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Psychosis happens when people become so engrossed with the content of their own minds that they loose touch with reality. Teenagers who experience psychosis can sometimes have a difficult time distinguishing between what they are thinking or imagining and the "raw data" that they receive through their senses. So they can believe things that they have no basis to believe in or perceive things that that their eyes, ears, skin, nose, tongue are not actually registering. This can be really scary and deeply confusing for teenagers. It can take paranoid and nightmarish forms and it can also feel blissful, mystical, spiritual, grandiose or legendary. Sometimes teenagers know what's happening and other times it feels completely convincing.

 

Psychosis is a rare disorder in young teenagers but in humans it tends to begin in the later teenage years or young adulthood. It usually builds up subtly but noticeably and results in psychotic episodes where teenagers loose touch with reality for a while and then seem to return to lucidity. With each new episode the chances that an additional episode will happen goes up. In the worst cases eventually people with psychotic disorders might not come back to lucidity at all and require very specialized care for most of their lives.

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Thankfully, we have very useful medications that help prevent psychotic episodes. Consultation with a psychiatrist is important in dealing with psychosis. In psychotherapy, the task is to familiarize teenagers, while they're still young and flexible minded, with the tendency their minds have to run away with themselves. These teenagers learn about how to identify this happening early and ground themselves in their sensory experience so they can prevent additional psychotic episodes. Avoiding drugs, especially marijuana and psychedelics, is particularly important for these teenagers because these drugs can trigger psychotic episodes. ​

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As a psychotherapist it is part of my job to educate parents on this stigmatized disorder and help them understand how to respond effectively to what can be a confounding and scary experience.

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Below is a list of typical symptoms that will help you determine if your teenager is experiencing psychosis.