Will things get better with my psychosis?

When you ask yourself, “Will things get better?”, what you really want to know is, “Will things go back to how they were before?” or “Will I always feel like this?” The truth is that whether things get better depends on your experiences with psychosis.

The question, “Will things get better?” can be broken down into two parts: grieving and understanding your personal experiences. Grieving is about how you process and cope with what you’re going through. Understanding your personal experience with psychosis helps you make sense of and reflect on what kind of mental health situation you’re facing and what recovery could look like for you.

For things to get better, you have to both acknowledge your feelings and understand what it means to live with psychosis.

Schizophrenia didn’t claim my life and didn’t claim my future. I’m more than my diagnosis. I’m even more than the advocacy that I do for schizophrenia awareness. I didn’t let that diagnosis define me.

Psychosis and grief

Many people experience grief when they go through a major loss or life change. Learning to live with any chronic illness like psychosis is a major change in your life. This means that you are likely working through grief.

Wondering if things will get better is a part of grief. You might feel stuck, angry, depressed, frustrated or confused. You may feel like you’ve lost yourself or you miss the person that you were before. Or you may be missing the life that you thought you would have before psychosis. This feeling is normal.

Learning to live with this new experience means that you may have to face and understand that your life is different. This also may mean that “better” might look different too. Everyone has their own journeys of understanding, processing, and accepting this.  It’s also important to keep in mind that grieving, healing, and getting better take time.

There will be ups and downs in managing your psychosis. For example,

• You might have new limits, goals, and victories.
• It may take a lot of trial and error to figure out what better looks like for you.
• Things may get worse before they get better.
• You may spend days, weeks, months, or even years trying different treatment options.
• You may go to different providers and monitor different symptoms.

And even through all the ups and downs, recovery is still possible.

In this journey, it’s easy to feel stuck and fear that nothing will get better. It’s important in psychosis recovery to remember the big picture, and move forward even if it’s small steps at a time. Also, remember that recurrences and symptoms are normal. Check in with yourself and ask if where you are today is better than where you were when you started treatment.

Understanding your experiences with psychosis

I wish I had known earlier that recovery was possible from any diagnosis like this. I wish I knew that there were definitive steps that could be taken and if continued to be taken over the course of time, whether it was months or years, would get me into a position that I would have… a job, have volunteering roles, [and] take leadership positions.

To understand recovery, you have to understand the illness. This means understanding your experiences and how psychosis shows up in your life. Take a moment to think about your individual experiences with psychosis.

Ask yourself:

• What are my symptoms? How do my symptoms make my life harder? Do I have hallucinations? Or do I notice a lack of motivation or withdrawing from family and friends and things I enjoy?
• When and how serious are my symptoms? Are my symptoms present but not bothersome or do they result in fully losing my sense of reality? Have I experienced a psychotic break or episode before?
• When do I have these experiences? All the time? When I’m stressed? When I don’t get enough sleep? After using drugs like marijuana? After being around certain people, places, or things? Or when I am around things that remind me of my past experiences or trauma?
• Is it hard for me to tell what’s real or not real? Am I aware of reality? Can I tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not? What helps me stay grounded in reality?

Understanding your experiences can help you figure out your risks and coping strategies.

For example, if you find that you are having strange experiences all the time but you realize it’s your brain playing tricks on you, then you haven’t lost touch with reality.  This means that you can seek early support and treatment. At this stage you have an opportunity to prevent a first break or episode. But if you’ve lost touch with reality, your goal is to prevent and manage future serious episodes.

For many people with psychosis, medication can work well and quickly to help them manage their symptoms. Also, understanding your experiences can lead you to want to learn more about psychosis. Maybe you want to research or read and listen to others’ stories. Understanding your own experiences leads to taking action toward getting better.

When it comes to psychosis, things can get better. Ultimately, you have to be the one to decide to make them better. Doing nothing won’t change things or could make things worse. Remember that healing, growth, and recovery won’t be perfect, but all are possible.