What are delusions?

I'm not sure if I get what delusions are. I'm not talking about the ones where one might believe that tv is talking to them, or that things like that. I guess I'm wondering what are the really sneaky kind of delusions? You know, the kind that you really think are real, but not in a way that they are obviously not real. Does that make any sense?

Like sometimes one might think that people notice them a lot. Or, one might think their spouse doesn't love them enough if they go to their parent's house. Or, that one thinks one is inherently evil. Or that a Christian might truly believe that God gives them signs (which is not abnormal for Christians per se).

Any examples?

Thanks!

Hey Mindy Kay,

Delusions are fixed beliefs that are either untrue or unjustifiable. In the context of mental health, clinicians are more interested in delusions that cause profound distress, harmful behaviour or indicate the presence of hallucinations. With respect to the latter, an individual might believe that someone has implanted a microchip inside of their brain to communicate messages to them and will justify the belief on the grounds that they hear voices. This would, of course, be of considerable importance for a mental health care professional because it indicates that the person is suffering from psychosis which causes perceptual confusions.

Of course, as you've mentioned already, there are many popular beliefs (Astrology, Extra-Sensory-Perception, Conspiracy Theories) that might accurately be called delusions but they're not clinically significant in the sense that they don't necessarily indicate that you're psychotic or delusional.

Does that make sense? I know you asked for some examples but it really depends on context to determine whether or not someone's really delusional or just victim to bad information/reasoning.

Take care and best wishes.

mindykay wrote:Or that a Christian might truly believe that God gives them signs (which is not abnormal for Christians per se).

Not sure if you are being ironic here

Yeah, I was son of god for a while, and we spoke every now and then. I miss that feeling. It's way less nice to just be an average guy with a nasty disorder. But at the time that felt very real, and I was like, whoa, so this is how religious people feel all the time.

As a Christian BP Person with delusions

Believing in God would be normal, thinking God would be having a voice convo with me would be starting to get a bit odd and hearing him doing so would be a delusion. This would be different for different ppl. Delusions are in relation to you and your normal beliefs so vary between ppl.

Cracked

CrackedGirl wrote:[...] thinking God would be having a voice convo with me would be starting to get a bit odd and hearing him doing so would be a delusion.

And you tell me NOW. LOL

hehehe - maybe you were one of the lucky ppl who had a telephone line to God

Hugs

Cracked

It’s all about how you interpret things. If somebody tells you something like “you look good today” you can be very delusional and think of an entire conspiracy and make connections (usually random connections, distorted connections) with other things…so seeing this phrase just like another piece of you delusional puzzle or being just slightly delusional, and most people are like this, thinking that he says this only to get something from you, or only because he read those books that say it’s good to make compliments to people and so on.

That’s way it’s very hard to draw the line between what’s delusional and what’s not because most people will interpret things recording to their past expediencies and making connections with the things they heard. (like let’s say a person has an history with hypocrites, so he is always vigilant when people make them compliments as he got used with people being hypocrites and he can’t really be sure now if one is being sincere or not and so on). No matter what, you will always interpret things in a certain way and this is related to your past experiences and your knowledge. Just take care to stay in the boundaries of common sense.

Thanks everyone! I was just wondering, because I think sometimes I might be delusional lol!

Example (this has somewhat abated after 3 years marriage):

Any time my husband would spend time with his family (mother especially, but sister and brother too) I felt like he wanted to move back home, that he regretted marrying me. He told me many times that was not so, but I couldn't shake the belief that it was so. I would get so angry inside and try to hide it and hold it in (successful a lot of the time). Mind you, these are very nice thoughtful people. They never did really anything to make me feel this way, other than that my hubby lived at home til we got married, he was age 30. I would feel sometimes like they all hated me, although they never gave me any reason to think so. Sometimes I would think they were against me, like I stole him away. All this while, they were nothing but good to me. But the thoughts and feelings persisted no matter how I tried to shake them.

Also, about the telephone. I absolutely have a phone phobia!! It's my enemy!! I get all shaky when I have to be on it (texting isn't really a problem, just voice calls). I always feel as if the person on the other end is somehow mad at me, and I'm afraid to answer it. It very much impedes my business, and sometimes strains family ties. I will even avoid my family's calls. I never check my messages, I am overcome with fear. I have some social anxiety, not sure if it's clinical or not. Sometimes I can be very outgoing, and you'd never in a million years know I struggle like I do.

For me....

I get delusions about all sorts of things. When I went through school I was just quite intelligent, I was so deluded and thought that I was a genius. When I was a high level athlete I was so deluded I truly belived I would win an Olympic Gold medal. With relationships I get horribly delusional. I fall in love in an instant and believe I can't survive without the other person even though I've only known them for a few weeks.

It's hard because when you are deluded there is nothing you can do to alter your mind into seeing the truth, I guess that's really the definition of a delusion. It's only years after and I can look back on those things and realise.