Many families experience mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and OCD together. The reason for this is a combination of environment, home life and personality traits.
As a general rule, psychotic depression is not genetic. Personality traits that lead to depression can be genetic, however, psychotic depression usually develops as a result of severe trauma per individual. Other triggers include difficult life events, extreme stress, abuse and life changing illnesses.
In this article, we’ll discuss a few commonly as questions about the likelihood of psychosis, causes, treatment options and more.
Does Psychosis run in Families?
The short answer to this popular question is that it “sort of” does. Psychosis itself is not something that directly comes from our parents. Personality traits, certain mental conditions and environmental factors that cause psychosis are directly related to our parents.
Can Psychotic Disorders be Genetic?
Many psychotic disorders are argued to be genetic. Just like the previous question, this is because in most cases, disorders which involve psychosis are largely influenced by certain personality traits.
Mental and emotional traits, such as anxiety or self esteem issues, can be seemingly “passed down”. This is because a family’s lifestyle and environment play a major role in the development of psychosis.
What kind of Depression is Hereditary?
None. Although children with a parent or sibling with depression do have a much higher likelihood of developing it. This is simply because they are typically exposed to the same variables that caused them to develop depression.
Research shows that the likelihood of developing depression because one of your close family members is depressed can be up to 50%. Many factors play into this statistic. Lifestyle, trauma and external environmental factors play a role in the influence of how/if depression is developed.
Also, if treatment is not being pursued and unproductive, toxic habits or lifestyle are taking place, this will increase the likelihood of more family members developing depression as well.
Can you be born with Psychosis?
In short, the answer is no. As previously discussed, genetic and environmental factors play a role, however, two people born into the same environment could have two completely different outcomes later in life.
When the pre-existing and outside factors point toward to the development of psychosis, it does not necessarily mean that someone will absolutely develop it in the future.
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What Causes Psychosis?
There is often some confusion around exactly how psychosis can be developed. Here is a list of examples of how it usually develops.
Trauma
Trauma of any kind or cause can cause depression to develop. Whether the harm which caused the trauma was something that the individual endured personally or witnessed, psychosis has a chance to develop.
The severity of the traumatic event along with pre-existing factors such as current state of mind, usually determine the an outcome of psychosis or not.
Abuse
Abuse of any kind can lead to development of mental and/or physical health issues later in life if proper treatment and care is not sought. Paranoia and delusions have been reported is victims of abuse, especially when the abuse is experienced when the individual is a child.
In most cases, victims of abuse develop some sort of insecurities. Many times this is temporary and can subside once the abuse is over, however, for some the outcome can lead to serious mental health issues including some symptoms of psychosis.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors have are known to contribute to a variety of mental illnesses – psychosis included. From the time a fetus is developing through early adulthood, environmental factor has the ability to determine whether or not psychosis will be experiences and/or lived with later in life.
Several factors contribute to this, including (but not limited to) the following.
- The mother’s mental and physical health during pregnancy
- How the child is raised, imposed beliefs about themselves, their self-worth and how safe they feel
- Childhood neglect or abuse
- Traumatizing situations, unstable home-life and/or lack of social interaction
Extreme Stress
Being under extreme stress can cause a variety of mental, physical and emotional symptoms. In some cases, psychosis is experienced as a result. If this is experienced, it typically only lasts a few weeks at most. Stressors that can cause psychosis to happen include, but are not limited such events such as financial or workload stress.
Financial stress is one of the most stressful and taxing causes of stress. Stress from burnout or simply the type of work one is doing can also accumulate to the point where psychosis briefly develops.
Certain Life Events
Major life events often require support and emotional awareness in order to transition through them successfully. Events such as marriage, divorce, moving, experiencing the death of a loved one, job loss and any other major shift can cause an individual to experience psychosis depending on pre-existing conditions and external factors.
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What does Depressive Psychosis feel like?
If the individual experiencing this is aware when they are experiencing psychosis, it might feel like they’re extremely “out of it” due to delusions and hallucinations as well as really sad and feeling hopeless.
Depressive psychosis can be very dangerous to those who experience it frequently as it can eventually make them feel like there is no reason to continue living. Other extreme outcomes related to suicidal tendencies are intense delusions that some people can experience.
Like hallucinations, delusion alter one’s sense of reality. They will be experiencing something that they believe to be real, when it actually is not. Most people who experience delusions and hallucinations report hearing or seeing things (that actually are not there).
For those who are not aware when they are experiencing reality altering experiences of psychosis, depressive psychosis can seem like their world is getting out of control. They might fall prey to the convincing symptoms of psychosis which could lead to a harmful result or life changing consequences.
If you suspect that you may be living with depressive psychosis, it’s important to get evaluated by a doctor. In most cases, when psychosis goes untreated, it can often escalate over time. At some point you could experience such an extreme episode of psychosis that you could harm yourself or others. Knowing the warning signs of an episode could be the difference between saving your life or someone else’s.
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What factors are associated with Psychotic Depression?
There is not a certain combination of factors that cause psychotic depression. However, it is known that pre-existing mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and panic attacks can influence the development of psychotic depression.
Warning Signs of Psychosis
According to this article from the National Institute of Mental Health, there are several warning signs that can help predict if psychosis is about to occur. These include but are not limited to the following:
- Suddenly feeling like you can’t trust anyone. If you’re typically a happy-go-lucky, trusting person, chances are you might notice this symptom right away. Psychosis tends to make people paranoid. Often, people report feeling like people are whispering about them, following them or that their homes are “bugged” and others can hear everything that they say behind closed doors.
- Personal hygiene/lack of self-care. When mental health issues are at play, personal upkeep is often an obvious sign that something isn’t going well.
- Lack of daily effort at school or work. A lack of motivation is very typical when psychosis is about to onset. This is partly due to confusion, sometimes fatigue, and other pre-existing factors.
- Feeling confused. When psychosis is about to happen, people will often say they felt really confused about a variety of things. You might lose your train of thought, forget what you were doing or where you were going, or you might even forget basic information about yourself or your loved ones.
Is Paranoid Psychosis the same as Schizophrenia?
No. Schizophrenia is a separate mental disorder. Paranoid psychosis is also a mental disorder but is not the same as schizophrenia. When someone has schizophrenia they will interpret reality (life/everyday experiences) “incorrectly”. This does not mean that they’re always in the wrong, however their reality experience is warped compared to someone without the disorder.
Paranoid psychosis is it’s own disorder when the brain is not functioning properly and hallucinations and/or delusions occur. Psychosis can happen as a result of schizophrenia, however, schizophrenia cannot develop just because someone experiences paranoid psychosis.
Psychosis is often a symptom of schizophrenia but there are many other symptoms that characterize schizophrenia as a whole. People often describe psychosis as schizophrenia simply because of the delusion manner that both disorders typically experience.
Treatment Options for Psychotic Depression
In short, counseling with a professional therapist (“talk therapy”) and potentially medication are the two most popular forms of treatment for psychotic depression. Medication might not always be prescribed. It depends on the individual’s medical history and specific needs.
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