In modern psychiatry, delirium (synonyms: mental disorder, delirium) is a complex of ideas or ideas that have appeared as a result of a developing brain disease as a symptom of impaired thinking. They erroneously reflect reality and are not corrected by new incoming information, regardless of whether the existing conclusion corresponds to reality or not. Most often, delusions are one of the components of the manifestations of schizophrenia or other mental disorders.
In what cases does the word "delusion" have synonyms - "mental disorder" and "insanity"
But in order to talk about the presence of a mental disorder in a patient, one cannot start only from the content of the idea that has seized him. That is, if for others it looks like complete nonsense, this cannot serve as proof that a person hasthinking disorders.
In delirium, it is not the content that falls out of the generally accepted ideas that is painful, but the violation of the course of a person's life associated with it. A delusional patient is removed from the world, uncommunicative, he is isolated in his conviction, which greatly changes his appearance and life values.
Features of crazy ideas
A delusional belief is not amenable to any correction from outside. Unlike the delusions of a he althy person who firmly defends his point of view, delirium is a kind of unshakable idea that does not require real confirmation, since it exists regardless of the events taking place in reality. Even the negative experience of following a delusional idea does not force the patient to abandon it, and sometimes even, on the contrary, strengthens faith in its truth.
Since a delusional idea is always very closely fused with previous cardinal personality changes, it necessarily causes radical changes in the patient's attitude towards himself, the outside world, turning him into a "different person".
Delirium is often accompanied by the so-called mental automatism syndrome or alienation syndrome, in which the patient has a feeling that any of his actions or thoughts do not occur of his own free will, but are invested or inspired from outside, by an extraneous force. In these cases, patients suffer from delusions of persecution.
Paranoid delusions are the result of distrust of the environment
Paranoid delusions are formed from opposing oneself to the environment and distrust of otherspeople, transforming over time into extreme suspicion.
The patient at some point begins to understand that everyone around him is treated unfairly, infringes on his interests, humiliates him. Due to the inability of the paranoid to interpret the actions and words of other people in a versatile way, this belief develops into a paranoid syndrome.
In psychiatry, it is divided into three types.
- Delirium of influence, in which the patient is convinced of outside influence on his behavior and thoughts.
- Nonsense relationship when a person assumes that others are talking about him, laughing at him, looking at him.
- Paranoid delusions. This condition is expressed in the patient's deep conviction that some mysterious forces want him dead or harm him in every possible way.
By the way, the last type of thinking disorder in certain situations can be easily transmitted to the environment of the patient, which leads to an incident that is characterized as induction, that is, borrowing the beliefs of a sick person to a he althy one.
What is induced delirium
In psychiatry, this phenomenon is called "induced delirium". This is an induced, borrowed belief that the patient's environment adopts from the patient - those who are in the closest contact with him and have not developed a critical attitude towards the patient's pathological condition, since he is an authority in this group or is trusted.
Induced in such cases begin to express the same ideas and present them in the same form as the patient-inductor. The person who induced the delirium is, as a rule, a suggestible person who is subordinate to or dependent on the source of the idea. Most often, but not always, the dominant person (inducer) is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
It should be noted that this disorder,, as well as the initial delirium of the inductor, is a chronic condition that, according to the plot, turns out to be delusions of grandeur, persecution or religious delirium. Most often, groups that find themselves in cultural, linguistic or territorial isolation fall under this influence.
Under what conditions can a diagnosis be made
In order to correctly diagnose, it should be remembered that induced delirium is:
- a state in which several people share the same crazy idea or system built on it;
- support each other in the named belief;
- these people have a very close relationship;
- even passive members of this group are induced after contact with active partners.
When contact with the inductor ceases, the views grafted in this way most often dissipate without a trace.
How Hypochondriacal Delusions Occur
In psychiatric practice, another type of thought disorder is often encountered - hypochondriacal delusions. This condition is characterized by a deep conviction of the patient that he has a serious incurable disease or a shameful one, one that is not amenable to conventional therapy.
What doctors can'tto find it, a delirious person perceives it only as their incompetence or indifference. The data of analyzes and examinations for such patients are not proof, because they have a deep conviction in their own unique illness. The patient seeks more and more examinations.
If the hypochondriacal delusion begins to grow, then the idea of persecution, which the doctors allegedly organized in relation to the patient, joins it. These symptoms are often accompanied by the previously mentioned delirium of exposure, which is supported by the conviction that the disease is caused by specially organized radiation, which destroys internal organs and even the brain.
How do hypochondriacal delusions change
Sometimes in patients with hypochondriacal delusions, it changes to the idea of the opposite content - that the patient was always completely he althy or, more often, that he was suddenly completely healed. Typically, such delusions are the result of a change in mood caused by the disappearance of (usually shallow) depression and the appearance of a hypomanic state.
That is, the patient, as he was, remained fixed on the topic of he alth, but now his delirium changes its vector and, having become a delirium of he alth, is directed to the healing of others.
By the way, many so-called traditional healers who distribute personally invented methods of curing all ailments have the described category of thinking disorder. At best, such methods are simply harmless, but it can be quiterare!
How nonsense becomes systematized
Interestingly, the delusional constructions in all the above cases are interconnected, consistent and have some logical explanation. Such a thought disorder indicates that we are facing systematized nonsense.
This disorder is most often seen in people who have a good level of intelligence. The structure of systematized nonsense includes the material on the basis of which the idea is built, as well as the plot - the design of this idea. With the development of the disease, it can be colored, saturated with new details and even change direction, as shown above.
By the way, the presence of systematized delirium always confirms its long existence, since an acute onset of the disease, as a rule, does not have a harmonious system.
