Symptoms of Psychotic/Mental Breakdown?

[ana-t.]

For a fiction novel, would like to describe the physical and mental symptoms of the character having a psychotic break/mental breakdown, when they're so overwhelmed, do they do other things that is normally out of character.

Instead of writing, "he had a psychotic break", would like to describe the actual symptoms to make it more realistic and hopefully believable.

What would an outside observer see? The guy's eye twitching? Rapid breathing? What would go on in his mind?

Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

[iNow]

A lot the details depend on the nature of the break and also the cause. If you're using this for a novel, you could probably get some very interesting narratives from the symptoms of psychosis. A few of those are listed on the wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis#Signs_and_symptoms

 

More than anything else, the biggest part is setting the scene for what a normal day would be for your character, then after some time describing breaks into how that day "feels" and shifts or displacements or enigmas that are perceived... that become slowly more frequent until the entire concept of "normal day" seems foreign and distant like ancient history.

[JohnStu]

I'd like to mention: Anybody who isn't have a partial mental breakdown in this country must be unsensitive to the obvious problems. I've visited many countries in South America. The people here in the supposedly rich countries have much more mental breakdown individuals.

[LaurieAG]

A Beautiful Mind goes into this in detail.

 

 

The narrative of the film differs considerably from the actual events of Nash's life. The film has been criticized for this, but the filmmakers had consistently said that the film was not meant to be a literal representation.^[11] Also, Nasar concluded that Nash's refusal to take drugs "may have been fortunate," since their side effects "would have made his gentle re-entry into the world of mathematics a near impossibility."^[12]

One difficulty was in portraying stress and mental illness within one person's mind.^[13] Sylvia Nasar stated that the filmmakers "invented a narrative that, while far from a literal telling, is true to the spirit of Nash's story".^[14] The film made his hallucinations visual and auditory when, in fact, they were exclusively auditory. Furthermore, while in real life Nash spent his years between Princeton and MIT as a consultant for the RAND Corporation in California, in the film he is portrayed as having worked for the Pentagon instead. It is true that his handlers, both from faculty and administration, had to introduce him to assistants and strangers.^[9] The PBS documentary A Brilliant Madness attempts to portray his life more accurately.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_(film)

[Genecks]

Mental breakdown?

 

1) Insomnia

2) Paranoia

3) Megalomania

4) Abnormal or illegal coping behaviors

5) Anger

6) Social isolation

7) Depression

 

It's similar to the dying process.

 

A person learns to die a specific way; and if the person lives through it, they become a different person in the end.

Been there; done that.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Genecks

[iNow]

This struck me as a bit more relevant:

 

 

http://mindhacks.com/2013/02/10/hallucinations-of-the-inner-body/

One of the least understood symptoms in psychosis are hallucinations called cenesthesias. These are ‘inner body’ feelings that often don’t correspond to any known or even possible bodily experiences.

 

A team from Japan has just published a study of patients who experience cenesthesias in the mouth. Here are a selection of the hallucinations:

Link to full study available at the URL.

[random]

I would reccomend reading a book titled David's adventure with schizophrenia by David LaChapelle. My personal opinion is that he still has symptoms which are evident in the book but that's what would make it such a great reference for you. It's about as close to an unadulterated view into how a schizophrenic sees the world as your going to get.

 

The editor didn't tear it apart and re-structure it, nor does it appear the author spent all his time writing it to be "well written". In my opinion he just wrote what he thought and that was that.

 

Quite often when these books are written in past reflection it borders on fiction.

[Genecks]

Well, with a psychotic breakdown comes dysphoric mania and dissociation.

The level of each may vary on the individuals and their personal backgrounds.

Edited March 16, 2013 by Genecks

[the guy]

I don't know if you still need the advice, but it strikes me that a lot of the answers here are names of symptoms, rather than help in describing the experience.

 

As someone who suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, I have had my fair share of mental breakdowns in the past.

 

I am also a writer myself and so may be able to word things in a more 'writable' and relate-able manner.

 

If you wish for advice then message me personally or reply to this post (I shall keep an eye on it) and I will be happy to help