Psychosis

Psychosis is a serious mental disorder. An individual is called psychotic when his behaviour, thinking and emotions give an impression that he has lost touch with reality. Some people are susceptible to mental disorders such as psychosis, especially when faced with aggravating factors such as grief, fear and excessive worry. When mental unrest becomes severe, a person ceases to be able to function normally in everyday life. This leads to nervous exhaustion and breakdown or serious disorders such as insanity, delusion, psychosis and schizophrenia.

Both neurological as well as psychological causes can be there behind psychosis. Neurological causes include ailments like stroke, epilepsy, brain tumour, Parkinson’s disease etc while mental pressures and tensions serve as psychological causes of psychosis.

In Ayurveda, imbalance in psychich energies (Sattva, Raja, Tama) supported by imbalance of physical energies (vata, pitta, kapha) are believed to cause various mental disorders. This applies to psychosis as well. Lack of mental discipline, indulgence in negative thoughts and activities and negative emotions like hatred, anger etc are known to cause imbalance in psychich enegies (namely sattva, raja and tama) which in turn leads to diseases like psychosis.

Charak has said that the vitiated doshas evade the brains of the persons whose mind is under rajasik and tamasik influences and block channels of mind and nerve impulses. Because of this, the functioning of mind and intelligence gets affected. The person fails to differentiate between, what is real and what is virtual and thus becomes victim of psychich disorders. Psychosis is one such disorder. While treating such problems, specific herbal formulae are prescribed in Ayurveda, which detoxify and clear any blockages that may be present in the subtle channels of the brain as well as rejuvenating and strengthening the mind.

• Quite a few psychosis patients give history of bad life style, improper food habits, lack of discipline in personal life and unsocial attitude. So maintaining good life style, food habits and discipline acquire lot of significance when it comes to psychiatric disordes like psychosis.
• Getting up early enough in morning, avoiding to keep awake at night, doing physical exercises, playing games etc do good to mind.
• Eating fresh food, vegetables, seasonal fruits and avoiding non-veg, fast food and liquor, maintaining regular food timings, taking meals with peacefull mind and avoiding hot discussions, watching TV during meals are advantageous for mental health.
• Making prayers, reading spiritual texts, reading good literature, listening to thought provoking lectures, hearing mantras and music also help to improve mental strength.
• Yoga, Pranayam & Meditation are well known for helping in mental problems.
• Social support helps in combatting stress and keeping mental strenght in challenging situations.