This life entry deals with coping well with psychotic behaviour and how to regulate action against it. What I share is just a personal experience when dealing with a psychosis, mental tips to not feel ‘down’, and how to slowly heal with minimal or reduced medicinal use (e.g. olanzapine, risperdal, and other anti-psychotics dangerous to one’s health and general well being). Before going on…

Disclaimer: Please see a trained professional for addressing psychotic behaviour, if you or a loved one are experiencing ‘mental shifts’ that others can’t reasonable explain well nor can relate: see a doctor and he/she will help you find what’s best for you. I am not offering any tips to treat any illness, just ways to cope better and heal within. I make no promise that any advice or tips are effective, just a reference for those curious or who want to know more about how psychotic thinking can be mitigated.

Understanding a Psychosis

The first step in managing your condition, if you think or know you are psychotic is to understand that what you are thinking is psychotic. Just like any mental thoughts or behaviours, we often go through them without knowing that we experience them. Like anger, for example, we often feel anger and do things related to it all without being in touch with ourselves and understanding or knowing that we are angry at all. We experience first, then we eventually gain knowledge that we are experiencing joy, anger, sadness, and many other things…

Mental behaviours are present first, which means that psychotic behaviour or thinking is often present without our knowledge of it. We might follow a psychotic thought or belief without even knowing so.

Now, what is that makes a psychosis? What is it that we are doing when we think or later know by others that what we are doing is psychotic? Let’s understand the term before moving on…

Psychosis: A psychosis is a gradual or sudden ‘break’ or shift in perception about reality. Meaning, what we do when we are psychotic isn’t exactly ‘normal’ or perceivable to the ordinary public. It could involve feelings of euphoria, anxiety, or sudden shifts in mood. Some psychoses involve ‘hearing voices’, ‘seeing things’, or ‘following behaviour deemed extraordinary’. The general public or those around us can’t actually understand why we think and act the way we do and when they see us having an episode or just feeling ‘down’ they can’t relate well to what we are doing or experiencing.

This is what makes the definition, psychosis: those around us can’t explain nor understand what it is we are doing and no scientific means to address or verify what we are thinking is real are there. We end up making a duality between

  1. what we experience psychotically (not reality)
  2. what plainly we all experience and can verify (like taste of ice cream as vanilla) (reality)

When we have psychotic expereiences we are not 100% in ‘reality’ and by this token, we don’t actually behave as those who are 100% in reality do: ‘normal people’ and think a little differently than them.

First, the hazard of having a psychosis or a psychotic related event are the following:

  1. irritability
  2. mood swings
  3. hallucinations
  4. euphoria
  5. risk taking that we later regret
  6. odd behaviour not adhering to social norms
  7. extreme anxiety
  8. depressive episodes
  9. lack of connecting with reality: social relationships, priorities, finances, job output, and ‘distant’ connection with mainstream life and norms
  10. difficulty concentrating on real life tasks
  11. disassociation with your thoughts, mood, and behaviour

There are more, but these 11 can harm us when we undergo psychotic behaviour or psychosis. For these reasons, it is important to know what to do to prevent and manage psychotic behaviour. I will share my personal tips for managing a psychosis. But, to handle severe psychoses or symptoms that are persistent, I give the following advice…

Have your meds!

Your meds are important! Don’t see them as obstacles to you feeling better, and trust those who give them to you. They were designed to help you handle psychotic behaviour and thoughts better and do contribute to a somewhat ‘normal’ perception of reality and some amount of them need to be taken on a regular schedule to mitigate symptoms. Always have some in hand and get refills before they expire in case things become too much. If you go on low doses and things don’t work out, you always have them in case.

Your doctor can help you find the right combinations and dosage for you and communicating well with them is by far the first step in a recovery. If you feel sick, don’t try to avoid a visit! Go and get better first, you might be happier and doctors also have private venues for you to express thoughts private or otherwise you might not want to share (even with your parents, friends, and other close ones…). It’s a safe and open environment for you and kept confidential. They can also spot any other physical problems you have as well to keep you healthy too.

Assuming you’ve been diagnosed and treated with meds and are on a steady path to recovery that you have been practicing for a long time, we can start talking about lowering the negative sides to taking meds for your health. This is all voluntary and offers tips on what I’ve done to have a healthier lifestyle.

Meds come with severe side effects like lethargy, movement problems, and other nervous related issues. And if you are constantly on them for 1 or more years, your health and well being might decline. By no means can meds not be taken at all, but if you decide to explore the option of lowering the amount you take while still having a proactive and joyous lifestyle, there are ways to do so. Let’s see what we can do to

  1. still live a healthy lifestyle, earn money, pay bills on time, and socialize as much as anybody else
  2. let go of the negative aspects of psychosis
  3. learn to manage the aspects of a psychosis, lower the anxiety, depression, voices, and handle what happens to prevent future bouts

1. Cold Showers via Wim Hof Method

By far, the biggest and most significant change to the way I handled psychosis and mitigated my symptoms so that less meds were taken was with the Wim Hof method as well as cold showers. Take some time out each day to work on your breathing and relax, maybe for 5-15min. and work up from there. Go as much as you feel okay with and make things colder as time goes. Use mindset and breathing techniques.

When you go into a cold shower, immediately don’t anticipate any feelings about it being cold! Imagine instead a really relaxing place or something relaxing that you like right before the shower and make it strong. Then, during the shower, keep imagining it. Sometimes you can also think warm and loving deeds or lovingkindness to others when you take the shower. Thinking things like this over a long period of time can actually improve your perception of things and help you handle anxiety better. You might find yourself happier over time as well.

The benefits: No longer having to same amount of pills for anxiety or depression. Perception about things was better and more focused on right now, one thing at a time as well as more concentration in the present. This helped with paranoia as well. Also with mindset and breathing you can fix things that bother you in a way that’s stronger and less dependent on pills as you once did (less of them).

You can checkout the method via the link in the footnotes section.1

2. Meditation: Getting Rid of All Cares and Troubles

Do some of the things you think about are too much? Meaning, is it really worth the bother? Do you ever look back at what you once thought about the future, past, and what others think of you to realize that none of it was true?

I also questioned this as well, and what I found was that more often than not:

My perception and the way I was responding to things made me even more upset and reliant on medication! I ended up making things such a big deal inside my mind and it changed the way I behaved about things. Later, when I calmed down, I saw firsthand that I didn’t have to be as I was. I was, in essence, having my mind rule me, rather than me rule my mind.

The way I gradually came to see things like this was with daily meditation. Something as simple as 5min. each day at a regular time can help train your mind to focus and get away from distracting thoughts that aren’t even true.

Personally, I use a quartz mala with 108 beads and personal mantras maybe “om ah ra pa tsa na dhi” or “conquer hate with love” along with headphones with nature sounds, Tibetan bowls, and/or binural beats to have a calming atmosphere.

You can also focus on nature sounds or what’s around you too when you meditate. It helps with concentration (optional) do if you want to. I didn’t always have it in the beginning and just meditated with nothing too. That also works. More on sounds later…

The Benefits: More aware about things, less reactive about what happens, less meds for non-psychotic behaviour since I was calm about things. Also had better concentration and more detachment to things that happen here. I learned firsthand that most of what I thought or think wasn’t even true! I became more in tune with my thoughts, feelings, and actions. Essentially, I began to know more about myself within and became in touch with how things are. Knowing what makes a mood basically. I rewired the way I approached situations that left me panicked and worried. Eventually, daily practice and being aware of my anxiety led me to have less of it!

3. Sounds to Calm Down

Do you find certain sounds relaxing and rejuvenating? For me, nature sounds, tibetan bowls, binaural beats, and other music for leisure helped with feeling constantly paranoid about…

  1. the future
  2. the past
  3. what I should be doing
  4. my emotions and over-reactions to things
  5. perceptions about things that aren’t even solid

Listen to sounds that relax you; it’s a lot like being at your favourite vacation spot, the feeling you have when work is over or when you just get to unwind down for the day. I noticed that if

  1. you are paranoid or anxious
  2. you are overreactive about things

the best thing to do is something that relaxes you! Let yourself get better!

The easiest thing I had were headphones and a media player. I started off with binaural beats and found a liking to lambda waves and epsilon waves. Sometimes lambda waves in the morning and epsilon waves before sleep. I listened to them in the background with some other music while studying or reading and found gradually that I became calmer and less likely to be fooled by my own narrow perceptions about things. It may sound cliché but I learned that everything besides my mind has stayed the same, and the cause of my fear or panic was not outside of me, but rather inside my own mind. I was silently the one making my own panic, without being in control or knowing it. Things could happen, but I didn’t need to be as such with it. Sometimes my own mind made things look or appear scary or odd when there’s nothing odd about it all!

This was all gradually with patience and practice. There are links for the tracks I use if you want to download them…2

4. Exercise!

Exercising just about everyday has lifted my mood each time. I exercise for about 30-40min. just about everyday and this strengthens positive thinking as well as mood. With a better mood, I could mitigate lower depressive thoughts that my mind tricks me into thinking is true. It also helps me keep to the present and gives me time to let go of other things before the day begins.

Try it out with a friend or just solo. Make it routine.

The benefits: Less depressive thoughts, less depressive behavior and more clarity and optimism about things. Also healthier body and mind. The mind relies on a healthy body to function well.

5. Keep a Mental Health Journal

Keep a journal for logging your thoughts and mood for any day. You can also reflect on what happened and how you are managing life on lower doses as well as any changes in perception. It’s nice to relax while writing and just write without caring about criticism; it’s there for you and your mind and no one needs to even read. You can also log the doses you’ve been having each day or however often you have one. Wake time and sleep time as well.

The benefits: Better recollection of what happened in a day, what things mattered, what things were useless, mood regulation, awareness of medication intervals, inner thought reflections, and cooling down all the drama you thought was happening but really wasn’t. More self-awareness and control.

The Outcome

The large outcome you might have if you follow the skills given here is a gradual lowering of the amount of meds you take and (perhaps) general happiness more often. Please, start small when you go lower and handle as much as you can; be in tune with yourself. What’s the guideline to see if you’re doing fine while on lower amounts of meds? The first is that you adhere everyday to what’s written above, a practice you dedicate time to each day and make a part of you. Make it a lifestyle change, basically. We elaborate on the others too!

I leave some philosophical remarks about the current state of affairs about the world to have a cutoff of what is rationally sane. The goal for you is to be rationally sane, calm, and happy and we will see just what we need to do to be such.

In days and histories of war, rape, obesity, abuse, stereotyping, birth control, road rage, and high stress from work and school: it is not wise to think what people who aren’t on meds as ‘rationally sane’. Nor those high on social ladders and with large incomes. It won’t do.

Also, gradually slowing the amount of meds taken or generally being acknowledged by others as ‘sane’ isn’t enough to have ourselves be ‘normal’3. Even ‘normal’ people have worries, problems, and inner conflicts. It is universal among us. We can’t compare ourselves with ‘normal’ people to be deemed okay or fine. In fact, overreacting to things and doing other ‘normal’ things can actually make symptoms worse. We have different guidelines to see if you are doing well on new doses.

The Goal: Rationally Sane

To be rationally sane and know that you can handle being on lower doses of meds for your health you need to be able to do these things (don’t compare to ‘normal’ people)…

  1. rise and sleep at regular intervals, get 7-8 each night
  2. earn money on a consistent basis doing something that doesn’t harm life largely
  3. pay bills on a set schedule
  4. cook or buy food for yourself
  5. be calm about things that happen, don’t overreact, avoid violence
  6. be informed about the world (news, videos, and so on)
  7. learn to relax, wish others kindness, and do kind deeds
  8. be social within your means, like time with others, communicate calmly with others
  9. have less psychotic behaviours and know when you are drifting into psychotic thoughts
  10. know what to do if psychosis does get worse (more meds, doctor, things discussed above)
  11. lessen psychosis/psychoses/anxious behaviours using points above
  12. enjoy life a little! find your hobby or cool activity!

That’s about it! The main requirements are to support yourself doing something harmless to others, be aware of yourself and symptoms, and keep in touch with the world. In times where ‘normal’ people do rather questionable things, this is enough and constitutes the basics of a peaceful, calm, and happy life.

Note: Don’t expect things to change in a short amount of time, keep going for a couple of months to see gradual changes. If you want, you can keep the same dose you feel okay with and still do the points above. That’s fine too, whatever works for you and helps with your physical and mental health.

Footnotes

  1. wim hof method ↩

  2. lambda-epsilon track, tibetan singing bowls nature sounds (scroll down for the title: 7 tracks) ↩

  3. No one really knows what ‘normal’ is, so we keep it a term relative to those who aren’t on anti-psychotics and other psychiatric medications: those people see and who perceive themselves as sane. Really, sane is relative to those around you and across the world with different modes of life, doing one thing is sane but doing the same thing somewhere else is not sane. It’s so vague we don’t even use actions as comparisons. But, what we can agree on is peaceful living, calm thinking, and a rational mindset. ↩