We have heard many times ‘I don’t know what you are talking about, you sure are delirious’ or ‘last night you were delirious because of the fever, you were saying nonsense’.
And while the distortion of the sense of reality may sometimes be referred to as a colloquial form of ‘delirium’, the reality is that this pathological feature is more significant than we might imagine. Its appearance is always a synonym of the existence of an alteration of the mental state of a person, who may be suffering from a mental illness.who may be suffering from a psychological disorder or illness.
It is very common, however, that when we are subjected to high levels of tension, anxiety or stress, the reality of the environment blurs our perception and we may even feel a discomfort that makes us uneasy and makes us believe that something is not right. So we may feel that someone is watching us insistently or we hear that they are talking about us in a place, when this is not at all true.
But when these thoughts become more and more present and insistent, it is possible that they become part of the normality of everyday life and that is when everything becomes more worrying. Why is that? Read the following article to find out, we will talk about delirium, its types and what characterizes this cognitive alteration..
What are delusions?
It is an alteration of the mental capacities, and when they occur, the person experiences when they occur, the person experiences false beliefs and fixed thoughts. that the person perceives as true and is convinced of them with fervor, even though they are misconceived. This belief is so strong and ingrained that they cannot be convinced otherwise, even if they have evidence to the contrary, because it is simply impossible for them to do so.
This generates confusing perceptions about the environment they are in, as well as people’s intentions or their own current situation. Therefore, it is common to see a person with delusions lose control of their emotions drastically, have abrupt changes in their behavior and decreased consciousness.
The origin of delusions
The psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to identify this disorder.which, despite its seriousness and pathological symptomatology, is not considered as part of mental disorders, but as a symptom within them. Especially those related to psychotic, personality or mood disorders, where its presence can alter their severity.
Although it can also be caused by other factors that affect the mental capacities of the person, such as chronic illness, metabolic imbalance, intoxication by alcohol or psychoactive substances, infections or negative reactions to medications.
The onset of delirium is usually instantaneous and lasts between hours or days, with intermittent breaks without presenting any symptoms. They may also fluctuate during the course of the day, but tend to worsen at night or when people are exposed to unfamiliar environments or situations.
Types of delusions and their main characteristics
Learn below what these delusions are and why they have a characterization associated with certain psychological or psychiatric disorders.
1. According to their form
These are characterized by the comprehensibility of the ideas and thoughts that the person has.
1.1. Primary delirium
It is also called as delusional ideas, which appear suddenly and abruptly in the cognition of the person, are original and psychologically incomprehensible. But they remain with a firm and sure conviction.
1.2.. Secondary delusions
These on the other hand can have a certain degree of psychological understanding, since they appear to give a sense or explanation to an abnormal event experienced, for example, a hallucination, an altered mood or an unusual behavior. It is also known as deliroid ideas.
2. According to its symptomatology
In this classification we can appreciate the severity of the influence of delirium on the person’s activity.
2.1. Hyperactive delirium
This is the most common of the delusions, as well as being the easiest to appreciate since it presents a series of altered behaviors and changes in the person. It includes nervous agitation, restlessness, anxiety, drastic changes in mood, refusal to be helped and in some cases, presence of hallucinations.
2.2. Hypoactive delirium
Contrary to the previous case, in this type of delirium the symptoms are presented as permanent inactivity, in which movements are reduced, sensation of dazedness, lethargy, abnormal somnolence and reduced psychomotor activity in general.
2.3. Mixed delirium
In this type there are symptomatologies of both hypoactive and hyperactive delirium, so that the person can move from one state to another recurrently.
3. Primary delusions of Jasper
These are the categories that the psychiatrist made about delusions according to the way they are perceived.
3.1. Delusional intuition
Also known as primary delusional idea (related to delusional ideas) in which the thought has a unique and very personal meaning for the person. This knowledge is self-generated, without any previous reference and appears suddenly.
3.2. Delusional perception
This is nothing more than the altered reinterpretation of a common and normal perception. Giving it a completely distorted and unreal meaning, which only the person with delirium can know.
3.3. Delusional Atmosphere
In this subjective alteration is given to an environment or place, which the person with delirium appreciates as disturbing and uncomfortable, since something has changed in him/her in an irreversible and threatening way.
3.4. Delirious memory
It occurs at the level of the delirious person’s own memory, which changes, reorganizes and alters a real memory in a distorted way to how it actually occurred. It can also be seen in this state that the person suddenly has a sudden memory that is nothing more than a delusional invention.
4. According to its content
These types are the most frequent in people and are composed by the type of fixed ideas that the person has.
4.1. Paranoid delirium
This is one of the most common delusions of all and it is essentially that the person firmly believes that he/she is being targeted by a person or a group of people, whose intentions are to cause him/her harm, either physically, emotionally or psychologically. A classic example of this is when a person repeatedly states that someone wants to kill him/her.
4.2. Delusions of grandeur
This is very common in people with egocentrism, in which they have an excessive idea of power, where the person has an excessive self-confidence and self-assessment of their abilities (self-imposed) and their influence on others.
4.3. Delirium of persecution
It is similar to paranoid delirium, but in this case the person is convinced that someone is persecuting him/her or is plotting against him/her to cause him/her harm. They may ‘identify’ the situation or the conspirators or, on the other hand, believe that they are being spied on through devices.
4.4. Delirium of reference
In this type of delirium the person believes that some events or actions of others have to do with them directly or are involved to some degree, but they do not necessarily tell them directly, but may be communicating with hidden messages.
4.5. Celotypical delirium
It is the firm and exaggerated belief that the partner is being unfaithful, so it looks for any slightest indication of this. Therefore, it takes on the justified responsibility of looking for ‘evidence’ to prove it, even considering every act as a sign of infidelity.
4.6. Delusion of control
Also called delusion of being controlled, it is the fixed belief that the person is being used by someone else. Therefore, he/she may experience his/her feelings, behaviors, attitudes and thoughts as not his/her own, excusing him/herself from sudden and extreme changes, since it is the will of another being.
4.7. Somatic delirium
As its name indicates, the person has the obsessive idea of having some kind of medical complication or physical imperfection that seriously affects him/her and they cannot accept the explanation that such condition is not present, no matter how much evidence is provided to them.
4.8. Erotomanic delirium
Here, the person has the cognition that there is someone who is madly in love with him, who observes him, pursues him and incites him to get his attention and accept his love. Usually, this idea is held with a famous or high-status personage.
4.9. Metacognitive delusion
This is an alteration of the processes of interpretation and reasoning of his thoughts with respect to their manifestation in reality. That is, he/she can justify that his/her behaviors or ideas are not his/her own, but have been manipulated by someone else.
4.10. Delusion of false identification
Also known as Capgras Syndrome, in which the individual is not able to recognize a person in his environment, but expresses that this person has been replaced by an identical impostor.
4.11. Guilt or sin delusion
As the name implies, it is the exaggerated belief of responsibility attributed to oneself for an event that may have nothing to do with him or even minimal consequences.