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The human "psyche", "personality", "soul", or the thing within us that makes us function, is vulnerable, and it is fragile. This is apart from psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar, that are believed to have physical, neurobiological causes. 

In schizophrenia, there is a massive cognitive malfunction that may be caused by too much neurotransmitter in an area of the brain. Psychiatrists usually believe the appropriate solution is to medicate. Bipolar also has medical, physical causes in the brain. Depression in some instances is medically caused, and milder depression can be caused by too many difficulties in life. 

However, when traumatic events occur, it can cause psychological damage to an otherwise "normal" person. Or, when trauma happens to a person who already has a mental illness, it only compounds the patient's problems. 

The abovementioned damage can make itself apparent in numerous ways. A person can lose faculties, such as the ability to think clearly. Or, if they are a meditation practitioner, their meditative attainment could be lost. Even if someone is not a meditation practitioner, their personality could regress. A person could become overly aggressive, on the other hand, they could lose their courage, or they could go into states of denial concerning difficult events that should be faced. In my past, when I was traumatized by events, it triggered relapses of my psychosis. In my case, going into non- medication compliance was a factor. Yet, a traumatic event was the instigator. 

I experienced several exceedingly difficult events in recent years. I did not go into a full relapse as a result, because I remained medication compliant, and I hung onto a few shreds of sanity. Although I've been medication compliant, I had substantial paranoid symptoms and excessive anger. Had I become noncompliant following recent trauma, which is how I reacted to trauma in earlier years, I would have had a complete relapse as a result. 

Excessive environmental stresses that go beyond what a stabilized mentally ill man or woman can handle can cause psychological damage. Then, when behavior in impacted because of sustaining the damage, it only makes life circumstances that much worse. Someone could have inappropriate behavior due to sustaining mental damage from the environment. Then they are facing people's blame, for something they didn't initially create. 

Many people do not acknowledge that a person is not actually a machine. A machine, if you plug it into the wall and/or put gasoline in its tank, and press the on button, will usually work. You may have to add oil or replace batteries, or you may have to replace spark plugs. Human beings are not like that. The human nervous system is designed to absorb a massive amount of information from the environment. If the environment is toxic, it poisons a person's mind. 

Let's look at the role of inadvertent autosuggestion. When we go through something difficult, it may bring short-term relief to make declarations to oneself within one's mind. This could be in the form of cursing someone, blaming someone, or being mad at the world. Or it could take other forms. It could be in the form of generalizations that will introduce more difficulty later in life. When these internal statements are made, it may alleviate some of the pain of the situation, temporarily. Later it comes back to bite you in the behind. You have accidentally programmed yourself to hate a person or hate the world. Or you have programmed yourself to expect something unreasonable. 

This is one of many forms of damage to oneself. It is a normal response to overwhelming environments. This is "software" damage. The brain structure probably remains intact. When we compare this with clinical mental illness, there is a "hardware" problem, in which the apparent solution is to medicate.  

Huge stressors over a long period of time, such as years, could affect someone's brain structure. If someone is incarcerated for years, which is one of the worst possible environments in which a person can live, it causes untold damage to that individual, and they may become incapable of living in society. Others can pull out of it. But environments affect people. And that is inescapable.  

Mental damage exists in many forms and from many types of environments. I become adversely affected by medical treatment environments, in which I am in waiting rooms around a lot of sick people. I am also affected by mental health environments, in which I'm presumed to be mentally intrinsically inferior, and in which counselors are trained to verbally gain an advantage. 

In places of worship and in places of meditation practice, there is a controlled environment. Surroundings are kept peaceful. Quiet is not the exception, it is the rule, other than wonderful chanting or singing. People are courteous. This is great for people to experience, when in their daily lives they may have to face chaos. 

The internal mind is part of a person's environment. The inside of the mind comprises a large portion of a person's experience. A psychotic person could be in peaceful surroundings but could have a loud symptomatic mind. Yet, if the external environment is peaceful for a long enough time, a sick mind responds to that in a good way and may begin to get well. Medication plus chaos doesn't equal a person getting well. 

There are two things I have needed in my past, to recover from a psychotic episode. The first is to be put back on medication, and the second is to experience peacefulness.