Introduction to psychosis

HANNEKE WIGMAN: We just heard William tell us about his experience with psychosis, and that is what this module is all about. When you have an episode of psychosis, you perceive the world in a different way than normally and you may feel confused. The world around you may feel threatening or scary. Symptoms of psychosis are, for example, seeing or hearing things that other people do not, or having the feeling that people may want to hurt you. These are also things that William told us about. Symptoms of psychosis come in all shapes and sizes, from really severe to very mild.

It is the same as with depression– some people feel a little blue or a little down, and other people have a really severe depression. The same goes for psychosis– some people have a very severe psychotic disorder, and other people may have very mild psychotic experiences where you perceive the world just a little bit different from other people. For example, you might occasionally hear a voice that other people do not hear. Such experiences are quite common and not necessarily scary. Having such experiences does by no means mean that you’re going crazy. But what should you do when you have such experiences, and what is the difference between a mild psychotic experience and a really true psychotic disorder?

This is what this module is all about.