Essay On Stimulant Psychosis

Stimulant psychosis is a temporary psychiatric condition that develops among some individuals who use and/or abuse stimulant medications or illicit stimulatory drugs. Two of the most common drugs may induce stimulant psychosis are amphetamines and cocaine. Psychosis is usually defined as a loss of contact with reality and is typically considered a common symptom of a severe mental illness like schizophrenia. Individuals encountering psychosis may end up dealing with auditory and/or visual hallucinations, paranoid delusions, euphoria, grandiosity, confusion, increased aggression and even catatonia. While schizophrenia is essentially a root cause of psychosis, sometimes psychosis can be induced by stimulant medications.

The most obvious cause of stimulant psychosis is using a potent stimulant, for the most part at a high dose. Cocaine users are 50% more likely to experience a psychotic delusion, that they are being persecuted, watched and or that they have parasites or bugs in their skin. Smoking a high dose of cocaine could produce psychosis within minutes. (American Psychiatric …show more content…
A high dosage will overwhelm the nervous system, and their brain cannot function with abnormally high dopamine. Those that take stimulants for long periods of time may develop psychotic symptoms characterized by hallucinations and delusions. Stress floods and may shock the nervous system with cortisol, adrenalin, and other stimulatory chemicals to increase arousal which can initiate an episode. One who abuses stimulants usually goes days without adequate sleep which can also increase the probability of an occurrence. Abundant doses of amphetamines in a person with sleep deprivation is a recipe for some sort of aberration. Individuals who suffer from schizophrenia, even anxiety or depression are more likely to experience hysteria as a result of their underlying