Summit Detox: How Long Does Psychosis Last?

Psychosis refers to a variety of mental conditions that cause a person to experience something that is not actually happening in reality. During psychosis episodes, people have a hard time distinguishing between what’s happening in their minds and what’s real.

The duration of psychosis and recovery time varies from person to person, depending on how the person experiences psychosis and what induced that particular psychosis episode. Mental health issues, including bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, can cause psychosis, but so can drug use.

In this post, we’ll dive into psychosis and provide a psychosis timeline to help you better understand the condition and how you can seek treatment.

Are you or a loved one dealing with psychosis or other mental health conditions? Summit Detox and Mental Health is here for you. Read more about our mental health treatment program here.

Symptoms of Psychosis

To determine whether you or someone you know are experiencing psychosis, you must know the symptoms, which include:

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Difficulty concentrating
• Anxiety
• Sleeping too much or not enough
• Suspiciousness
• Depression
• Suicidal ideation
• Disorganized speech, including switching topics erratically

What Are Delusions and Hallucinations?

Delusion and hallucination are often used interchangeably, but in fact, they mean different things.

Delusions

A delusion is a false belief or impression that you hold firmly even though reality contradicts it. People can experience delusions of paranoia, grandiose delusions, and somatic — meaning they believe they have a terminal illness when they are healthy.

Hallucinations

Hallucinations are sensory perceptions in the absence of outside stimuli. In laymen’s terms, hallucinations are seeing, sharing or smelling something that is not there. Someone hallucinating may see things that don’t exist or hear someone talking when they’re alone.

Psychosis Timeline

When seeking to understand the psychosis timeline, it’s important to know that psychosis happens in stages. The three stages include:

Prodrome Phase

In the prodromal stage of psychosis, you will start experiencing behavior changes or perceptions that can indicate psychosis is about to happen. Warning signs you’re in the early stages of psychosis include:

• Having a hard time concentrating
• Feeling easily overwhelmed
• Sleep disturbances
• Desire to self-isolate

Acute Phase

Acute psychosis is the stage where hallucinations, delusions and other unusual behaviors start to occur. These symptoms are often debilitating and can interfere with your daily life and routine. The length of this stage depends on whether the psychosis is related to a mental health disorder or if it’s substance-induced.

Recovery

The final phase of the psychosis timeline is recovery. During this stage, the symptoms of psychosis begin to lessen, and you will be able to return to your daily routine. This phase typically happens after going through treatment for a mental health disorder or stopping the use of the substance(s) that induced psychosis.

Are you ready to recover from psychosis and take your life back? Summit Detox and Mental Health is here for you. Our caring and compassionate staff includes Licensed Mental Health Counselors, Master’s Level Certified Addiction Professionals, Addiction Psychiatrists, Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners. Read our client testimonials here.

Drug-Induced Psychosis Timeline

The psychosis timeline differs depending on the type and cause of the psychotic episode. For example, mental health-associated psychosis will last a different length than drug-induced psychosis.

Drug-induced psychosis is commonly the result of chronic use of substances that harm the brain, most commonly, drug use. The psychosis timeline varies depending on the specific drug used. For example:

• Meth — Meth psychosis is quite short and only lasts a few hours while on the drug. It can also happen during withdrawal, which can last up to one week after taking meth. If prolonged meth use has damaged the brain, psychosis can last beyond when the drug fully leaves your system — up to six months later.
• Opiates — Psychosis caused by opiate withdrawal lasts for as long as the drug can be detected in the body. Typically, once the drug fully leaves the system, opiate-induced psychosis will stop.
• Alcohol — Alcohol-induced psychosis is linked to chronic alcohol use and typically lasts for the duration of the time the alcohol stays in the system during the withdrawal process. In the rarest cases, psychosis can take place long after you stop using alcohol.

Summit Detox and Mental Health Is Here to Help

You don’t have to go through this battle alone. The staff at Summit Detox and Mental Health offer best-in-class mental health treatment services. We are dedicated to providing our patients with customized care that meets the needs of each individual client. Our goal is to diagnose and treat our patients effectively so that they can safely and successfully transition to the appropriate level of ongoing treatment. Contact us today to learn more.

References:

• https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/raise/what-is-psychosis
• https://medicine.yale.edu/psychiatry/step/psychosis/phasis/
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00491/full