Word salad is exactly as it sounds. The schizo presenting with it will string unrelated words together in a sentence while being totally unintelligible to the listener. It's true that this may concern loved ones, but no one is more frustrated than the speaker of the salad.

Barring some small level of insight, the psychotic patient believes they are making perfect, or even brilliant sense. It is therefore not hard to imagine the schizo becoming quite irate when they inevitably hear from the listener that what they're saying is nonsensical.

Due to the patient's belief that they are 100% coherent, irritated efforts are often made to reiterate whatever point was being attempted. Obviously, this leads only to the further baffling of the listener.

Don't think written communication will help. It's not a speech issue. It's the part of your brain that forms intelligible thought that is malfunctioning. A word salad text will be "said" exactly as it would be formed while speaking.

It takes time to recover from a psych episode presenting with word salad. In the aftermath, the schizo could be described as feeling brain damaged. It's common place for them to restrict their communication to "yes" or "no" until meds, sleep, and time allow for recovery.

Losing one's ability to communicate is beyond frightening. If you were to ask me, I'd say those lacking the insight to be aware of it should count themselves lucky. No one should be forced to hear their own shameful psycho babble.

This is a fact every psychotic person knows all too well. It extends far beyond inconvenient. It not only hinders the fulfilment of dreams, it lowers the patient's sense of self worth. Let us dig into the specific experiences of those afflicted by this sad phenomenon.

For those who set out to attend university, they all to often have to set their goals aside to seek medical attention for the terrifying symptoms which prevent them from continuing their studies. This process can take years. Should the treatment eventually help, psychotic students frequently feel left behind. They have been out of their studious mindset for too long. It takes nothing short of a miracle to obtain their degree.

What of those already in the workforce? These unfortunate souls find their ambitious climb of the latter hit a dead end upon the onset of their condition. They must endure the arduous process of trying to obtain disability benefits and, if they're lucky, they get approved for just enough assistance to prevent them from becoming completely homeless. Riches to rags.

The bitter icing on the cake? Hardly anyone understands. Ableism is too real. Accommodations for the aforementioned psychotic student aren't guaranteed to be approved. They're not likely to be looked at as equal to their classmates who didn't spend years away from education. As for the worker, our ableist society treats them as though they were willfully unemployed. Judged endlessly. Enough to internalize it.

Awareness of conditions such as schizophrenia are slowly being raised, but the societal treatment of those who suffer from this merciless disease has been found wanting to put it incredibly lightly.

Just thought I'd start a thread for mundane, stupid, silly, absurd etc symptoms of psychosis.
For me, here's 3:
1) Tactile hallucinations of single raindrops on my skin. Not a cloud in sight, or just straight up indoors. It's dumb.
2) Car thing #1: jolting cars in parking lots. It looks like they're about to pull out of the spot for just a split second and that's it, but it can happen over and over with many cars. Makes walking in a calm linear fashion annoying and difficult.
3) Car thing #2: People in the backseat flipping pedestrian me off when they turn and I'm at a crosswalk. Why? No idea.

Comment your own below~

Hallucinations are said to be terrifying. They can be manipulative. They will command you into doing dangerous acts both to yourself and others. They also do something that isn't often discussed. They have the awful potential to violate you.

This happens in your most private and vulnerable moments. Moments, for example, like when you're in the bathroom. Undressed. Vulnerable. They make comments about your body. Disgusting remarks. Vile insults. It's enough to make one take measures to not expose themself to this form of, lets face it, sexual torment.
Those who experience these brands of hallucinations will often have thoughts and behaviors exhibited by people who have been violated by real life human garbage. They feel dirty. They feel as though they can never get themselves clean no matter how they try to. Here is a sad fact as if that wasn't bad enough.

For sufferers of this form of psychological attack from within, it's not hard to imagine a need for therapy. Seeking out therapy may not seem justified by the victims due to the assault occurring internally. It is, though. It most certainly is warranted. Those enduring this abuse are victims. Victims of their sexually abusive psychotic mind. The seriousness in which it is addressed should reflect as much.

The Turing test, in summary, is a way to tell if an artificial life is sentient. If a person interacting with the AI can't tell that it isn't interacting with an artificial being, then the test is passed and the AI must be said to be sentient.

I submit that this test can rightfully be applied to psychotic hallucinations. When a schizo-spec individual is in a severe enough episode, they are unable to differentiate whether the hallucinated entities are sentient or imaginary. They must therefore be said to pass the Turing test.

This raises some very alarming questions. Is the schizo-spec brain generating sentient beings for the patient to interact with during severe episodes. Certain behaviors such as telling the schizo to not take their meds would suggest they are fighting for survival.
These thoughts have been on my mind for quite a while since the voices I hear interact with me in the same way a sentient being would.

It's certainly interesting to ponder.

You're not being stalked by all those around you. You're just crazy. You're not being haunted by demonic voices in your ear. You're just crazy. You aren't covered in horrible creepy bugs. You're just crazy.

In fact, belief that you're crazy can actually aid in your recovery from your episode. It can reduce stress and increase your calmness. A calm state of mind is often all that is needed to think clearly and snap you out of an episode. It's highly effective.

Indeed, there is no need to be afraid my beautiful psychotic friend. You're just a crazy person.

At first you don't fully grasp what's happening. You're new to the world of psych issues. You know there is something wrong with you and you're told these facilities can help you get better. You naively put your trust in them. Then you finally arrive.

The first thing you notice is the captivity. You've broken no laws, yet you're incarcerated. There is little to nothing to do to pass the time. There is nothing in the way to treat what is wrong with you. The chairs are uncomfortable. The bedrooms are locked for the majority of the day. It's as if the facility is designed to make you miserable.

The staff can be downright abusive. They behave more like prison guards than medical personnel. They act like you're inconveniencing them by making simple requests such as asking for water. The staff also take no action towards patients that are disturbing you. "There isn't much i can do about it" they will say. The patients can be hell and nothing can be done that won't prolong your stay.

People that have been taken from the comfort of their home and dragged to these psych wards end up having nightmares about it for the rest of their lives just as one with PTSD would. The experience does little more than teach people to mask their symptoms at all costs in order to avoid these living nightmares.

They are not hospitals. They are prisons.

This question has been known to be asked to schizophrenics by normal people. It makes it out to be such an obvious cure to your condition. Simply ignore every bizarre thought and experience because you know you have a condition. The question displays ignorance of how the psychotic mind works.

First of all, it's rare to slip deep into an episode in the blink of an eye. It often starts small and begins to slowly chip away at the foundations of your reality little by little.
You may be able to ignore a singular voice. It is nearly impossible to block out sentient-sounding voices eroding away at the walls of your reality for what could be days or even weeks. Before long, you're left wondering which version of reality being presented to you is the one you should focus on as being real.

People may try to tell you that the voices aren't real, but the voices tell you that the people aren't real. In extreme cases, the voices have more access to your mind than people do such that it makes it easier to side with the voices.

"You know the voices aren't real, right"? No, actually I don't.

It is no secret that certain delusions possess core similarities. You're in the matrix. You're trapped in a coma. You're in an afterlife. Your reality is a simulation akin to The Truman Show. These delusions have one underlying characteristic. You're perceiving altered reality. It's off in a way you can't explain.

Your worldview has been slightly warped from the way you've always held it tight. It begins slipping from you gradually. This is exactly what dissociation is. A reality disconnect. So much so that your brain grasps at straws to explain the phenomenon. This is the shaky foundation wacky delusions may stem from. Rationality needn't apply.

With the aid of modern entertainment and perhaps an overactive imagination, it's far from difficult for one to conclude that their reality is being simulated somehow from only a mere touch of dissociation. There is seldom a logic filter to weed it out.

With luck, the dissociation is short lived and one can return to the boring old universe that we all occupy. However, lacking such luck, it has been known to last for hours and even days.

While this symptom is left to fester, the delusional explanations are doing a number on your mind. Providing the opportunity to dive ever deeper down the schiz rabbit hole. Not fun.

How harmful could this be? The sky is the limit. Picture a delusion where your dog is not real and requires no care. Terrifying.  One can only hope help arrives before disastrous damage is caused.

Dissociation should not be thought of as a minor symptom. It's a gateway symptom to madness. The marijuana of psych issues.

Wondering what other people's experiences on here are with bipolar psychosis? I know that's not a medical diagnosis...from my understanding, psychotic experiences are frequently connected with (hypo)manic episodes.

I personally have experienced this traditional version but I have also held delusions during depressive episodes which I think are sometimes a feature of psychosis. I could be wrong as I am (gratefully) not a doctor 

Just wondering what people have experienced and if they want to share. I look forward to connecting with other people over their experiences. Just to clarify, I am "officially" diagnosed with bipolar 2 but it is possible I have type 1.

Thanks!