Piece of Mind: Mental Health & Psychiatry · Piece of Mind: Mental Health & Psychiatry

Episode 17: What it's really like to experience psychosis

·59 min·3 clips

Rebecca says she wrote a list of things she thought she had done, and her dad went through every item.

Malia Akbar leads the discussion as part of the peer support group at Headroom Cardiff, which supports young people in Wales who have experienced psychosis. Becca and Hezron join her. Both guests have experienced and recovered from psychosis, and the conversation gives them space to explain what it felt like to lose certainty, how memory and perception could shift, and why the experience was difficult to talk about while it was happening. Catherine Hopkins opens the show. She places the podcast inside the National Centre for Mental Health, explains that the centre is made up of Cardiff, Bangor, and Swansea universities, and frames the series as a place for research, guest voices, and stigma reduction. The episode defines psychosis plainly. It is described as a loss of touch with reality, where someone may believe an event happened when it did not, or need another person to help check whether a story, a memory, or a fear is grounded in what actually took place. That matters in families. The conversation shows how helpful it can be when relatives repeat back facts gently and stay close enough to offer reassurance when someone is unwell. Recovery takes time. Becca describes a build-up, an acute stage, and the slow move into recovery, then talks about still feeling fear in public, crying without warning, and missing the structure of hospital because home felt different again. Routine can steady things. The episode notes that the rhythm of care, meals, and regular contact can be oddly reassuring, even when the hospital itself is not where anyone wants to stay for long. Medication comes up too. The discussion does not treat treatment as simple or neat, and it acknowledges that medicines can be hard to manage even when they are trying to reverse the effects of psychosis. Support is practical. Hugs, reassurance, being physically present, and having someone nearby who can help repeat the same facts all come up as part of what helped when memory and confidence were both fragile. The close is direct. Listeners who may be experiencing psychosis are told to contact their GP practice first, and anyone facing imminent danger of harm is told to call 999 and ask for an ambulance.

As heard by us

A calm, lived-in account of psychosis that keeps recovery, family support, and stigma in view.

This episode treats psychosis as lived experience, not as a case study. Malia Akbar talks with Becca and Hezron about memory gaps, family members helping check what is real, and recovery that can still include fear, mood swings, and a pull toward hospital routine.

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Why you'd press play

You hear psychosis explained by people who have lived through it.

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