Ask a doctor - What strange things might someone with psychosis say?

Q. What strange things might someone with psychosis say?

Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.

Answered by Secondmedic Expert

People with psychosis can often have strange thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. They may say things that seem to make little sense or contradict reality.

For example, they may describe experiences such as hearing voices from inside their head that others cannot hear. This is a form of auditory hallucination and is one of the most common symptoms associated with psychosis. Similarly, those with psychosis might describe seeing visions or imagining events that don't exist in reality; this is known as visual hallucination.

Another symptom people with psychosis are likely to experience is paranoid delusions- irrational beliefs or suspicions about other people’s intentions which cannot be supported by evidence or logic. These delusions can take many forms: believing someone is plotting against them; feeling like they are being spied on; paranoia regarding particular individuals such as celebrities or close family members.

Alongside these symptoms, there are many lesser-known phenomena experienced by individuals dealing with psychotic disorders such as thought disorder (difficulty understanding the meaning of words and forming coherent sentences) disorganized speech (speaking rapidly and switching topics), depersonalization (feeling detached from oneself) and emotional blunting (lack of emotion).

All in all, while it's hard to predict what exactly somebody experiencing psychosis might say, these examples illustrate some of the more common types of odd statements made by people living with this condition which can cause confusion for those around them trying to understand their experience better.