Have you ever had the feeling that someone was following you? This may have happened to all of us at some point, but there are some people who live with this feeling constantly.
At a general level, a delusion consists of believing that you are having an experience or being convinced of a reality despite the evidence showing the opposite. The person, instead of rethinking what he believes in the face of such evidence, tries to reaffirm his convictions, producing great discomfort not only in the person who suffers from it but also in the people around him.
Delusions can be part of another mental disorder, but by themselves they can also be considered a disorder depending on their severity and frequency. In this Psychology-Online article, we tell you what is delusion of persecutionits causes, its symptoms and the treatment applied in these cases.
What is delusion of persecution?
If you are wondering what delusions of persecution are, this consists of irrational belief that one is persecuted. This sensation occurs quite intensely and frequently. Furthermore, not only does one have the sensation of being persecuted, sometimes delirium causes the belief that one is being persecuted with intention to harm you or that there is a conspiracy of several people or organizations against him or her. This belief continues despite showing the affected person all the possible evidence against them.
Delirium of persecution is a situation that is experienced with great anxiety and seriously affects the interpersonal relationships in your life. In this article, you will find more information about the .
Causes of delusions of persecution
In many cases the causes of delusions of persecution are related to others. This delusion, in particular, is the most common form of delusion in the course of paranoid schizophrenia. In addition, it can also appear as one of the symptoms of schizoaffective disorder. Likewise, they can appear during manic and mixed episodes of bipolar disorder and in severe depressive disorders with psychotic properties.
In response to what causes the delusion of persecution, we can affirm that this irrational belief arises as a result of the consumption of psychoactive substances and it is more common in people with religious beliefs or beliefs in paranormal phenomena.
It is also quite common for delusions of persecution to occur such as consequence of some type of dementia.
Symptoms of delusions of persecution
The symptoms of persecutory delusions can present in different ways. The most common of all is the feeling of being pursued by something or someone and that this stalking is with the intention of harming you. However, there are many other ways to identify this delusion. Let’s see what the symptoms of delusions of persecution are:
- Feeling like you are being spied on continuously: Among the examples of delusions of persecution, a very common one is that the person feels that someone is spying on them through the windows of their house.
- Feeling that they are being hurt: Individuals with persecutory delusions believe that there are people who put small impediments throughout their day to bother them. For example, creating a traffic jam.
- Being ridiculed: Another example to understand what a delusion of persecution is like is having the thought that the person persecuting you intends to ridicule you.
As a general rule, these people have a hyper alert state and they have very high levels of anxiety. They focus excessively on information about threatening events and draw conclusions very hastily in the face of different situations. Furthermore, individuals with delusions of persecution exaggerate reality, turning problems into catastrophes.
Treatment for delusions of persecution
In these cases, if you are wondering how to help a person with delusions of persecution, you should know that there are different ways to do it, depending on the severity of each case. Next, we will see the different treatments for delusions of persecution:
- Pharmacotherapy: At a general level, the treatment for persecutory delusions is the use of antipsychotics. This type of delirium causes high levels of anxiety and it is quite common for different types of anxiolytics to be prescribed. In this article, you can find others.
- Psychological therapy: As a treatment for delusions of persecution, we work with the patient on their irrational thoughts and how to combat them. He is taught to accept his illness and social skills are trained. In addition, adherence to pharmacological treatment is worked on so that the person takes the medication.
- Psychiatric internalizationIn the most serious cases, psychiatric internalization of the person may be required.
- Work with family: It is essential that the family of the individual who suffers from it learns to handle the person in this type of situation and to react at the time of delirium.
- Treatment adapted to another disorder: Sometimes, as we have indicated previously, this problem is due to another type of disorder. If this is the case, this disorder would be treated, in addition to carrying out the previous steps.
It is important to leave these disorders in the hands of the relevant professionals, since, although we think we know how to combat delusions of persecution, we do not, and this delays the moment of medical-psychological intervention, making its effectiveness immensely visible. reduced.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Persecutory delusion: what it is, symptoms and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Beck, A. T. (2010). Schizophrenia: Cognitive theory, research and therapy. Paidós.
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
- Freeman, D., & Garety, P.A. (2004). Paranoia: The psychology of persecutory delusions (No. 45). Psychology Press.