Kinds of Psychosis

Psychosis is a mental condition in which the sufferer has a hard time recognizing what is real and what is not. This can create a wide variety of problems for the sufferer and the people around him, as he tries to react to things that are products of his own mind. Psychosis describes a number of more specific conditions, all of which fall under the same umbrella but manifest themselves in different ways.

Drug-Induced Psychosis

• Some drugs can cause psychosis, while withdrawing from other drugs can also cause psychosis. Some alcoholics, for example, can experience psychotic symptoms when they stop drinking, while others can experience psychotic symptoms from hallucinogens like marijuana and LSD. While drug-induced psychotic episodes are usually short-lived, they can sometimes set off someone's potential for psychosis and result in a long-term psychotic break.

Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia is a sustained psychotic episode of six months or more. Its defining attribute is that it results in a loss of touch from reality, but does not result in a change of mood. A schizophrenic person will act the same as they did before the psychotic episode started, but their reality will not be the same as it was beforehand. This is in contrast to other kinds of psychosis, such as bipolar disorder.

Bipolar Disorder

• Bipolar people fluctuate between feeling extremely happy and "up" and feeling extremely sad and "down." These psychotic episodes are mood based. When a bipolar person is on a manic episode, she may feel like she has special talents or powers that others don't have. This comes from her extremely good mood -- she is so happy that she loses touch with reality, as the happiness is not from external stimuli, but rather from an internal chemical imbalance.

Organic Psychosis

• Physical problems in the patient's brain can cause psychosis. Examples of this include tumors and AIDS, both of which affect the brain and change the patient's ability to perceive reality. To treat this kind of psychosis, you need to treat the root cause, if it is possible. If a brain tumor causes psychosis, for example, surgically or medically treating the tumor can eliminate the psychosis.