Psychosis, the interaction of Neurons.

Passion is wild. 

It has to be the only explanation for why I spent approximately 9hrs studying and writing. 

I carried out a 15minutes dancing exercise around 9pm and took a 15minutes stroll. The first draft of this piece was written around 11pm and now it's exactly 2:07am. 

I spent those exhilarating hours trying to understand the impact of mental ill health on economies and the strain that poor economies places on the mental well-being of individuals. 

I also did a bit of study around psychosis and this was where I got hooked! Felt like I was high on sugar. 

This article should bore you if you are generally uninterested in broad scopes like psychology. So you can opt out here if you'd like to but I assure you, an additional information wouldn't hurt. 

You know, despite the improved knowledge on the study of Psychosis, I still think there is some sort of unexplainable variations. 

I like to think of psychosis from a psycho-philosphical perspective.

Now, there might be no scientific explanations to back up my thoughts on this subject matter but I'd like to air them anyway. These string of words are my thoughts. Hopefully, they make some sense. 

Psychosis...

I like to think that psychosis in itself is wild because there are no explanations for why the trigger should be "trigger enough" to drive such a forceful detachment from reality. Agreeable, yes, but not reason enough. 

How does Psychosis work? 

Psychological jargon describes it as a 'disconnect from reality,' but I'll break it down. 

Psychosis manifests as the confluence of delusions, heightened agitations, hallucinations, incoherent speeches and unintelligible thoughts. A psychotic episode usually is a display of all these at the same time. 

A man that is not fully knowledgeable with mental health can equate psychotic episodes to a display of undiluted insanity. 

What got me intrigued with this is the fact that there is no single root cause that has been identified as the sole reason for Psychosis. 

Data shows that this state can be as a result of underlying mental health conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Parkinson and Alzheimer disease. The interesting twist is 'it can also happen without it being as a result of any underlying mental ill-health.'

Let's look at one major thing that could be trigger Psychosis. 

Stress/Deep Emotional Distress 

We are somewhat familiar with the character of pain and how a level of agony can force one into a state of distress where one's normal functioning is disrupted.

It is not disputable that the shock from emotional distress can surely trigger Psychosis. But I think that's where the magic is, it's in the fact that "psychosis can be triggered." How? 

It's more like you are asking straight questions like "how can one be forced out of the realm of reality?" "What's powerful enough to force man out of life?" Yeah? What kind of shock? You know, it really feels unfathomable. That sort of force remains incomprehensible to the human logic! 

And for something as intriguing as psychosis, it's even more amusing to see that anti psychotic drugs works! (I'll share my thoughts)

The first question in my mind is 'how does antipsychotic drugs work?'

And, "why do they work?" 

It still remains some sort of wonderland thinking. 

In itself, I think the whole idea of medicine is a miracle. 

How medicines work to correct an abnormality inside the functioning units of man still remains nearly incomprehensible. 

Lots of things are best described as miracles; especially if they are wrapped in technology.

 They are miracles. Because we can truly only see them by their functioning. 

*Back to Psychosis* 

What's the best way to explain the unfathomable manifestation of psychosis?

A grieving mum. 

A perfect description would be the extreme distress that comes from grieving over a loved one to the point that you land in a psychiatric ward.

We must have heard of a story of two.

Stories of how excruciating heartache takes one into realms different from reality. Realms where they are live in a world of their own. 

Makes me want to ask, "how powerful is pain?" Beyond the walls of brain chemicals, how do we interpret the reality of these things? 

So, a mother loses a child and that shock *forces* her out of the realm of reality to the point that a layman equates her psychotic episodes to "madness ." Isn't this mind-boggling?

I'd say it is. 

It is intriguing because I am attempting to look at that SPLIT second where the switch occurs and the disconnect happens. 

Boom! From intelligible reality to delusions, hallucinations, destabilized thinking and incoherent thoughts. Almost SUDDENLY. 

There are probably more unexplainable things within the broad scope of human functioning than explainable things.

How then does antipsychotic drugs treat a problem that cannot be traced down to a single cause? You see my thinking?

Of course, more study will be done to ascertain the components of these drugs to see why they work in restoring normalcy to a disrupted mind. 

More Psychological Jargon. These are my own inferences. 

In my opinion, the manifestation of psychosis is best described as the result of  Interactions of a web of neurons and chemicals in the human system, e.g, the brain. 

Thankfully, I found an image that aids my inference. 

IiIIIIiI

In simpler terms, it is the result of INTERACTIONS among the designated functional units of control within the human body system.

Here's what I think I am getting at:

There are no known causes of psychosis that are comprehensible and visible to human logic. We only have plausible causes but it's still not logical enough to drive such a switch. 

From a philosophical angle: We really are not exposed to the invisible wirings of the human system that allows us to function the way we do.

 I am talking about the interaction of every unit (body parts, internal organs, brain chemicals etc). We only study these things based on outcomes and characters. 

So we cannot explain how the sudden interactions of neurotransmitters, mixed with the human mind and brain produces PSYCHOSIS.

Further Explanation: 

        "Plausible Causes=Acceptable reasons               according to human logic.

         These are however only acceptable                     because we study the outcomes." 

E.g. 

Our constant example remains the story of a woman who goes through a shocking loss and enters into a psychotic episode. 

1. An example of a plausible cause in this case would be PAIN/DISTRESS.

2  It is a valid enough because we can explain the CHARACTER of pain.

 Valid, yes.

 Powerful enough to shock her out of reality? No. 

Dismissible? No. Because it's a plausible cause.

No identifiable root cause. Just acceptable causes. 

No case is powerful enough to justify such a powerful DISRUPTION of the human mind. 

Although not yet scientifically explainable, psychosis must be acknowledged.

 Why? 

Because it appears as an EVIDENT disruption of what is perceived to be the proper functioning of the human mind should look like. 

Because it is different, it is ADMISSIBLE and RECOGNIZABLE.

What am I trying to say?

We study and categorize things based on their OUTCOMES. 

In a reversed case, if 99 were psychotic out of 100, the psychotic would have been deemed NORMAL.

Till date, there is no perfect illustration that captures the interactions of man's inner wiring (every unit of the human functioning) for when he is NORMAL...we can only explain the noticeable ones, not all the interactions. 

For example, we can not measure the right amount of air to take in so that it passes through the right tubes without disruptions but we can notice when we choke on air.

 OUTCOMES.

 Judging by the principle of 'interactions, outcomes and the miracle that the human functioning is,' the powers of Antipsychotic drugs remain amusing. 

If some forms of psychosis are only best explained as Interactions, which of the units does the drug corrects? It'll be intriguing to find out. 

Miracle, miracle! 

"Medicine is a miracle. Because technically speaking, nothing that comes from without should be able to restore normalcy to an invisible wiring. Especially when we use the study of outcomes to understand the character or nature of a thing."

Whew, whew, such a ride.

Finally...

In psychotherapy, we have lots of interventions. CBT, REBT, etc. 

I have thought about the 'why,' and the answer is locked somewhere in the relationship between psychology and philosophy. 

(I'll take time to write on this one day) 

When it comes to slippery slopes like mental health where humans are at the centre discourse, there are many variables and insanely striking similarities. 

And I think that's why we have different forms of therapy. It's because there is no one-size-fit-all. The symptoms might be the same but there are a whole lot of differences!

Thank you psychosis, for allowing me make a point with you as the case study.

Hopefully, the reader reads in-between the lines to see the main point of the piece.

Oh, and how do you treat psychosis? 

Safe medications based on diagnosis and community/family intervention.

There's a lot of power in there in the community and family intervention approach. 

And...it's 4:19am.