Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Is that psychotic?

So... I've been having this issue going through my head for the last couple weeks... When interviewing a patient that has audible hallucinations (aka, hears voices) one of the questions that some of the psychiatrists ask is if the patient hears God talk to them. Now, is that necessairly a psychotic thing? I mean, I recognize that people do hear voices that are not there. But, if someone hears God talk to them, is that psychotic? I've never actually heard God audibly talk to me. But I know a few people that say they have audibly heard God's voice once or twice. And it is Biblical that God does audibly talk to people sometimes. So, are these questions actually for diagnosis? Or are they somehow aimed at making Christians sound crazy? I just, I don't want to minimize psychotic symptoms... but what if these people aren't psychotic and God really does audibly talk to them. And if sometime it is psychotic, and sometimes it really is God, how do you distinguish the difference? I don't know... that's what I've been thinking about lately.

2 comments:

Heather Anne Hogan said...

That is an excellent question. Does it discourage you?

aleathea said...

It discourages me from going into psych... but not medicine as a whole. At least inpatient psych. I can make judgements on my patients as I see fit instead of just having to listen to the judgements of others. And I pray I'm able to distinguish reality from psychosis when it comes to such things.