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Delusional or paranoid disorder

     

Delusions and Paranoia

Delusional disorder can make you feel and develop some kind of dominating and literally paranoid idea which is complex. It many a times puts you in conflict with others. You might approach a police instead of a psychiatrist for help.

A delusion, speaking in common language, is an idea which a person holds very firmly and denies all the counter evidences which direct the person away from the delusion. People who suffer from schizophrenia, suffers from delusion 90% of the cases and mostly involve illogical or bizarre fantasies.

A paranoid delusion is an incorrect and constant belief that the person is getting persecuted by some external person. Hence they are also known as persecutory delusion.

Paranoid delusions are majorly associated with schizophrenia, although they can occur in non-psychotic disorders like OCD, street drug consumption, etc.

Some of the common schizophrenic delusions are as follows:

• Delusions of persecution – The person believes that some external entity of person is after them to catch and conspire against them. For example – People from other planet and poisoning the tap water and trying to kill me.
• Delusions of reference – Any environmental related event can become something with special and most of times personal meaning. For example, the person in the TV or poster is sending an encrypted message of some conspiracy.
• Delusions of grandeur – The sufferer believes that he is a prominent figure from history or importance. He can think he has exceptional super human powers such as flying capability.
• Delusions of control – The sufferer thinks that he is remotely controlled by external forces or people through mind control. The alien force can read their thoughts and broadcast them.

Causes

There are little theories or studies done in identifying the causes behind delusional paranoid. Below is some of the causes which can be thought about:

Biological causes – There are increased cases of people suffering from delusional disorders who have close genetically relation to person with delusional disorder. This suggests that the genetic component of the disorder is also present.

Erroneous Cognitive Processing - Thinking is actually cognitive processing. Delusions also arise from distorted ways of thinking about the life. They have a jumping to conclusions habit which can take them to delusional interpretations of simple events.

Defensive Delusions – This includes a person views that others are the cause of personal difficulties occurring in ones life. This over the time becomes a deep rooted pattern in ones thoughts.

Patients suffering from delusional disorder do not know about their pathological experiences. They have all of their psychosocial abilities intact and the disease prognosis is not that bad as compared to other more severe disorders.

Treatments

The delusional disorder generally treated by using atypical treatment methods. Some of the antipsychotic medications are also effective in some patients. Risperidone , quetiapine and olanzapine are some of the atypical medicines. They can be used ini case of the outbreak of acute agitation. This agitation generally is the typical response to harsh confrontation or stopping the individual from performing away from normal actions in the advent of delusional reality.

Cognitive therapy has also been showing positive results in the treatment of delusional paranoia. Therapist works on the doubt which an individual suffering from delusion has about the delusions. They then work on the sufferer to create and check concrete explanations and evidences. Use of empathy, asking hypothetical questions are some of the ways to do the cognitive therapy in the case of delusional disorder patients. The therapists combine this cognitive treatment with some medications to help treat things biologically as well as using psychotherapy.

People nearby should realize that this is not the case of stubbornness or stupidity. They are the symptoms of an illness. Emotional reactions, taunts or threats should be completely avoided. Reasoning in a positive manner can persuade a person to ask for medical attention and take medicines in order to be strong and focussed.

Delusion and other disorders

Delusions may also occur during the course of many other illnesses such as psychiatric disorders. Delusions are seen in people suffering from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. They can also be response to physical, medical trauma such as brain injury or brain tumours. It can also be a reaction of a drug or something.

Delusions are also associated with dementias, which involves psychiatric symptoms and memory loss. This is associated with the deterioration of brain tissue. Process of elimination is used to diagnose the delusional disorders. If there is no accident or trauma, then the reason of delusions cannot be some medical problem or drug-related causes. If delusions are present without hallucinations, medical causation, drug influences or memory loss, then it is typically delusional disorder and treated likewise.


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