I am often asked this question by my readers:
“How can you tell if someone has psychic abilities or a mental illness?”
It’s an important question because, from the outside, there can sometimes appear to be similarities.
A psychic might say, “I heard my spirit guide tell me something.”
Someone experiencing a mental health crisis might also say, “I heard a voice tell me something.”
Those two statements sound similar, but the experiences behind them can be very different.
After doing psychic readings professionally for more than 20 years, there are certain distinctions I can share.
Psychic Information Usually Doesn’t Take Over Your Mind
When I connect with my guides or receive psychic information, I’m still me.
I know where I am. I know what I’m doing. I can evaluate what I’m receiving. And, importantly, I can turn my attention elsewhere.
Psychic information may come unexpectedly sometimes, but it doesn’t generally hijack my thinking.
Some mental health conditions, on the other hand, can involve intrusive thoughts, voices, beliefs, or perceptions that are extremely difficult for the person to control or disengage from.
That loss of control is an important distinction.
Psychic Information Isn’t Usually Threatening
In my experience, genuine guidance is never cruel.
My guides don’t tell me I’m worthless. They don’t tell me everyone is plotting against me. They don’t command me to hurt myself or someone else. They don’t frighten me into obeying them.
The information I associate with higher spiritual guidance tends to be supportive, compassionate, calm, and constructive.
That doesn’t mean guides only tell us what we want to hear. Sometimes the information can be challenging. Sometimes we’re encouraged to change direction, take responsibility, leave an unhealthy situation, or confront something we’ve been avoiding.
But there’s a difference between:
“This situation isn’t serving you anymore. It’s time to make a change.”
and
“You’re horrible. Everyone hates you. You should hurt yourself.”
I would never consider the second type of message something a person should interpret as coming from a spirit guide.
If you’re hearing voices telling you to harm yourself or another person, or you’re frightened that you might act on what you’re hearing, that’s a reason to seek professional help immediately rather than trying to determine whether the voice is psychic.
Psychic Ability Generally Coexists With Discernment
One of the most important skills I’ve developed as a psychic is discernment.
I don’t assume every thought that pops into my head came from Spirit.
Sometimes I’m worried. Sometimes I’m projecting. Sometimes I want a particular outcome. Sometimes my imagination gets involved.
A grounded psychic learns to ask, “Where is this information coming from?”
You should still be able to question an impression.
In fact, I think healthy skepticism toward your own psychic information is a good thing. You don’t surrender your judgment just because something feels spiritual.
Psychic Experiences Don’t Destroy Your Ability to Function
This is another important distinction.
Having psychic ability shouldn’t prevent you from living your life.
You should still be able to work, maintain relationships, take care of yourself, have conversations, make decisions, and participate in ordinary reality.
If someone’s experiences are becoming so consuming that they can’t sleep, can’t work, can’t maintain relationships, are terrified to leave their home, or can no longer distinguish their internal experiences from what’s happening around them, I would not label that “psychic awakening.”
That’s a call for professional evaluation and stabilization or you can really lose yourself and your identity.
Fear Is Different From Guidance
I’ve also noticed a very different emotional quality between my own fear and the information I receive psychically.
Fear tends to be loud.
“Something terrible is going to happen.”
“You’d better do something right now.”
“What if this happens? What if that happens?”
Guidance tends to be quieter.
“Pay attention to this.”
“Don’t go in that direction.”
“Call this person.”
“You’re going to be okay. Here’s your next step.”
That’s one reason learning your own emotional patterns is so valuable. The better you know yourself, the easier it becomes to recognize when your anxiety, hopes, fears, or expectations may be coloring what you’re receiving.
Psychic Ability Doesn’t Make You the Center of the Universe
This is another area where I would exercise caution.
If someone suddenly becomes absolutely convinced that supernatural forces are constantly sending them elaborate secret messages, that strangers are part of a hidden spiritual conspiracy, or that they alone have been selected for an extraordinary cosmic mission, I wouldn’t automatically validate those beliefs as psychic information.
Could someone have profound spiritual experiences? Of course.
But spirituality doesn’t require abandoning critical thinking.
You can believe in spirit guides, intuition, synchronicity, mediumship, and psychic phenomena while still asking yourself, “Is there another possible explanation for what I’m experiencing?”
That’s grounding.
Psychic Experiences Can Be Tested Over Time
For me, another important distinction is consistency.
If I receive information during readings and that information repeatedly turns out to be meaningful or accurate for people, I have something beyond my immediate emotional reaction to evaluate.
Over time, you begin recognizing the particular feeling of intuition versus imagination, fear, wishful thinking, or ordinary mental chatter.
That doesn’t make anyone infallible. Psychics can absolutely misinterpret information.
But healthy psychic development involves observation, practice, feedback, and discernment, not unquestioningly believing everything that enters your mind.
And Sometimes It Isn’t Either/Or
This may be the most important point.
A person can be spiritually sensitive and have anxiety, depression, trauma, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or another mental health condition.
Having a mental health condition doesn’t mean someone can’t be intuitive.
And believing you’re psychic doesn’t mean every unusual experience you’re having is psychic.
That’s why I don’t think it’s wise to tell someone in obvious distress, “Don’t worry, you’re just psychic.”
If their experiences are frightening, uncontrollable, escalating, interfering with daily life, causing severe sleep loss, creating intense paranoia, or encouraging dangerous behavior, I’d want them to talk with a qualified mental health professional.
They can explore the spiritual meaning of their experiences too, but safety comes first.
The Question I Would Ask
If you’re wondering about something you’re experiencing, I would ask yourself:
Does this information leave me more grounded, clear, compassionate, and capable of making healthy choices, or does it leave me frightened, confused, obsessed, isolated, and unable to function normally?
For me, communication with my guides has never felt like losing possession of my own mind.
I’m still in the driver’s seat.
I can listen to guidance without surrendering my judgment. I can question what I’m receiving. I can decide what to do with it. And the guidance I receive is intended to help me or the person I’m reading for move toward greater clarity, healing, understanding, and empowerment.
That’s a very different experience from being tormented by thoughts or voices you cannot control.
Spirituality should not require you to give up your ability to reason, question, choose, and care for yourself.
In fact, I believe genuine spiritual development strengthens those abilities.
