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

The Difference Between Psychosis and Schizophrenia 1743785694437

6 Apr 2025 · 2 min

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1:40

In this brief educational monologue, Deb Bushong of "Let's Talk Psychosis" clarifies the common confusion surrounding the terms psychosis, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depression. She explains that psychosis is a symptom that can appear in many mental health diagnoses—schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder always include psychosis, while bipolar disorder and major depression may include it only sometimes. Because psychosis is the shared element, she uses the broader term when describing her services, encouraging people searching for help to use "psychosis" rather than specific diagnostic labels that might not match her practice. The video aims to educate viewers, reduce terminology confusion, and guide them toward appropriate therapist searches.

Chapters

Hi, it's me again, Deb, with Let's Talk Psychosis. So I wanted to clear up something that confuses a lot of people. What's the difference between psychosis, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, all the other labels? So let me give you a brief description of why I use the word psychosis as a general term, because psychosis is a part of each of those disorders, or it can be in bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder does not always have psychosis, but, um, schizophrenia has psychosis as a component. Schizoaffective disorder has psychosis as a component, and oftentimes bipolar disorder has psychosis as a component. Major depression can also have psychosis as a component. But psychosis in itself is just a symptom of one of the disorders or one of the categories or labels. So I wanted to let people know that because sometimes when they're looking for a therapist, they don't know to just, um, search for psychosis. They might be looking for something that doesn't cause me to show up. Like, they might be looking for schizophrenia, and I don't use that word a lot. I use psychosis. So I thought I would clear that up. I hope it helps. And as always, you know, psychosis— think again. Let's feel the change and change that conversation.