HOW I COPE WITH PSYCHOSIS AS A PSYCHOSIS HOLDER IN A DID SYSTEM
DISCLAIMER: you do not have to have DID as well to use this advice. i'm just sharing my experience as someone who has both a psychotic disorder and DID. i am not a professional, this is all based on what helps me. COPING WITH HALLUCINATIONS distractions. can be anything, i prefer sensory-based distractions. listening to music is personally one of my favorite ones, as my hallucinations tend to be auditory. find whatever works for you and go with that. reminders. reminding yourself that it's just a hallucination and will pass. also reminding yourself that the things you hallucinate do not make you a bad person, if your hallucinations are especially distressing or tell you to do bad things. remind yourself that just because you may hear a voice say you have to do something, you still have the free will of choosing if you do it or not. i don't have much other advice for hallucinations, since i mostly deal with delusions, but if anyone else has something to add feel free. COPING WITH DELUSIONS reality checking. try looking at things from different perspectives, maybe ask a therapist or trusted friend for their opinion as well. think about if what is happening really seems plausible or not. chances are, this won't completely get rid of the delusion, but it may lessen the intensity for a bit. emotional validation. learn to validate the feelings without validating the belief. for example, i am having a thought that this is happening, and it is very scary for me. make sure to do this carefully, as to not feed into the delusion. distractions. similar to with hallucinations, distractions can be useful in coping with delusions as well. i especially like mental focused coping skills, such as listing all items that fit a specific category. they're very useful for making you think of something else actively. GENERAL COPING identify your triggers. this can be hard to do without therapy but try keeping track of your symptoms and see if they happen at a specific time. do they tend to happen when you are feeling down? how about when you are feeling up? do they happen more at a specific time of year or month or time of day? does a specific activity trigger them? try logging your symptoms along with what you were doing and how you were feeling at the time, you may be able to identify patterns over time. - undisclosed
