What Is Psychotic Depression?
Depression is a crippling mental disorder that many people in the world have to deal with. More than 264 million people have to deal with it every single day. However, did you know that there is a rare type of depression that can stem from it? This is called psychotic depression and only 5% of people experiencing depression will have this specific case of depression.
What Makes Psychotic Depression Different
Usually a person with depression will lack energy and will have a dark outlook on life. Many can also hide their true emotions and it can be difficult to identify if you’re not looking close enough. However, psychotic depression has a host of other symptoms that make it unique from other forms of depression. The main theme among them is that a person starts losing touch with reality. They could possibly start hearing voices and hallucinating things that aren’t there, they become disillusioned and start thinking that they are something that they are not, and their habits could be thrown out of sync with everyone else’s.
Hallucinations
Seeing things that aren’t really there is a definite sign of psychosis. It can also be a sign that someone has psychotic depression. Hallucinations that a person sees can be anything. It could be their family members looking down on them from the corner of their eye, or it could be the monster under their bed. Sometimes it could even be whispers that drive them further into depression.
Delusions
Delusions can come in many forms like hallucinations. But with psychotic depression, these delusions are very negative. For example a person could believe that they’re not living a life worth living. This is one of the many reasons why a person could attempt to commit suicide.
Unusual Habits
A person with this medical condition could end up having vastly different habits from everyone else. For example they could be lying in their bed all day, or have a flipped sleep schedule where they stay awake during the night and sleep during the day. Either way, this can heavily affect their mental well being and drive them further down the depression hole.
Psychotic Depression Vs. Schizophrenia
People can mistake psychotic depression for schizophrenia because of their similarities. However, what makes the two different is that schizophrenia’s hallucinations, delusions, and habits can be fantastical in nature. A person might believe they’re a superhero or a descendant of royalty.
Psychotic depression’s hallucinations, delusions and habits, on the other hand, have a theme of loss and sadness. Instead of thinking they’re the hero of the story, they could think they are the villain in everyone else’s life. Instead of royalty, they think of themselves as a peasant who doesn’t deserve happiness. This can severely affect their day to day lives and they will eventually stop caring and neglect to take care of themselves
What You Can Do
Psychotic depression is an intense type of mental disorder that not everyone will be able to understand. So the best thing you can do to help someone who has it is to look for professional help. Contact us today to help your loved ones fight depression!
