Family Guide for Psychotic Disorders
What are psychotic disorders?
Psychotic disorders are severe mental health disorders that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions. People with a psychotic disorder often lose touch with reality and may experience symptoms like delusions and hallucinations.
Psychotic disorders can be highly distressing, impacting a person’s quality of life and ability to maintain self-care. However, most of these conditions can be managed with medication and therapy.
How Can I help a family member in an episode of psychosis?
Seeing someone you care about experiencing symptoms of psychosis can be very difficult. People living with psychosis experience disruptions to their thoughts and perceptions that make it difficult to recognize what is real and what isn’t. They may see, hear, feel, taste or smell things that aren’t there or have strange, persistent thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. While everyone’s experience is different, most people say psychosis is frightening and confusing. It can be distressing to see a loved one experiencing psychosis, but there are some ways you can try to help.
Stay calm. Respond calmly and gently; avoid arguing with or confronting your loved one about their beliefs or behaviors.
Listen. People living with psychosis can feel isolated by their symptoms. Use active listening to build trust with your loved one.
Be an ally. Your loved one’s thoughts and experiences feel real to them. You can help them manage their anxiety and confusion by offering empathy for their feelings.
Strengthen the relationship. Listening and offering empathy can build the kind of positive, trusting relationship with your loved one that may eventually help them agree to partner in their recovery.
Focus on the person, not the delusion.
Offer assistance. Ask if you can help in practical ways.
Reach out for help. If your loved one’s symptoms reach a point where they are a risk to themselves or others, or they’re not meeting their basic needs (e.g., not eating, not drinking, putting themselves in danger), seek urgent help and contact the appropriate medical personnel.
Being prepared for a crisis before it happens. Understanding the nature of their disorder and what to do in advance might be very helpful and helping you stay calm during it and able to act wisely during such crises.
How do I help them realize that they need help?
Often an individual living with a psychotic disorder may not actively participate in their own recovery. They may deny having a disorder or even have paranoid delusions towards their medications and/or people around them. This can be especially troubling for families and friends who are often responsible for providing care for their loved one.
We must understand that making them realize they are in need of help is not particularly related to how we try to convince them. The probability of failure is much higher than success in that regard and such failures should not be taken personally. Refusal to take medications or denial of their diagnosis might as well be a sign of relapse and might predispose to an increase in symptoms (especially positive symptoms of psychosis).
It’s at this time when contacting a psychiatrist and asking for advice might be the best course of action to make a plan to manage and treat the sudden change in symptoms.
How can we at Mind Clinic help with psychotic disorders?
Every person struggling with a psychotic disorder has their own treatment plan tailored for them depending on many different factors. First, we begin by doing a risk assessment then a full medical and psychiatric assessment if possible. Thus, a personalized plan can be created. Treatment plans might include:
Hospital admission:
A hospital admission is considered if the person suffering from a psychotic disorder is going through a relapse and is posing a threat to himself or others. It allows for close monitoring and evaluation around the hour.
Medical treatment:
With Anti-psychotic medications with or without other add-on medications.
Psychotherapy:
Usually after remission from a psychotic episode. It helps with the lasting effects of a stressful event such as psychosis, how to get back to normal life and with post-psychotic depression.
Family therapy for the family of a person suffering from psychosis. The main aims of these sessions is to help them understand, and know the proper ways of helping the affected family member. As well as helping them navigate these stressful situations as they are affected by it as well.
Citations:
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) (no date) How can I help my loved one during a psychotic episode?, NAMI HelpLine. Available at: https://helplinefaqs.nami.org/article/286-how-can-i-help-my-loved-one-during-a-psychotic-episode (Accessed: 01 October 2024).