I feel a connection to most objects as someone with delusional companion syndrome and I'd like to talk about it more (and hear about it more from others with dcs!) I often hear voices from primarily stuffed animals (though I perceive sentience from almost all objects), currently my primary companions that talk to me are the 25th anniversary zombie build a bear (Otis) and the 2015 glow in the dark werewolf build a bear (Riley). Both of them express unique interests and identities that I have no control over and they frequently comment on things I do and try to participate in my activities (such as going outside, watching tv, etc)

I've had dcs for as long as I can remember, and although a lot of the companions from it are bad I'd love to hear about more positive companions that bring joy to their beholders instead of being distressing.. I personally enjoy the company of my companions Otis and Riley even if I sometimes upset them (or vice versa) and I think the joyful moments of dcs can really outweigh the negative objects one might come across.

With more people participating in spreading the word about CNP than ever. With the deadline edging ever closer to the day where we become an official non profit. I can't help but get excited that the dream is finally being realized. There have been many road blocks along the way. There have been some individuals that couldn't stick out the wait. They will all be welcome back into the fold. This is a huge undertaking and people becoming overwhelmed is to be expected. 

Rest assured, there is a plan in action and I have no doubt that we can see it through.April is just around the corner. When it arrives, the psych ward world will never be the same!

It's important for psychotic people to have a personal support system. It can consist of family. It can be made up of friends and acquaintances. They're all individuals that are vital to one's stability. Unfortunately, psychotic symptoms can make these relationships difficult if not impossible to maintain.

It's a catch 22. The very thing psychotic people need support for is the very thing that can run supportive people away. It often happens as a direct result of persecutory delusions. The people in the support system may end up getting accused of mistreating the psychotic person so frequently that they simply can't withstand the endless false accusations.

The sad and unfortunate truth that psychotic individuals have to accept is that they can't fault their supportive friends from either wanting space or having the desire to cut ties permanently. Regardless of whether or not the psychotic person is at fault, they have to accept that they weren't being very friendly toward their personal support system.

The only option psychotic people have is to give people their desired space and hope for the best.

I feel like there should be a lot more work done with how psychosis is presented in the mental health field. I think many professionals and those who are studying mental health (whether to be a therapist, psychiatrist, or some other similar profession) simply don't know how to deal with psychotic patients, because what they're shown of it in their years of studying often just isn't realistic to many actual psychotic people and/or isn't enough to encompass the diverse amount of psychosis they might see in psychotic patients. Becoming a mental health professional can take years of studying, so many days of training, and countless hoops to jump through to be considered "ready"; and yet, even with all of this, many are still completely unprepared to deal with a psychotic patient who doesn't fit a very specific, very predictable narrative.
I think it would be a lot more beneficial to the field as a whole if professionals had to take more time to study the specifics of psychosis and how to handle a variety of different psychotic scenarios or patients, as psychosis is a fairly common experience in a wide range of disorders (and even present in otherwise perfectly healthy people) and yet it seems to be very overlooked and ignored.

Does anyone else feel like psychosis completely warps their perception of time? Whenever medicated I feel like time moves normally, but when not medicated I feel like hours can go by in what feels like seconds one day and a few hours can feel like weeks the next day.

 It seems pretty standard to talk about psychosis related to external people or things, but I almost never see much talk about delusions or psychosis which affects the perception of oneself. I'm sure it must be more common than it is talked about, especially in the case of (fairly common) grandiose delusions. I wonder why it isn't as talked about, though, even in the psychosis community itself; I wonder if it's because delusions related to other people often seem more 'harmful' or externally destructive, because it could damage relationships with others or cause conflict, while identity delusions are only really harmful or conflicting for oneself.

Does anyone else with a physical disability ever have doctors blame their physical illness symptoms on their psychosis? I feel like doctors sometimes don't even look for any physical issues if you have a psychosis diagnosis, they just assume your physical issues must be a psychological problem instead. I'd frequently complain about unusual intestinal symptoms and pain issues and have it blamed on 'hallucinations', without the doctors even looking into any potential physical conditions/issues that could be causing it instead (I don't even have medically recognized hallucinations). I've also heard of this happening to others, but I wonder how common it is to be medically gaslit when having a psychotic disorder diagnosis.

Does anyone else ever feel like most mental health professionals simply don't know how to handle delusions at all when actually presented with them? I feel in my experience, most of them just don't know how to actually handle a patient actively having delusions outside of medication, even if on paper they'd know how to do this in their training.
They often seem to particularly struggle with staying neutral on the subject, frequently I've dealt with professionals that either challenge your delusions or validate them in ways that just worsens the psychosis. I've often been told my religious delusions are actually real either partially or fully, or had professionals act like my persecutory delusions are so outlandish and unrealistic that there's no way I could actually believe that.

Psychiatrists can't treat you properly if they don't know what afflicts you. They rely on you to verbalize all of your symptoms unless you're lucky enough to be witnessed in the midst of an episode. Barring that rare occurrence, this is where certain delusions can prevent treatment.

Patients can have a delusional narrative in their heads that cause them to hold back the truth from their doctor. Maybe, for example, the entities that stalk the patient have threatened to kill them should they reveal the truth of what is going on in their life. What's worse is if the entities require the patient to lie about their symptoms entirely.

The doctor has no way of knowing the difference. As far as they are concerned, they are treating the patient for the symptoms conveyed during their session. Yet they were all lies. Lies the patient was required to tell.

If "the lying delusion" is persistent and powerful enough, the patient can go years being improperly treated by their doctors. Indeed, the very sickness the patient is being treated for is the very obstacle that prevents the treatment from treating. Leaving both the doctor and the patient oblivious all the while.

It's both scary and sad to consider. Yet it is frighteningly common.