Difference between imagination and psychosis?

I was wondering what the difference is between schizophrenia/psychosis and an over-active imagination. I was wondering because I was diagnosed as schizophrenic, but it seems to me like all it is is that I'm imaginative and my imagination tends to spill over into my behaviour... and I guess if my fantasy starts blurring into my real behaviour then that would seem like a loss of reality, but I still can't comprehend what loss of reality means.

For example, I don't think I have delusions because a delusion is defined as a fixed false belief, but my beliefs are far from fixed. When I'm "psychotic" my beliefs are changing every day in a sense of "what if this is happening, or this?" and yeah, my speculations of what might be going on tend to be quite farfetched, but they're only what-ifs.

Plus, I don't have hallucinations apart from occassional hypnogogic halluciations and sometimes I actively imagine things in the environment around me but I don't ACTUALLY see them, and sometimes I imagine that my thoughts are coming from a different person but I don't ACTUALLY hear voices. (actually, hallucinations are not a symptom that has been identified by psychiatrists in me)

Then there's thought disorder, and I don't know what thought disorder is exactly, only that I supposedly show "disordered thinking". Well, ok, I don't know exactly what it means to have your thoughts in "order" but I do get flights of ideas, and fantasy-based thinking lacks order to it.

So I fantasise a lot usually, and this fantasising has stopped mostly now that I'm on anti-psychotics, so I can only assume that this is the symptom that medical professionals are trying to reduce in me, but honestly it's really unpleasant to not be my usual imaginative self when it comes to my thoughts. When I try to fantasise, it's like I can feel walls in my mind stopping me (oh, and if I said I feel walls in my mind to a psychiatrist, this is the sort of thing that would probably be seen as delusional). Plus there are many other negative side effects of the medication like akathisia, although I don't think I have dyskinesia.

Actually, the psychotic periods I have feel to me just like when I would be a child and play imaginative games with my friends where we would pretend to be pokemon trainers and I would "look, this (imaginary) person over here wants to have a battle, lets go!", except that now I am 25 and have few friends so the imagination tends to be done on my own, but it feels just the same.

A final note: based on me being psychotic, I have developed a definition of psychosis that it is "a prolonged, surreal experience". That's the main feature that I can point to - that often things feel very strange and this feeling might last for quite some time.

So yes. If anyone has any insight to share here, that would be helpful. I don't understand it.

I think the difference is how convinced you are by it and your ability to control it.

Winteriscoming wrote:I think the difference is how convinced you are by it and your ability to control it.

Well, as I said, my ideas on what is occurring keep changing so I wouldn't say I'm convinced, but on the other hand, I go a long period of time thinking SOMETHING strange must be going on (because, why else would things feel so strange?). And when I talk to a psychiatrist about some of my more delusional ideas, they say I could be right but I'm probably not because there's no evidence, and even if I'm right, who cares (and the thing is, the psychiatrist only knows about my delusional ideas at all because I talk about them so I can try and figure out if they are true or not).

As for my ability to control it, I am the one who comes up with all the ideas, but it is hard to slow my mind down at times. I keep trying to guess at what is really going on and then I'll act on my guesses until they are proven wrong and then I will go with something else.

I'll add that I do get very paranoid, for example thinking my house is being broken into (I don't think this any more). However I can still go to work when I am psychotic. It is depression which stops me being able to work.

My baseline off medicine is imaginative with some features of magical thinking. The difference between this and psychosis is that I'm not immersed in the experience or absolutely convinced. I don't feel bombarded or harassed by evil. It's more of a yearning and curiosity about other realms, conspiracy theories and it maybe makes me a bit woo woo. I'm more likely to think religiously or spiritually, make meaning from coincidences, try to connect to higher realms and imagine past lives or the form of my spirit. It resembles the positive symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder rather than schizophrenia. You might find it helpful to research the distinction. When I have psychosis the boundaries between myself and the world start to merge and I no longer feel in control of my thoughts and where they are going. Having thoughts put into my head is one of the symptoms I get - this is called thought insertion. They are usually commands and they are 'louder' than my other thoughts and I feel discomfort in my brain when it feels like they are coming in from outside. It is a passivity experience which is indicative of a psychosis or schizophrenia rather than just schizotypal thoughts and tendencies. I get long strings of nonsensical or intrusive thoughts running through my head and the fragments of clear thought I do have break off or float away. This is disorganised thinking. I tried to find meaning in my thoughts by writing them down but it ended up to be pages of disconnected phrases and numbers. I tend to slow down or freeze up and stare a lot. I am frightened all the time of evil and it influences my behaviour, whether it's government mind control, aliens, demons etc. My beliefs have also changed in this respect - for example I thought that aliens were meddling with my thoughts because of abduction experiences before I started reading about Monarch programming. However, I still remained firmly convinced about the existence of grey aliens interfering with my life and mind control. It starts to leech into my ordinary life as well to the point where I don't know who to trust and I think absolutely anybody could be a plant or trying to kill me so I push people away, especially the people trying to help me or people that argue with my thoughts. I walk around with a beanie because it makes my head feel more contained and I get sensory overload quite easily. This may have something to do with hallucinations but I also am more likely to get delusions from the experience of having hypnogogic hallucinations or small perceptual distortions than outright hallucinate. I usually am less inhibited I'm more likely to do strange things or have a meltdown. In contrast, I find it hard to think outside the box when I'm on medication. I use inherent logic, convergent thinking rather than divergent thinking, I'm very no-nonsense and skeptical. It is a bit boring. Considering the positive symptoms of my schizophrenia tend to show up when triggered by a stressor and I can go for long periods medication-free without them I'm tempted to seek out that more imaginative, magical, superstitious side of myself. If that's all that it was it would probably make me feel less valid with my diagnosis but I can't really argue with doctors anymore that it's just my personality because I've had such bad times.

I don't see my imagination, but my psychosis are tangible(in my episodes, obviously).

phoenix-8ste wrote:My baseline off medicine is imaginative with some features of magical thinking. The difference between this and psychosis is that I'm not immersed in the experience or absolutely convinced. I don't feel bombarded or harassed by evil. It's more of a yearning and curiosity about other realms, conspiracy theories and it maybe makes me a bit woo woo. I'm more likely to think religiously or spiritually, make meaning from coincidences, try to connect to higher realms and imagine past lives or the form of my spirit.

Yeah this sounds similar to me actually. It's hard to remember quite what I was like before the meds, but I definitely show some magical thinking and meaning from coincidences. I've imagined images from past lives as well, and was curious as to whether they were real memories or not (I don't think they were, but it was still cool to imagine so).

It resembles the positive symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder rather than schizophrenia. You might find it helpful to research the distinction.

Yes I have looked into schizotypal and it sounds quite accurate. I especially relate to being uncomfortable in social situations - I read that there is a link with social anxiety, which I have had since I was a kid.

When I have psychosis the boundaries between myself and the world start to merge and I no longer feel in control of my thoughts and where they are going. Having thoughts put into my head is one of the symptoms I get - this is called thought insertion. They are usually commands and they are 'louder' than my other thoughts and I feel discomfort in my brain when it feels like they are coming in from outside. It is a passivity experience which is indicative of a psychosis or schizophrenia rather than just schizotypal thoughts and tendencies. I get long strings of nonsensical or intrusive thoughts running through my head and the fragments of clear thought I do have break off or float away. This is disorganised thinking. I tried to find meaning in my thoughts by writing them down but it ended up to be pages of disconnected phrases and numbers. I tend to slow down or freeze up and stare a lot. I am frightened all the time of evil and it influences my behaviour, whether it's government mind control, aliens, demons etc. My beliefs have also changed in this respect - for example I thought that aliens were meddling with my thoughts because of abduction experiences before I started reading about Monarch programming. However, I still remained firmly convinced about the existence of grey aliens interfering with my life and mind control. It starts to leech into my ordinary life as well to the point where I don't know who to trust and I think absolutely anybody could be a plant or trying to kill me so I push people away, especially the people trying to help me or people that argue with my thoughts. I walk around with a beanie because it makes my head feel more contained and I get sensory overload quite easily. This may have something to do with hallucinations but I also am more likely to get delusions from the experience of having hypnogogic hallucinations or small perceptual distortions than outright hallucinate. I usually am less inhibited I'm more likely to do strange things or have a meltdown.

I get flights of ideas that feel like I am uncovering some truth based on what I have experienced already, but I never felt like it was thought insertion, they were just strange thoughts. I thought they made sense based on the information I was receiving e.g. from the internet. I had some alien experiences... that's what I mean with the imaginative play, but also it relates to the spiritual stuff. I believed that I was in contact with another realm, and for all I know I could have been, but even at the time I knew there was a good chance it was created in my mind. I thought that who cares if it's in my mind, my mind is still a real thing.

In contrast, I find it hard to think outside the box when I'm on medication. I use inherent logic, convergent thinking rather than divergent thinking, I'm very no-nonsense and skeptical. It is a bit boring. Considering the positive symptoms of my schizophrenia tend to show up when triggered by a stressor and I can go for long periods medication-free without them I'm tempted to seek out that more imaginative, magical, superstitious side of myself. If that's all that it was it would probably make me feel less valid with my diagnosis but I can't really argue with doctors anymore that it's just my personality because I've had such bad times.

I think I can still think outside of the box but yeah it is boring. I pace up and down whereas usually I can keep myself occupied. I miss "psychosis", usually I enjoy it and it has gradually become more enjoyable as it switched form paranoia to more exciting scenarios such as the alien stuff. I was never paranoid about the aliens, actually I felt protected to think that there may be higher beings controlling things behind the scenes.

So I guess I am quite similar to schizophrenia but whether I am or not, I enjoy psychosis and I can still go to work when I am psychotic. The main issue is I tend to say some weird stuff to people, and then occassionally I will get paranoid like the thinking people are breaking into my house stuff.

I think I am quite possibly schizotypal and bipolar with psychotic features, but with those two put together maybe that makes schizoaffective?

I think there is a fine line that can be crossed, and then in severe cases completely passed between the two. In severe bouts of psychosis, I have not actively imagined anything, everything just seems to come out me just as if I was out in the world. Yes my brain must be processing it all, but in reality that is also how we experience the world at large. Imagination is actively thinking about something, and then moving with that thought into plausible directions. psychosis is often much more disorganized, it isn't something you can think about and then your mind goes there. In psychosis I would say your mind takes you places whether you want to go there or not. On the other hand some psychosis can seem a lot like imagination. You can still obviously imagine things if you are experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia. Perhaps the two can even overlap, and distinguishing between which is which becomes more difficult in such a situation. I don't think my evaluation of psychosis is any hard rule though, just personal insight on my own experiences with it, or what I have gathered from others who have experienced it. There are many symptoms of psychosis too, and they can manifest in a wide variety of ways. I would say though, imagination is something that for the most part you consciously direct, whereas psychosis is not something that you can always direct. Furthermore even if you are directing imagination, if you are also experiencing psychosis, perhaps it is significantly affecting how you are imagining.

Another good point, during psychosis you are not imaginating anything, it just comes... even if you don't want it (kinda intrusive) but you see it, hear it or believe it as real (not like obsessions).

It's hard for me to say to what extent the imaginings during psychosis are consciously directed, because I don't really feel that even my ordinary thoughts are entirely intentional. Thoughts just come and go. It's like reading. Yes, I make the decision to read, but really my mind is processing the words automatically, I just decide to keep my eyes moving along them. So it seems reading is basically out of our control, if psychosis is.

In psychosis there's ideas that form somewhat automatically, but the reason they are not turned off if it seems possible to do so, is that there is more reason (to the psychotic person) to keep them going than to stop them. They feel important (dopamine can give the impression that something is important). To me, the thoughts are not distressing, the distressing part is what it means if the thoughts are true.

I feel like psychosis is just what a certain temperament of person looks like when they're under stress. It seems like, from my experience, that surely most people would go through similar experiences, it's just other people do it in a more "normal" way. But, get a bunch of schizophrenics together, and they'll seem pretty normal to each other.

Well, it's settled: schizophrenia is a case of pathological imagination.

Basically, a person imagines things and treats them as though they were real, orienting their behaviour around them.

Anti-psychotics are supposed to function by suppressing thoughts such as fantasy, so that the person sees what the world is like without imagination, however ultimately being low in imagination is highly distressing.

So "break from reality", which is a highly unintuitive notion to me, really corresponds to "lost in fantasy".

The thing is though, that a lot of things in life are just imagined and treated as real, such as time. We never experience time to know it's real, we just imagine it and orient our behaviour around it. So we're all a little psychotic all the time, but not full-blown, which is where the imagination runs wild.

Glad I finally have a concise explanation of what psychosis is.