While mainstream psychiatry tends to view psychosis as an enduring and chronic condition, there is growing interest in the possibility of recovery from psychosis. A phenomenological research method was utilized in interviewing 17 individuals who all selfidentified as being in recovery from psychosis. The research question was, "What was the lived experience of having a psychosis episode and now being in recovery?" Through thematic analysis, the authors found four major themes and seven subthemes that described the experience of recovery from psychosis. The four major themes included: (i) prepsychosis childhood traumatic experiences, (ii) the descent into psychosis, (iii) paths to recovery, and (iv) post-recovery challenges. These findings suggest both some potential pathways and barriers toward recovery and transformation from psychosis.

Conventional views towards psychosis typically portray psychosis as an illness of the brain with a generally poor prognosis, even if treated with antipsychotics. However, there is a growing body of literature which presents an alternative view of psychosis, whereby people are not only able to recover from psychosis, but can also experience transformative and/or spiritual growth through psychosis. To learn more about the transformative potential of psychotic experiences, a phenomenological approach was used to research the experiences of six people who self-identified as having benefited from psychosis in a spiritual and/or transformative manner. Keys themes emerging from interviews with these six individuals included in the pre-psychosis phase "childhood foreshadowing" and "negative childhood events," and in the psychosis phase, "sudden psychosis," "psychic/intuitiveness and unusual visual experiences," "comprised day-to-day functioning," "experiences of dying," and "communication with god." Four themes made up the transformation of psychosis phase including "detachment and mindfulness," "accepting the dissolution of time into now," "embracing a spiritual pathway,"" and "re-alignment of career path." Overall, the results suggest that at least for some individuals, the experience of psychosis can be an important catalyst for spiritual and personally transformative growth.

This article describes the results of a qualitative study with 22 participants who were originally interviewed about their experiences of the potentially transformational nature of psychotic episodes. During the interviews, however, the participants spontaneously described their experiences with taking psychotropic medications (particularly antipsychotics). Participants fell into three general groups in terms of their attitudes towards psychotropic medications: (a) those who complied with psychotropic use but felt that such use had considerable limitations, (b) those who felt that psychotropics should be used only in crisis situations, and (c) those who felt that the use of psychotropics was never justified. Overall, the majority of participants had very negative experiences with psychotropic medications, and this article presents a number of themes describing how participants felt that psychotropic medications caused them harm physically, cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually-and interfered with their eventual recovery from psychosis. Finally, this article presents themes that summarize how participants felt that mental health professionals contributed to their negative views toward taking psychotropic drugs.