Can Prolonged Stress lead to Psychosis?

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I've been doing a lot of research on my GAD lately as it's been affecting my daily life. I have some questions about coinciding disorders and was curious if anybody had any input, as I haven't found much research online.

Is it possible that prolonged, untreated anxiety can lead to psychosis? Over the past couple weeks, I've been experiencing some rather uncomfortable, disturbing thoughts and feelings that I'd rather not go into detail on. But to put it straight, my perception of reality as I used to view it is slowly dwindling, and I fear my untreated anxiety is the cause. I can no longer sleep without being haunted every night with stressful thoughts, nightmares, and uncomfortable dream scenarios that end up ruining my day later. My perception of my body has gone alien, and I constantly feel like I'm not the right person anymore. Not sure how else to explain it.

Along with my previous question, is it possible that other mental illnesses can develop due to prolonged stress? I ask because five years ago I never had paranoia, and now I experience severe paranoia every day, increasing in volume. And I'm talking the super irrational, delusional stuff that sends me into panic attacks and mood swings.

My wife has decided it's time to start saving our funds to take me back into a psych to be re-evaluated. She's worried about my health, as it's affecting me physically to the point where I've developed chronic chest pain and body aches.

as far as I understand it, emotional stress can trigger more or less any latent/dormant mental disorder.

I fell into a psychotic depression when I was really anxious for a while & under some stress.

Extended durations of perceived extreme injustices against oneself can certainly drive one into psychosis.

Looks like my reason to quicken getting a new doctor just cemented then. @.e The wife has decided that our funds, instead of going to the vacation planned for us, is going toward getting a doc who can treat me. Disappointing, but necessary.

Lack of quality sleep is definitely known cause of psychosis. And that combined with stress can snowball making it worse. Hope you find a good person to treat your issues.

You only need a hypno-therapist for this type of condition.

I've actually never considered hypno-therapy, but I have heard of people who have undergone it and had success with it. My issue is very deeply ingrained. I'm even afraid to call doctor's offices or go to the hospital if I feel I'm in crisis. Only because they tend to scare me.

Not to frighten you, but schizophrenia often makes its first appearance during early adulthood.

I agree. In my case it was the stress.

[quote=YippySkippy]Not to frighten you, but schizophrenia often makes its first appearance during early adulthood.[/quote]
I was moderately concerned about this, as I'm experiencing a lot of similar symptoms. (Delirium, gibberish and disorganized speech, paranoia...) Part of me thinks it's just my anxiety out of control, but another part of me has this foreboding dread that something else is on the horizon. Although it confuses me because my family has no connection to schizophrenic behavior. Well... my second cousin is a bit bizarre and meets a few of the symptoms, but she's the only other one I know of. Everyone else is fairly stable.

Definitely can. If there's already an underlying disorder, that is, which GAD is. From what I understand of GAD, it can cause psychotic-like symptoms, but that does not necessarily mean psychosis. They call this "psychotic features". If it's truly a psychotic episode, then they probably will look at other possible dx's. The fact that you are aware of your symptoms is generally a positive sign though.