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Psychosis, in the mind of the person suffering from it, has its own defense mechanisms, much as there are cancers or communicable diseases that have built-in defenses. The psychotic disorder grabs hold of the ego of the individual, and causes the person to defend his or her delusional beliefs with the same defenses that would ordinarily work in our favor, defenses that ordinarily would give us fortitude and persistence.  

Part of the difficulty of getting a psychotic person into treatment is that the illness makes us defend our false ideas and resist facing the truth. Thus, the psychotic illness is backed up by the misappropriated emotional system of the sufferer. The illness has a strategy of hitting the reward button in the brain for letting symptoms proliferate, while hitting the pain button in the brain when truth begins to encroach.  

Delusions can also reinforce themselves by hitting the pain and/or fear button in the brain in general. Rather than the brain rejecting a thought because it is painful, the pain attached to a false thought can open up the brain's gating. In this case, the person's ego is not attached emotionally to the delusion. Because of this, someone suffering from what I will call a "negative delusion" is more likely to cooperate when told it is a symptom.  

Having an understanding of all of the above is one of the reasons I have been able to consistently remain in treatment for the past nineteen years. When a psychotic person is starting to get well, he or she begins to develop compensatory mechanisms. Developing and engaging the "higher self" has a major role in this.  

Medication doesn't necessarily shut down the "higher functions." In my case, medication has turned down the volume on the symptoms, and this has allowed the higher functions to re-emerge, when before they were drowned out by overwhelming symptoms. Once the higher functions become available, they can be used to help combat the illness.  

Gaining insight into what led to being ill in one's past, and learning not to repeat the same mistakes, is one example of engaging higher functions. Learning to "accept the unacceptable" which is the fact of an illness that isn't going away and that needs to be dealt with, is another example. Learning in general to acknowledge uncomfortable realities, is a third example of engaging the higher self. There are numerous ways that the higher functions can help in the fight against psychosis.  

When someone confronts us with some things we would rather not hear, they could be a bully, or, on the other hand, they could be trying to help us. If the message is delivered bluntly with no consideration of our feelings, perhaps we could filter out that bluntness and consider the message the person is giving us. Learning to hear someone's message without blocking it due to the manner in which it is delivered, is a good thing.  

Getting well and staying well, for someone who suffers from delusions, is a battle that never ends. One must be vigilant for delusions and other symptoms, and this has to be ongoing.