Delusions

[cleo730]

When a delusion is persistent, for instance over a week with the same delusion of thinking one is going to get a huge amount of money for an incident that was based on truth but blown out of proportion, should you try to correct the Bipolar individual or just agree and let them work through situation? His delusion is not just conjured up or completely out in left field, they are just extremes of the true situation; however, they are to the point that they may cause other major issues.

[Xila31]

That's a tough question. I know some people who have delusions of grandure that they believe them 100%. What can  you do? You're not a psychiatrist. If you argue with them it will only make them angry and could ruin your relationship. At the same time you don't want the person you care about believing things that could cause them great disappointments or emotional harm. But, I dont' know how to convince them. I don't think you should tell them they're crazy but maybe try to help them.

When I was younger I had delusions of evil people living in my neighborhood that were out to get me. I believed that they were trying to suck all of the good healthy energy out of the local part. (Like, the magical life force energy.) Well, and I believed I knew about this and they knew I knew and they were out to get me. I actually had "friends" who reinforced this delusion by going along with me and saying they believed it, too. This is when I was 19-23 years old, so for that many years I lived in fear of these people that did not exist, and had "friends" who allowed me to believe it and went along with it.

But what could they do? Tell me I was crazy? That would have made me mad. Tell me to get help or try to help me? I had no one try to help me, but if I had been medicated the delusion might have gone away. I didn't even realize this was a delusion until about a month ago, and that has been over 10 years! I had completely forgotten about it until I drove past my old neighborhood, park, and the place I thought these evil people were.  

I'm sorry I'm not more help. Delusions are such a hard thing. I just don't know how you can help them and not support the belief at the same time. :(

[cleo730]

Thank you, it's exactly the same scenario. He has been on medication only 8 days now and was just diagnosed. He seems perfectly normal now except still the delusion thing and he's not as forceful about it but it still is present. I'm in the fix where if I don't say anything it will reinforce to him that it's true and if I try to correct him it will make him angry and hurt our relationship. He does not realize it's a delusion, I think mainly because the base of it is true, he has just blown it completely out of proportion to the grandeur side.

[Xila31]

Well, since he is on meds hopefully it will help and soon it will go away. I guess if he brings it up just say something like, "Well, that would be nice but don't count your chickens before they hatch," you know... maybe? Or maybe just listen and say nothing, but don't actually reinforce it by agreeing.

See, I would say things like, "I saw this car and it had 6 wheels instead of 4, so I know it was them, and they were following me. I saw 2 cars, one was like a sports car but the other was a cop car, so I know it wasn't a real cop car and they're just trying to throw me off. But I can feel the evil energy at that building and I know that's where they are and you can feel it in the park like a sick feeling."

Now, what would my "friends" do? "Oh yeah, I feel that way at the park too, and look that building has no sign, that must mean something.." or "Well, my sister works downtown and when she's on her smoke break she sees 6 wheeled cop cars going in and out of a government building parking garage."

>.>

These are true things that people actually did and said. So, how exactly was that supposed to help me? It only made it worse. These people are no longer in my life due to other circumstances but it put me back so many years in my recovery it makes me mad to think about it.

[corlenbelspar]

I read you're never supposed to argue with someone elses delusions and it makes sense because often times it gets you nowhere unless the person is like me for example and accepted their logic gets flawed at times and they try to listen to people on this stuff but even then it doesn't always work 100% of the time.  I don't even think psychiatrists try to argue a persons delusions because they're not even trained to do psychotherapy and just do the evaluations and medication management and such.