adjective / noun
psychotic
sigh-KAH-tik/saɪˈkɑːtɪk/
Experiencing or relating to a mental condition involving loss of contact with reality.
A clinician calmly supports a patient who is experiencing psychotic symptoms.
Etymology
Psychosis named a disturbed mental condition; psychotic was formed as its adjective on the pattern of neurotic. In this sense, it describes a disorder marked by loss of contact with reality.
In context
Cannabis did not cause her psychotic illness, but medical experts said it made her symptoms much worse, increasing confusion, paranoia, and loss of contact with reality.
More examples
- During a psychotic episode, someone may hear voices that others cannot hear.
- Treatment helps her manage her psychotic symptoms.
- Calling someone a psychotic can reduce that person to a diagnosis.
Forms
psychotic · psychotics
psychosis noun — A mental condition involving lost contact with reality.
Similar words
- delusional
- Describes fixed false beliefs rather than all psychotic symptoms.
- hallucinatory
- Specifically concerns perceptions without an external source, not all psychosis.