Some common symptoms
- Hearing voices talking to you or about you (which you cannot explain), or other experiences that people cannot witness (eg feeling strange sensations in your body). The voices/noises are called auditory hallucinations.
- Becoming suspicious of people or situations, holding beliefs that other people don’t agree with, or having unusual experiences like getting special messages from CDs, TV or papers. These symptoms are called delusions.
- Having difficulty thinking clearly, or other people finding your speech does not make sense or is difficult to follow. This is sometimes called thought disorder.
- Becoming withdrawn from friends and family.
- Losing interest, and/or having poor self care.
- Lacking motivation.
- Experiencing changes in your emotions, such as feeling more anxious, depressed or overly excitable or more irritable. Some people feel a lack of emotion.
NB The symptoms of psychosis vary widely from one person to the next. Not everyone has all these symptoms, or experiences them to the same degree.
The impact of these symptoms can be great, affecting many aspects of a person’s life including their relationships with other family members.
Later, we will also do a structured interview (which includes some memory and concentration tests) to help us make a definite diagnosis.
About ARMS
At Risk Mental State (ARMS) can be used to describe people who are having some brief or slight symptoms of psychosis but are not so seriously affected by these symptoms that we can say they definitely have a major mental illness.
ARMS can be hard to recognise; other people (especially relatives) often notice changes in a person’s thinking or behaviour. For example, they might have become 'isolated' or seem a bit odd or becoming more distressed for no obvious reason.
At CAMEO, we aim to offer interventions early to people with psychosis or ARMS. This can help prevent them developing more troubling problems in future.
What causes Psychosis or ARMS?
There are many causes of psychotic symptoms.
We might all have the potential to develop these symptoms, but some people seem to be more vulnerable than others.
A single cause has not been identified - there are probably both biological and psychological factors involved. For example, psychotic symptoms can sometimes be caused by drug use (such as cannabis), or by stress (such as losing a job or a partner) or related to an emotional disorder (such as depression or mania).
It can be useful to identify the most likely cause of your symptoms because this knowledge can suggest ways to us to help you reduce the risk of similar problems in the future.