Types Of Psychotic Symptoms Of Bipolar Disorder
Psychotic symptoms are hallucinations or delusions. A hallucination or delusion is a cognitive misperception of reality.
Most people think of hallucinations as being visual, but hallucinations can be auditory, olfactory, or tactile. A person may hear, smell, or feel things that are not present in the environment.
Delusions are thoughts that are not based in reality. The difference between a mere unrealistic thought and a delusion is the degree to which the thought is unconnected to reality. For example, someone may think they want to become a professional football player though they have not played well in high school. Though it may not be realistic, it is probably not a delusion by psychiatric standards. A delusion is more extreme. The person may think they have been chosen by God, are being stalked by the FBI, or have superpowers.
The psychiatric illness that is most often associated with psychosis is schizophrenia. Psychotic symptoms can also occur with bipolar disorder and depression.
There are different types of schizophrenia, largely categorized based on the types of psychotic symptoms the person experiences. For example, paranoid schizophrenia often causes delusions of being watched or monitored. Some psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia can seem random.
Psychotic features of bipolar disorder are not as random as those that can be caused by schizophrenia. The psychotic symptoms of bipolar disorder are related to severe depression or mania.
A severely depressed person may have auditory hallucinations of voices telling the person that they are going to kill themselves. The person may have homicidal delusions of perceiving earth as hell and the need to save a loved one by killing them and sending them to heaven.
The euphoria and grandiosity of mania can cause psychotic symptoms of bipolar disorder. Psychotic symptoms of mania may cause the person to have delusions that they have superpowers, are immortal, or have been chosen by God.
Bipolar disorder and depression do not commonly cause psychotic symptoms. Most people living with these psychiatric conditions will never experience psychotic episodes.
Anti-psychotic medication like Haldol is used to treat psychosis. Haldol and other anti-psychotic medication come in oral form. If the person is resistent to taking medication regularly, the person may need to take monthly injections.
The person may no longer experience psychotic symptoms once the bipolar disorder or depression is stabilized. The hallucinations and delusions are the person’s reality at the time the psychotic symptoms are experienced. People experiencing psychotic episodes may become fearful of the psychosis.