Find a therapist to treat psychosis

People with psychosis are trying to communicate with us as providers.

We aren't always able to listen.

Our own anxiety prevents us from staying curious.

“If you don’t take the injection, your parents aren’t going to let you come home after what happened this week. You’ll be on the street,” I say to the young disheveled man in front of me.

“If you don’t accept me as Jesus, your one true savior, you will burn in hell for all time.” Ben is looking at me with what seems to be the same concern I am feeling for him.

“But Ben, what’s the harm in just taking it? I mean, what if I’m right, and you’re wrong? The stakes are so high for you.” I shudder, thinking of what will happen to this confused, gentle, psychotic kid if he truly becomes homeless on the streets of Philadelphia.

“But if I’m right, and you’re wrong, you burn forever. The stakes are higher for you than they are for me.”

Alone in the room with my patient, our realities clash. My version of Ben as a mentally ill young man on the precipice of homelessness is no more defendable to him than his version of himself as the Messiah is to me.

I’m trying to help Ben, right? I’m worried about him. I’m offering him a treatment that will make him see that he is not Jesus so that he is less erratic at home, so he can stay there, maybe get a job, maybe start dating, having friends. I want the best for him, don’t I?

I’m not listening to........

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