Читать книгу Welcome to the Jungle, Revised Edition - Hilary T. Smith - Страница 32

When I first told one of my friends I was taking antipsychotics, she smirked and said, “Oh, you're a psychopath?” Psychosis and “psychotic,” its accompanying adjective, are some of the most misused mental-health words out there. First of all, antipsychotics are commonly used for reasons other than psychosis (such as sleep and mood stability), so don't be freaked out if you get prescribed an antipsychotic if you've never been psychotic. Secondly, being psychotic is a totally different thing from being a psychopath. “Psychopathy” means the tendency towards violent, antisocial behavior. Psychosis is when you have delusional beliefs and hallucinations; it can range from experiencing a completely different reality from other people and having no insight, to experiencing voices and visual hallucinations and having some insight into the fact that this experience is not being shared by people around you. Psychosis is on a continuum: some experiences are very close to “normal” reality and some are quite far away. In some cultures, what we call psychosis is associated with shamanism and celebrated as a connection with the underworld. I'm just sayin'.