Introduction

Welcome

There are times when unusual experiences can be troubling, distressing or overwhelming. It can be helpful at these times to be aware of the things that help and the avenues of support available.

This course will look at things people can do if they’re struggling. Part of this is considering unusual experiences through a diagnostic framework, for this reason parts of the course will refer to these experiences using the term psychosis. If a person is highly distressed and wants or needs additional support from mental health services it can be helpful to be aware of diagnoses and the types of treatments that are available. It is worth noting that not everyone who has unusual experiences will have a diagnosis or want or need treatment, as such the course starts by looking at self-help ideas.

We would recommend, before starting this course, to complete the other courses in this series shown below which you can access via the main course page.

• To learn more about types of unusual experiences go to the Exploring Unusual Experiences course.
• To learn more about perspectives on unusual experiences go to the Explaining Unusual Experiences course.

Aims

We hope by the end of this course you will have:

• Knowledge of self-help strategies for unusual experiences.
• Knowledge of the diagnoses associated with psychosis.
• Considered how psychosis develops and progresses through models of stages.
• Understanding of some of the treatment options for psychosis.