What are the warning signs of psychosis?
Nov 15, 2025
Source: Cainiu Health
Dr. Zhang Baohua
Introduction
Prodromal symptoms of psychosis are often manifested as abnormal changes in perception, emotions, behavior, and other areas. These typically include perceptual disturbances, severe mood fluctuations, bizarre behaviors, social withdrawal and avoidance, and cognitive decline. Perceptual disturbances: heightened sensitivity or reduced responsiveness to sounds, light, and smells; for example, hearing faint noises that do not exist or perceiving colors of objects as abnormal.
Early signs of mental illness often manifest as abnormal changes in perception, emotions, behavior, and other areas. These typically include disturbances in sensory perception, severe mood swings, unusual behaviors, social withdrawal, and cognitive decline. A detailed analysis is as follows:
1. Sensory disturbances: Increased sensitivity or reduced responsiveness to sounds, light, smells, etc. For example, hearing faint noises that do not exist, perceiving colors abnormally, or diminished awareness of pain or temperature. Some individuals may experience brief hallucinations, such as occasionally seeing indistinct human figures that are not actually present.
2. Severe mood swings: Emotional instability characterized by sudden outbursts of anger or anxiety without apparent cause, prolonged periods of sadness or emotional detachment, loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities, and emotional responses inappropriate to the situation—such as expressing sorrow in cheerful settings—and difficulty being comforted by others.
3. Bizarre behavior: Repetitive actions without clear purpose, such as constantly adjusting clothes or pacing back and forth; or behaviors markedly inconsistent with daily routines, such as suddenly neglecting personal hygiene or reversing sleep patterns. Some individuals may display impulsive acts like randomly discarding belongings or destroying property without reason.
4. Social withdrawal and avoidance: Actively reducing contact with family and friends, refusing to participate in social activities, deliberately avoiding places formerly frequented, and reluctance to communicate. Even when approached by others, they respond with indifference or silence, gradually detaching from normal social circles.
5. Cognitive decline: Difficulty concentrating, inability to focus on simple tasks or studies, memory impairment with frequent forgetting of recent events, slowed and disorganized thinking, unclear logic when expressing ideas, and trouble keeping up with conversational flow.
If these early warning signs appear in oneself or others and persist over time, it is important to seek timely evaluation at a professional medical facility to prevent delays in intervention due to neglect.
