By: Stephanie Osuba

A delusion is a strongly held thought or conviction that persists despite evidence to the contrary. There are three components that all delusions have: (1) they are held with unusual conviction (2) they are not amenable to logic (3) the absurdity of their content is explicitly evident to others. People who have delusions, no matter how weird and unimaginable, believe it to be fact and when attempting to clarify or argue will result in anger and even sometimes violent reactions. People with delusions usually feel that others think they are inherently unintelligent and that they aren’t being understood.

There seems to be a split in reality because most people who have delusions are able to keep their beliefs to themselves in professional settings where the delusions seem to “disappear” unless the person is in the presence of someone they trust. “Higher functioning” people who have delusions seem to have the input of a situation correct, however they often misinterpret the information leading to a delusional thought. For example, they might see their partner talking to the neighbor and suddenly they are being cheated on. Of course there are other cases in which the person is experiencing other psychotic symptoms (such as in schizophrenia where there might be hallucinations and disorganized speech) and the person is acting out on their delusions.

Some Common delusions:

• Persecution: they are being intentionally run off the road, the police are searching for them, they are being targeted by news anchors
• Infidelity: they are being cheated on or lied to by their partners
• Love: they are in love, or someone, that they don’t know or have never met, is in love with them; usually celebrities.
• Grandeur: believing they are God is very common; they have special or supernatural gifts
• Memory: recalling events that have not happened; hard to clarify if it’s a delusion or pathological lying
• Perception: when abnormal significance is placed on any normal or natural situation

Source: Hill, T., MS, LPC. (2018, October 17). 6 Dangerous Delusions Someone You Know Might Have. Retrieved from https://blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers/2018/10/6-dangerous-delusions-a-loved-one-might-have/ 

If you or someone you know has delusions, please contact our psychotherapy offices in New York or New Jersey to talk to one of our licensed professional psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, or psychotherapists at Arista Counseling & Psychotherapy. Contact our Paramus, NJ or Manhattan, NY offices respectively, at (201) 368-3700 or (212) 722-1920 to set up an appointment. For more information, please visit http://www.counselingpsychotherapynjny.com/.