Читать книгу Welcome to the Jungle - Hilary T. Smith - Страница 39

In psychiatry, insight means the ability to recognize when your behavior and thought patterns are coming from your mental illness as opposed to your regular self. For example: “I realize that the voices in my head aren't coming from real people, even though it really feels like they are.”

Insight can vary drastically in psychotic episodes. A person experiencing a full-blown episode of psychosis may not realize that the person sitting next to them on the bus can't also see that the bus is being driven by the Hindu deity Ganesh. Another person experiencing psychosis might slip in and out of insight, alternately realizing that their reality isn't shared and believing that it is. A third person might be aware the whole time that nobody else can see what they're seeing.

In some cultures, what we call psychosis is associated with shamanism and celebrated as a connection with the underworld. I'm just sayin'.

Like with any other aspect of bipolar disorder, the boundaries of what we call psychosis are not firmly defined; what matters most is not how your experience is categorized by the DSM-IV, but whether it's having a positive or destructive effect on your life. For example, a lucky person with a great amount of insight, self-discipline, and support from friends and family might be able to treat psychosis as a spiritual experience. For a person who has no support system, no insight, and a comorbidity like substance abuse, psychosis might just be a hellish experience.