heavy handed methods by some psychiatric unit staff who they feel treat them like offenders or brain damaged people. There is often nothing to do to get relief from intrusive thoughts.

I don’t care if you work in this sector and you don’t want to hear these words. They are coming out of me and countless other people who are not prepared to be silent any longer about the shortcomings of this sector. Psychosis is treatable. So where is the treatment plan? Confinement alone is punitive, the environment you are surrounded by is really important for your mental health, so why do psychiatric units look like prisons?

I want everyone to feel more emboldened to demand the service they need for themselves and their friends and families. You can’t treat fear by withdrawing kindness. It’s a cocktail of factors that trigger every person’s entry into a psychiatric facility, but it’s usually a lack of human contact and compassion that keeps them there.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to use cognitive therapy with psychosis once the person has calmed down. Open Dialogue and Hearing Voices groups have helped many people. Working and having therapy in outdoor settings have been shown to help many people, as have initiatives working with animals in guided therapy sessions also.

Changing the type or dose of your medication can also reduce side effects during a staggered process of recovery. There is far too much despair for this diagnosis and the evidence shows that listening to the patient and forming an individual treatment plan that the sufferer can agree to is a necessary first step to regaining trust and looking to recovery, which is an ongoing process.