What is psychosis in veterans?

Psychosis in veterans and the general population is a mental illness characterized by the inability to tell between what is real and what isn’t. It is, literally, losing touch with reality. Psychoses often involve hallucinations  and delusions which the patient takes for truth. Because their perception of reality is so different from everyone else’s, psychotics tend to act differently from others as well. They cannot be persuaded that their perceptions are false, and this increases their alienation from the people around them. If left untreated, psychosis can prevent a veteran from being able to function in society. There are several forms of psychosis, but they generally fall into one of two categories: cognitive, in which the disorder mainly presents in thought, perception, and speech; and affective, in which the disorder mainly presents in mood, liveliness, and drive. The most commonly-known form of psychosis is schizophrenia.