Students Experiencing Psychosis
These students have difficulty distinguishing aspects of reality. They may frighten or alarm others because of their behaviors. However, they are not generally dangerous and tend to frighten and overwhelm themselves by their own experience. In broad terms, their symptoms may include:
- Illogical, confused or irrational thinking
- Incongruent or inappropriate emotional responses
- Bizarre, disturbing behavior
- Seeing, hearing or feeling things that others do not see, hear or feel (hallucinations)
- Elaborate reports of being persecuted, of being loved by another person, or of having a great but unrecognized talent or discovery (delusions)
Do:
- Respond with warmth and kindness.
- Ask students for permission to remove extra stimulation from the environment (e.g., turn off the radio, step outside of a noisy classroom).
- Acknowledge your concerns, state that you can see that the student needs help.
- Acknowledge the student’s feelings or fears without supporting the misperceptions (e.g., “I understand you are experiencing someone following you, but I don’t see anyone and I believe you are safe.”).
- Focus on the “here and now.” Ask for specific information about the student’s awareness of time, place, and destination.
- Speak to their healthy side. It is OK to laugh and joke when appropriate.
Don’t:
- Argue to try to convince them of the irrationality of their thinking. This commonly produces a stronger defense of their false perceptions.
- Play along (e.g., “Oh yeah, I hear the voices, too.”).
- Encourage further discussion of the delusional processes.
- Demand, command, or order.
- Expect customary emotional responses.
- Minimize the student’s feeling (e.g., “Don’t worry.” “Everything will be better tomorrow.”)
- Bombard the student with “fix it” solutions or advice.
- Chastise the student for incomplete work.
- Be afraid to ask the student whether they are suicidal.