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Delusional Disorder

Usehername

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Delusional disorder, previously called paranoid disorder, is a type of serious mental illness called a "psychosis" in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. The main feature of this disorder is the presence of delusions, which are unshakable beliefs in something untrue. People with delusional disorder experience non-bizarre delusions, which involve situations that could occur in real life, such as being followed, poisoned, deceived, conspired against, or loved from a distance. These delusions usually involve the misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences. In reality, however, the situations are either not true at all or highly exaggerated.

People with delusional disorder often can continue to socialize and function normally, apart from the subject of their delusion, and generally do not behave in an obviously odd or bizarre manner. This is unlike people with other psychotic disorders, who also might have delusions as a symptom of their disorder. In some cases, however, people with delusional disorder might become so preoccupied with their delusions that their lives are disrupted.
Mental Health and Delusional Disorder

This is a fascinating and disheartening disorder.

Does anyone have any personal experience with someone who has a fixed, non-bizarre delusion?
 

JocktheMotie

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This seems like one of those things that probably go unnoticed and undiagnosed unless the delusion is very extreme, a bit like color blindness. Fascinating nonetheless.
 

prplchknz

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my question is, if it could happen in real how do we know its a delusion?
 

InsatiableCuriosity

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Mental Health and Delusional Disorder

This is a fascinating and disheartening disorder.

Does anyone have any personal experience with someone who has a fixed, non-bizarre delusion?

My father is and his brother was bipolar. My uncle when he was alive was severe bipolar with delusions and sociopathy. My father's milder bipolar disorder and delusional disorder are based around the lesser form of paranoia (or so I am told) of persecution complex.

My dad gathers "evidence" by copying letters and papers and recording conversations that to him "prove" everyone's collusion in being out to get at him.

It is very sad but can also be trying because it brings up the question of the old fable the boy who cried wolf and it is difficult to assess when and if the problem is genuine or imagined.
 

Moonstone3

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This is tricky for me. Some things that people would consider delusions, I ponder, so...
My stepfather believes that the government poisons meat. He became a vegetarian for 7 years because of this. He actually believed it so hard that he would literally get sick when he ate it-this is before the vegetarian stage-and why he decided so.
Curiosity-your talk is persecution complex is very interesting. My father believes the government here, in my town, is out to get him. We just attended our annual family reunion and my brother and I walked in on him telling everyone at the table all about how he can't catch a break. We told our grandmother and she sighed and said she meant to tell him-no talk of the police or government while we're here. Then my aunt piped in and said that when they were in high school, whenever he saw a cop car, he would immediately take off running. And when they chased him down, he would say,' Why are you running after me? I didn't do anything!' She said,'Then why are you running?'
I just told them I was glad they could see the truth, now. I call it the victim complex. It's rather embarrassing, because he tells everyone, everywhere. I am very private. I don't want everyone at my work to know my family's business. Whenever he comes in, he just starts talking to customers.
Granted, he seems to have odd luck. This past year he was hit head on by a man who had a brain annurism while driving, and came across 4 lanes of traffic. They searched his car, ..., now he has a court date, and a possible sentence. What are the odds?
 

InsatiableCuriosity

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This is tricky for me. Some things that people would consider delusions, I ponder, so...
My stepfather believes that the government poisons meat. He became a vegetarian for 7 years because of this. He actually believed it so hard that he would literally get sick when he ate it-this is before the vegetarian stage-and why he decided so.
Curiosity-your talk is persecution complex is very interesting. My father believes the government here, in my town, is out to get him. We just attended our annual family reunion and my brother and I walked in on him telling everyone at the table all about how he can't catch a break. We told our grandmother and she sighed and said she meant to tell him-no talk of the police or government while we're here. Then my aunt piped in and said that when they were in high school, whenever he saw a cop car, he would immediately take off running. And when they chased him down, he would say,' Why are you running after me? I didn't do anything!' She said,'Then why are you running?'
I just told them I was glad they could see the truth, now. I call it the victim complex. It's rather embarrassing, because he tells everyone, everywhere. I am very private. I don't want everyone at my work to know my family's business. Whenever he comes in, he just starts talking to customers.
Granted, he seems to have odd luck. This past year he was hit head on by a man who had a brain annurism while driving, and came across 4 lanes of traffic. They searched his car, ..., now he has a court date, and a possible sentence. What are the odds?

I empathise!! I too am a rather private person and Dad's Extraversion (ESFP) has caused me much embarrassment on numerous occasions over the years. My particular dislike is the invasion of personal space and his overtly touchy feely Extraverted affection. I cringe - but there is more to that story as well.

Dad seeks to be the centre of attention and constantly tells people of his persecution even to the extent of contacting members of parliament and journalists. He also has a bad habit of handing out both my and my brother's phone numbers promising to complete strangers that we will be able to help them in our professional capacities (brother is a journalist and I am a technology/graphics industry educator)

Sadly he has tried the patience and driven away most of his friends by this behaviour.
 

Moonstone3

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He also has a bad habit of handing out both my and my brother's phone numbers promising to complete strangers that we will be able to help them in our professional capacities (brother is a journalist and I am a technology/graphics industry educator)

Sadly he has tried the patience and driven away most of his friends by this behaviour.

I empathize! Yikes! I hope that never happens for me. And I wonder when he'll drive people away. Right now, they listen and believe. Is your dad OCD about other things? Mine carries around a locked black planner type book everywhere, and sorts his McDonald's condiments in the fridge door! There's much more, too much to list.
 

InsatiableCuriosity

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I empathize! Yikes! I hope that never happens for me. And I wonder when he'll drive people away. Right now, they listen and believe. Is your dad OCD about other things? Mine carries around a locked black planner type book everywhere, and sorts his McDonald's condiments in the fridge door! There's much more, too much to list.

No - his karma has sadly caught up with him - he and his older sister both have severe cerebellar dysfunction so he cannot articulate much any more tho his brain seems intellectually unimpaired. Dad lives in a nursing home in another state (his choice) because he can no longer walk unaided, nor talk clearly, nor hold things properly. All of his fine motor skills have been affected badly and his gross motor skills are limited now.

I get over to check on him every two years because to do so requires a trip that would be equivalent to going from LA to New York.
 

stringstheory

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I had a roommate that suffered from this, mostly of the Persecutory type; nothing was ever her fault, and everyone else was mean and just wanted to blame things on her. In reality, she had serious issues with keeping things sanitary in our living situations (not clean...SANITARY), and while she originally blamed things on me when we lived alone, managed to blame things on everyone else once others moved in. She left her dishes unpacked for almost 2 months, when i finally unpacked them. When this later came up in conversation, she denied this up and down, in fact saying that SHE was the one who unpacked MY dishes.

She threatened to sue me when we got our cleaning deposit back on the apartment (before we moved into a house) and i kept it all, even though her half of the deposit was used to clean up after the dogs mess that she left in the apartment after we moved out. she had a dog that went to the bathroom on the carpet ALL. THE. TIME. she responded to this by leaving it around and then wondering to others "why i couldn't help her out" a little bit. She never did sue me, but she never got over this "unjustice" and was unnecessarily cold and difficult to deal with until i cut her out of my life.

This carried over to the living situation that included more people... At one point, once others moved in and started realizing that she had to have been exaggerating all of the experiences between me and her, we confronted her about her dog going to the bathroom in the house and how she needed to put him out when she left. As she was blowing up at us, the dog took a leak RIGHT THEN AND THERE. When we pointed it out, she tried to convince us that he just threw up :shock::huh:

Her reasoning for her hostility was that "no one can just accept who i am".

They call it non-bizarre, but it really is. In the end I could not deal having her in my life, it was affecting my mental health. I feel sad having to say that, it must be a very difficult disorder to deal with, but sometimes being nice can take it's toll.
 

Cheshire Grin

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^ Sounds insufferable...I wouldn't have the patience to deal with somebody like that. Kudos to you for living with her and putting up with it!

My grandpa has something to this effect but I think some of the more recent developments are a result of old age. Every night before bed and quite a few times during the day he would walk slowly around the house and look for bad guys. He would look in drawers, the refrigerator, underneath the bed, in the cupboard, under the table, the microwave...he believes there is somebody hiding somewhere who is up to no good. And if anybody asks him about it he gets incredibly mad at them.

He would also turn on the hot water every morning and night and let it run for half an hour until there's no more hot water for people to shower with. He'll stand in front of the sink and poke his hands in and out of the scalding stream of water because this "kills the germs." :shock:

When he was younger (and even now) he doesn't let my grandma leave the house or when she does, he has to be there, because he thinks that whenever she goes out she's secretly meeting up with other men. Everybody in the family knows that this is utterly ridiculous. He doesn't like her talking to people who aren't family members. He doesn't interact with people himself, either. I used to live with him when I was younger and I remember all he'd do is sit on the couch and stare at people...and whenever you stare back he'll yell at you >_<

My relatives pretty much just let him do what he likes because he's in his mid 80's already and semi-senile, but if anybody has any suggestions for what can be done it'll be appreciated as well :)
 
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