20 Examples of Neurosis and Psychosis

Both neurosis and psychosis are terms of use in psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis, that is, in the different disciplines that study the human mind, to refer to certain mind States considered as pathological or diseases. However, each has its own very particular application and history.

By neurosis It is understood in the aforementioned areas a set of mental disorders characterized by being maladaptive and by anxiety. For instance: depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders. The term was coined at the end of the 18th century, but it acquired a meaning similar to the current one at the beginning of the 20th, thanks to the works in the area of ​​Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet, among others. Today it has been discarded as a clinical descriptor in favor of a set of clinical pictures, called disorders.

Instead, by psychosis these disciplines understand a mental state of loss of contact, or split in it, with the surrounding reality. This can mean hallucinations, delusions, personality changes, or periods of fragmentary thinking. For instance: schizophrenia, delusional disorder, brief psychotic disorder.

As a great variety of psychological, neuronal and even biological ailments can trigger a Psychotic attackIt is often compared to fever as a nonspecific indicator that something is wrong. These outbursts can be temporary and unrepeatable in the patient’s life, or chronic.

Examples of neurosis

1. Depressive disorders. They are depressive episodes, both mild, moderate or severe, in the presence or not of somatic, chronic or recurrent symptoms, such as dysthymia and cyclothymia.
2. Anxiety disorders. Conditions in which thought is unstoppable and carries with it feelings of anguish that feed back into the cycle. Such are phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder.
3. Dissociative disorders. Those in which the continuity of consciousness is interrupted, such as psychogenic fugues and amnesias, depersonalization disorder, possession and trance.
4. Somatoform disorders. Those related to the altered perception of the body or body health: hypochondria, dysmorphophobia, somatoform pain, somatization.
5. Sleep disorders. Insomnia, hypersomnia, night terrors, sleepwalking, among others.
6. Sexual disorders. These disorders, linked to sexual activity, are traditionally considered within the framework of two categories: dysfunctions (sexual aversion, anorgasmia, impotence, vaginismus, etc.) and paraphilias (exhibitionism, pedophilia, masochism, sadism, voyeurism, etc.) . This last category is under constant debate.
7. Impulse control disorders. Those in which the subject lacks restraint to certain behaviors, such as kleptomania, gambling, pyromania, trichotillomania.
8. Factitious disorders. Whose symptoms, physical or psychological, are self-inflicted by the patient, to receive the attention of medical personnel.
9. Adaptive disorders. Characteristic of an emotional response to a stressful condition throughout its first three months of onset, and in which the discomfort suffered greatly exceeds the motivations that trigger it.
10. Mood disorders. Those linked to the apparent lack of control of emotions and affectivities, such as bipolarity, certain depressive disorders or mania.

Examples of psychosis

1. Schizophrenia. This is the name given to the chronic suffering of a set of serious mental disorders, which prevent the normal functioning of the psyche, altering its perception of reality, its awareness of reality and promoting profound neuropsychological disorganization. It is a degenerative disease.
2. Schizophreniform disorder. Recognizable for having many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, but also for lasting between 1 and 6 months. Full recovery, unlike schizophrenia, is possible.
3. Schizoaffective disorder. Characterized by the chronic and frequent presence of episodes of mania, depression or bipolarity, accompanied by auditory hallucinations, paranoid delusions and significant social and occupational dysfunction. It involves a high suicide rate.
4. Delusional disorder. Known as paranoid psychosis, it is recognized by the appearance of non-bizarre delusions, often leading to auditory, olfactory, or tactile hallucinations associated with paranoid ideas. It is not usually accompanied by symptoms of schizophrenia or very noticeable hallucinations, but it does interfere with social functions through distorted perceptions of others and of oneself.
5. Shared psychotic disorder. It afflicts two or more individuals with a paranoid or delusional belief, in a kind of contagion. It is an extremely rare syndrome.
6. Brief psychotic disorder. It is considered a temporary outbreak of psychosis, motivated by uncertain conditions, such as sudden changes in the environment (migrants, victims of kidnapping) or pre-existing mental illnesses. It is more common in young people and appears very infrequently.
7. Catatonic syndrome or catatonia. Considered a subtype of schizophrenia, it is characterized by interrupting motor functions, plunging the patient into a more or less severe state of lethargy.
8. Schizoid personality Disorder. It afflicts less than 1% of the world’s population, with severe social isolation and restriction of emotional expression, that is, extreme coldness and disinterest in others.
9. Substance-Induced Psychotic Disorder. Such as hallucinogenic drugs, strong drugs, or severe poisonings.
10. Psychotic disorder due to medical illness. Typical of patients with brain tumors, CNS infections or other diseases that induce symptoms similar to psychosis.