89 88 Poor Contact with Reality It can be particularly challenging and difficult when dealing with students who seem to be out of touch with reality. They may exhibit thoughts, emotions or behaviors that are bizarre and incompatible with objective facts or reality. They often manifest symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, incoherent speech, emotional disturbance and inappropriate affect. The poor contact with reality, referred as psychosis or psychotic condition, could be indicative of a severe mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, or could be caused by acute alcohol or substance abuse. As the symptoms of hallucinations and delusions can be unusual and elicit confusion and fear in people who interact with the concerned students, it is especially important to remain calm and understand that, in most instances, these students are not dangerous. Quite the contrary, they feel frightened and lost as the delusional beliefs and hallucinatory experiences can be very real and overwhelming to them. Also, as the symptoms can be severe, these students are vulnerable to experiencing a whole host of negative effects, including difficulties forming relationships with others, inability to maintain routines of life, severe emotional and behavioral disturbances or suicide attempts. It is essential to make a referral to or consult the Counseling and Wellness Center when encountering a student who displays these symptoms. Chapter Five: Supporting Students with Mental Health Difficulties Chapter Five: Supporting Students with Mental Health Difficulties “Students may exhibit thoughts, emotions or behaviors that are bizarre and incompatible with objective facts or reality.” e.g. e.g. SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS • Odd or peculiar beliefs that involve a misinterpretation of reality • Being suspicious or feeling uneasy with others • Feeling confused or difficulties telling reality from fantasy • Hearing voices that other people do not hear or seeing things that are not there • Talking or laughing to oneself • Disorganized speech or behaviors loose associations among the topics in their speech, incoherent language or writing • Failure to exhibit any emotion or displaying inappropriate emotion laughing out loud in class when talking about serious topics • Socially withdrawn • Decline in self-care or personal hygiene • Drop in academic performance
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