Am I Experiencing Psychosis?

Psychosis is an umbrella term which encompasses experiences such as delusions and hallucinations. Up to 1 in 10 people say that they have heard voices or seen things that aren’t there at least once in their lifetime (McGrath et al, 2015; Beavan, Read & Cartwright, 2011). 

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for a brief psychotic disorder include:

• The presence of one (or more) of the following symptoms, at least one of which must be from the first three items in the following list:
  • Delusions
  • Hallucinations
  • Disorganized speech (e.g. frequent derailment or incoherence)
  • Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
  • Negative symptoms (i.e. diminished emotional expression or avolition)
• The duration of an episode of the disturbance is at least 1 day but less than 1 month, with an eventual return to premorbid level of functioning.

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia include:

• The presence of two (or more) of the following symptoms, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period. At least one of these must be from the first three items in the following list:
  • Delusions
  • Hallucinations
  • Disorganized speech (e.g. frequent derailment or incoherence)
  • Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
  • Negative symptoms (i.e. diminished emotional expression or avolition)
• The level of functioning in one or more major areas (such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care) is markedly below the level achieved prior to onset.

The ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia include: 

• The presence of two (or more) of the following symptoms, each present for the majority of the time within a period of 1 month or more. At least one of the qualifying symptoms must be from the first four items in the following list:
  • Persistent delusions (e.g., grandiose delusions, delusions of reference, persecutory delusions).
  • Persistent hallucinations (most commonly auditory, although they may be in any sensory modality).
  • Disorganized thinking (formal thought disorder) (e.g., tangentiality and loose associations, irrelevant speech, neologisms). When severe, the person’s speech may be so incoherent as to be incomprehensible (‘word salad’).
  • Experiences of influence, passivity or control (i.e., the experience that one’s feelings, impulses, actions or thoughts are not generated by oneself, are being placed in one’s mind or withdrawn from one’s mind by others, or that one’s thoughts are being broadcast to others).
  • Negative symptoms such as affective flattening, alogia or paucity of speech, avolition, asociality and anhedonia.
  • Grossly disorganized behavior that impedes goal-directed activity (e.g., behavior that appears bizarre or purposeless, unpredictable or inappropriate emotional responses that interfere with the ability to organize behavior.)
  • Psychomotor disturbances such as catatonic restlessness or agitation, posturing, waxy flexibility, negativism, mutism, or stupor. Note: If the full syndrome of catatonia is present in the context of schizophrenia, the diagnosis of catatonia associated with another mental disorder should also be assigned.

Am I Experiencing Psychosis? is an indicative screening tool, designed to help clients self-assess whether their experiences might warrant further investigation. It is not intended to give a formal diagnosis or provide a measure of severity.

"Some people who report similar experiences to yours have a condition called psychosis. Would you like to try a short quiz that could give us an idea whether this is a problem that troubles you?"

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
• Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 617–627. 
• Stansfeld, S., Clark, C., Bebbington, P., King, M., Jenkins, R., & Hinchliffe, S. (2016). Chapter 2: Common mental disorders. In S. McManus, P. Bebbington, R. Jenkins, & T. Brugha (Eds.), Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital. 
• World Health Organization. (2019). ICD-11: International classification of diseases (11th revision). Retrieved from https://icd.who.int/
• McGrath, J. J., Saha, S., Al-Hamzawi, A., Alonso, J., Bromet, E. J., Bruffaerts, R., ... & Kessler, R. C. (2015). Psychotic experiences in the general population: a cross-national analysis based on 31 261 respondents from 18 countries. JAMA psychiatry, 72(7), 697-705. 
• Beavan, V., Read, J., & Cartwright, C. (2011). The prevalence of voice-hearers in the general population: a literature review. Journal of Mental Health, 20(3), 281-292.