Deb BushongFounder, Owner, & Therapist, Conversations Therapy · Clinical Expertise Meets Lived Experience in Psychosis Care

Oh no, I have Psychosis!!??

16 Jan 2025 · 2 min

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1:37

In this segment, the speaker addresses the emotional and practical challenges faced by young people who experience early psychosis and the ripple effects on their families. They highlight how a diagnosis can feel like a crushing blow for vibrant, forward‑looking youth, leading to feelings of being left behind and a heightened risk of suicide. The discussion points to early psychosis programs and therapists as critical resources for navigating the disorder. It also delves into parents' shock and disappointment when their child's trajectory shifts from being a star athlete or student to confronting a mental health setback, emphasizing the need to frame the condition as a temporary obstacle and to mobilize available support to get the individual back on track.

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So how do you deal with it? How do I deal with my own mental health? And during those times, that is a crushing blow to somebody who is young and vivacious and looking forward to life and sees his peers, his or her peers, like continuing to move forward. And feeling left behind. So there's a very high suicide rate. And that's when they come to something like an early psychosis program, or that's when they look for a therapist who can help them work through finding out that they have a psychotic disorder. So, you know, it is taxing. It is hard, it is heartbreaking. And especially even the parents, they're like, what has happened? This is never what I planned for my child. These are not the dreams I had for my child. This is not what my child has always been like. My child was a star athlete. My child was a star student. And, you know, having to explain that like, This is a temporary setback. You know, you're going to have to accept this for what it is right now until we can get, you know, so him or her on back on track with the resources that we have at hand.