Is there a violent person in your midst? Maybe he or she is suffering from psychosis. Although psychosis and violence are not synonymous with each other, psychosis is one of the most common psychiatric cause of violence that you may be seeing in your community. The other common cause for violence is substance (drug and alcohol) abuse.
Psychosis is defined as the absence of one’s ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychosis is manifested by at least two of the following symptoms:
• Unshakable belief that something untrue is true (delusion), example: believing that his family is trying to kill him even if they are not;
• Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling things that are in reality not present (hallucination), example: hearing voices even if no one is speaking;
• Talking nonsense;
• Acting or behaving in a manner that does not making any sense, like being violent for instance; and
• Loss of facial expression, withdrawal or loss of interest in activities of daily living, loss of energy to move or carry out usual activities.
Psychotic individuals may be violent because of a delusion that people around him are going to hurt him or because of his hallucination of voices telling him that people are goving to hurt him. In reality, therefore, a psychotic person’s violence may be to him a self-defense rather than an intention of hurting others.
If you encounter a psychotic person, keep calm, speak calmly, but keep a safe distance and position yourself near an exit if you are in a room. Do not directly challenge the violent person’s belief, but instead assure him that your are there to help him with whatever problems he may have. But, do not give false alarm as well.
It is important to restrain him, but you must have at least two persons with you who are physically stronger or who is in authority (example, the police or medical practitioner). Then bring him to the nearest hospital for admission and treatment of his psychosis.
Psychosis is defined as the absence of one’s ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychosis is manifested by at least two of the following symptoms:
• Unshakable belief that something untrue is true (delusion), example: believing that his family is trying to kill him even if they are not;
• Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling things that are in reality not present (hallucination), example: hearing voices even if no one is speaking;
• Talking nonsense;
• Acting or behaving in a manner that does not making any sense, like being violent for instance; and
• Loss of facial expression, withdrawal or loss of interest in activities of daily living, loss of energy to move or carry out usual activities.
Psychotic individuals may be violent because of a delusion that people around him are going to hurt him or because of his hallucination of voices telling him that people are goving to hurt him. In reality, therefore, a psychotic person’s violence may be to him a self-defense rather than an intention of hurting others.
If you encounter a psychotic person, keep calm, speak calmly, but keep a safe distance and position yourself near an exit if you are in a room. Do not directly challenge the violent person’s belief, but instead assure him that your are there to help him with whatever problems he may have. But, do not give false alarm as well.
It is important to restrain him, but you must have at least two persons with you who are physically stronger or who is in authority (example, the police or medical practitioner). Then bring him to the nearest hospital for admission and treatment of his psychosis.
And, good luck. Hehehe.