managing stress of psychosis
in other words, what are some coping mechanisms for psychosis? for things like hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia getting bad.
1. avoidance strategies: this can look like avoiding people you're delusional about, or avoiding places you hallucinate in, or avoiding things like drugs that make your paranoia worse.
2. distracting strategies: these are just your hobbies but maybe if you're hallucinating right now, a hobby that requires the attention of your eyes could help you like drawing or reading. and if those things aren't helping maybe focus on a hobby that requires other senses like meditating or listening to music with your eyes closed. maybe a nap would be helpful. if you're actively delusional maybe you could engage in a hobby that demands present mindfulness and demands your present thoughts like cooking or working out.
3. treatment strategies: medication, talk therapy, art therapy, animal therapy, natural remedies? etc.
4. direct strategies: i made up this phrase to encompass directly acknowledging what symptom you're facing. maybe that looks like talking to a carer, a therapist, a family member, a friend, or a partner about your hallucinations. on slide 9 of this reference, you can see how to helpfully engage in a conversation with someone who has shared their hallucinations with you. slide 8 of the same reference mentions how to helpfully engage in a conversation with someone who has shared their delusions. one strategy is to talk through the emotions attached to the delusions. if you're alone you can still explore these emotions in a journal. i love exploring possible deeper meanings of my current emotions. one of my ex therapists said "there's always a reason for an emotion." based on this specific strategy of exploring emotions attached to the delusions, I also think it can be worthwhile to ask yourself questions about your hallucinations like how am i feeling right now? and if you're feeling fear you can ask yourself is there anything in reality that I'm afraid of? I specifically mention fear because I struggle with it as a central theme in my psychosis. the purpose of that 2nd question is to take the fuel out of the hallucination by establishing your material safety that is rooted in reality whereas the fear or danger I may be experiencing is only in my unreality. The separation between reality and unreality may not be something everyone agrees with, but this is a direct approach I use. There's visualizations about what you're seeing or hearing such as visualizing destroying your voices or hallucinations, praying about your symptoms, making contracts with voices or hallucinations, just talking to voices and listening to what they have to say with a compassionate ear.
1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201208/schizophrenia-coping-delusions-and-hallucinations
2. https://www.med.upenn.edu/bbl/assets/user-content/documents/CopingwithPsychosis_Calkins.pdf
3. https://www.hearing-voices.org/resources/
4. https://www.hearing-voices.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/AUS-Coping_Strategies_Poster.pdf
5. https://www.intervoiceonline.org/voices-visions/coping-with-difficult-voices#content
6. https://understandingvoices.com/coping-strategy-toolkit/being-compassionate-towards-voices/
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