overview of mental health care
mental health disorders
Personality and Behavior Changes
Delusions are fixed false beliefs that people hold despite evidence to the contrary. Some delusions are based on a misinterpretation of actual perceptions and experiences. For example, people may feel persecuted, thinking that a person behind them on the street is following them or that an ordinary accident is purposeful sabotage. Other people think that song lyrics or newspaper articles contain messages that refer specifically to them (called a delusion of reference). Some beliefs seem more plausible and can be difficult to identify as delusions because they could occur or have occurred in real life. For example, people occasionally are followed by government investigators or have their work sabotaged by coworkers. In such cases, a belief can be identified as a delusion by how strongly people hold the belief despite evidence to the contrary. Other delusions are easier to identify. For example, in religious or grandiose delusions, people may believe they are Jesus or the president of the country. Some delusions are quite bizarre. For example, people may think that their organs have all been replaced by machine parts or that their head contains a radio that receives messages from the government. 