What are Paranoid Delusions (Persecutory Delusions)? 

A year ago, i got backstabbed, and now i overthink everything, and i believe that all my friends are plotting to get me, i also daydream too much, even though it doesn't affect my social life, but it gives me anxiety, and staying alone makes me feel awful, whenever i stay alone, my mind starts to overthink about anything, even a simple sentence, my mind makes different explanations about it.

i'm always afraid to be around police because for some reason I feel like they're after me when I never did anything wrong. On top of that I always feel like i'm being watched or being followed all the time. I'm afraid to be in the house at night by myself because I feel like i'm not alone. I've heard voices since middle school and seen things since 5th grade. Even in public I feel like everyone's staring at me

I have had persecution delusions with bipolar disorder. I was completely out of my mind. I was completely healed and no longer have them.

I don’t know what I have, but whenever I go out alone at night, I always think I’m gonna get kidnapped, someone’s following me, someone’s gonna take me away, someone is gonna rape me, someone is sneaking up on me, someone is plotting to kill me, someone is watching me I don’t know how to get rid of it and it’s really bad and I don’t know what to do 😭

This is such a struggle and hard to live with. Its ruining my relationships with other people. I still question and think the ppl im with everyday is against me, don’t really genuinely care for me as much as it seems, i lash out, and create senarios like its true.

My daughter is going through this. She is so bad she is also paranoid about her mental health team. Her brain works on over load. Its very frustrating because the mental health system in the UK is about as useful as a chocolate fire guard. She has had the problem for 15 years and has never been given the proper help. She used to have delusions in our house and she would smash the house up. All the mental health team would say is call the police. She is mentally ill not a criminal. People with mental health problems are probably the most vulnerable in our society but getting the correct help feels like an impossible task. It just seems to be the case of passing the problem to someone else by all the so called professionals. I dont know what its like to in the rest of the world but I suspect things are not too good . I can only comment on the situation in the UK and our system that is supposed to help people who are most vulnerable with mental health issues is not fit for purpose. My wife and I are still trying to get her the help she really needs. Honestly my wife and I are loosing hope.

Thanks for detailed comprehensive video, I feel like I should watch this video every time I get paranoid.

Thank you so much for this video this is literally everything my partner has yet she thinks she’s fine and it’s everyone else the hard part is getting her the help She needs

I've never met a paranoid delusional person. I heard of a woman who had a boyfriend who was an ex gov't intelligence worker who ended up beating her up real bad. She tried to tell people her crazy boyfriend was following her and spying on her. Her family had her in probate court to deem her nuts. Very sad situation.

Let’s just say I’m going through psychosis and watching this video it’s scary as hell what is with the black background the slow talking this is giving me nightmares.

My mom has this. She thinks that when she gave birth to my brother one of the doctors put a chip into her ear and thats why she can hear voices. And now she's trying to get that "chip" out of her ear with clippers 🤢. She has a lot of the symptoms and was even diagnosed by a doctor, but she keeps denying the truth. Now she tells me that the same thing will happen to me that someone will put "a chip" into my ear and those "people" will harass me too. She often did a lot of strange things at home, like sleeping in a bath tub or wearing a pot over her head to protect herself from the "magnetic waves" that activate the chip, she doesn't do it much now. In general she doesn't believe in mental illnesses, which is bad cause I have a lot of symptoms of BPD and I can't tell her cause she won't understand. I tried to tell my dad about it but he didn't believe me and forgot everything I showed him and told.

You talked about delusions in the context of schizophrenia but what about bipolar delusions during mania /hypomania or depression? Have you seen this in patients? I enjoy your channel

I have a friend who wanted me to come over to her mobile home to install surveillance camera's inside and out because she was convinced that her neighbor was breaking in to her home. Not thru a door, but coming up thru her floor from under the mobile home. She thinks that they are getting into her refrigerator tampering with her food and so she has a heavy chain with a pad lock on the doors. Recently she started believing that someone was putting gun powder in her carpets to make her sick

I recently relised that ive been suffering delusions my whole life, from about age 17 I did accept the fact that I was a really irrationally paranoid person but I would always brush it off as 'anxiety', but times when something would trigger me to get really paranoid things would start to get hazy and stop making sense, no matter how crazy the thing I was paranoid about my brain would still make some sort of connection to make it make sense, like the time I believed my two best friends had hacked in to my phone and were watching my every move for 3 months and eventually I changed my phone and number. Or time I constantly saw someone i had previous conflict with around my college to find out he was never there in the first place. Ive imagined so many situations in my life and come to realise they never happened so many times that its unbelievable and ive never told anyone. I probably will go get some sort of help soon though, i do wanna sit down with a professional and find out what is actually wrong with me, i think maybe bpd since I never been able to have normal relationships with people, plus the constant depression, anxiety and identity issues. Thanks for the great vid tho

Could you do a video about maladaptive daydreaming?

I've been bullied for so ling, I never know is my feelings of everyone turning against me and hating me are just paranoia or valid feelings. I don't know if I am crazy or over sensitive or just very aware of my surroundings. I have been told everything is in my head (thinking my family wants me dead or wants to kill me) but then I have been physically abused by my parents and siblings, most recently just last year my older brother choked me and my entire family just stood and watched. To being told I am just too sensitive (reacting strongly to tone and pitch and volume, to deconstructing word usage and sentence structure). To then being told I'm right. As I have explicitly said that certain people hated me only to have that confirmed by others. I have been diagnosed with Major depression, atypical bipolar and PMDD with suggestions of anxiety and BPD floating by. Don't know if any of them are accurate, or all wrong or all right. I don't know if I am paranoid or just aware and I don't know how to appropriately respond to any of it which makes me even more distressed. So fuck me I guess.

the construct of delusional thinking is also perfect cover for counterintelligence harassment.

Every time I feel like someone is slicing me with a sword, constantly attacking me from behind. I get this feeling 24/7 and it happens everytime when I stand still and look downwards. I have also been suffering from OCD from 3 years.

I often walk on the streets like a SENTINEL, looking at every single suspicious thing that is on my vision radius. Because I always think someone will harm or kill me or someone that I'm with, if I'm NOT LOOKING AT MY BACK EVERY 3 SECONDS (Also every door and window).

Can you please answer, if a person has paranoid delusions that someone who he had problems in the past with (some kind of conflict, feud or negative event that left him with a trauma) is going to kill them? Of course, there are no valid, realistic reasons to think that. Is that considered some kind of mental ilness or is it posttraumatic stress disorder?

Thanks for make things crystal clear! :)

I would like to hear about the research on the association of delusions and hallucinations as well as theories of causality.

Doctor your skin is glowing

Can you do a video on projective identification? I've heard several explanations - all are confusing. Thanks

can the object of your obsession (intrusive thought) "transform" into a delusion? i mean, can it become "real" in that sense, that u, for a short period of time accept it as truth without questioning?

I have nonstop thoughts of people planning to harm my family members or me, the other day, i saw a mam sitting outside on some stairs, when i lookex at him i think he was already looking at me, i couldn't stop thinking about why was he there, who he was, what was he thinking but it was probably just a neighbor enjoying the morning and my mind feels like it's racing all the time i can't think straight i can't sleep

can we talk about Schizotypal delusions/hallucinations at an intensity level compared to Bipolar or Schizophrenia? is it simply, less intense?

Yes! Maladaptive daydreaming video would be great:)!!

I have a friend who's going through this right now and it's sad.

Interesting the correlation between presecutory dreams and schizophrenia .

What if people are purposely making you paranoid? I had a friend kill himself over the belief that people were coming to jill him. Turned out people were intentionally making him paranoid...

I have some of these delusions I am 23 male and I've been seeing a psychiatrist but I think he doesn't take me seriously, he prescribed me 25 mg. of hedonin but my delusions are still present, it honestly is getting unbearable.

Whats the best way to engage/interact with people in this state? I have a family member going through this and I dont want to do/say the wrong thing

Grande - love the channel. Could you do a video on the type or quality of delusions that are found in psychotic depression? There's not alot of research out there that I have found other than from Anthony J. Rothschild, MD from UMASS- from what I understand the delusions typically involve guilt with a nihilistic tilt that are very unlikely but still possible. I understand that this is a diagnosis that is frequently mistaken for MDD. I liked the existing video you did on Psychotic depression as well.

Dr Grande. Wondering if you could put up a video about whether it’s generally accepted by professionals, that one should confront a delusional person with the ridiculousness of - or at least the unreality of - their delusional beliefs. In respect to whether this approach will do more harm. Or, on the other hand, is it enabling the delusions to get worse, if one goes along with them?

Thanks this was a great help. now what is the next step... I havre found a family member has a severe case of this.

A guy with this paranoid persernality disorder who knows these thoughts are false but still act on them and still think they are real what do i do

when I used to be paranoid with delusions, thanks the modern medicine, im okay, but i will share my very strange ununderstandable thoughts with this comment section, this is coming from a 12 year old girl in 2016, back then, i had multiple delusions, I had thoughts that a elephant's feet were in vent system(????) I had thoughts that loved me weren't 'people' and that everyone was aliens that were spying over me and that I was the only 'human' on the planet. i had thoughts about people watching me from the drain of the shower, and i also was too scared to sleep generally because I heard voices and thought there were coming from the closet or like somewhere in my room and there were monsters watching me and i couldn't see them (???) i used to be too scared of opening my eyes in the shower because I thought I would see someone when i opened them, i eventually would but after like an hour of just standing there. right now i suffer from intrusive thoughts, about hurting other people im still working on it, its trauma from quarantine.

I've noticed that you never seem to address people who have delusions of grandeur. I am acquainted with a person who holds these types of delusions. She constantly has to "one up" everyone else with her extreme "capabilities and talents". That type of person is really tiring to have to deal with.

hey Dr. Todd. Thank you for the video. do you have a video telling the cause of this, be it delusion or schizophrenia, if not what is the cause. thank you.

Thanks for good story telling

This is great insight thank you

I sense very weird and not normal sensation and when alone I don’t know it’s a great fear it like someone always watching you back

Dr Grande -- Can you speak about the effects of Adderall on adults with ADHD? Specifically, if it contributes to the formation of delusional and paranoid psychosis? What can be done to help someone in this mind state and who denies the need for treatment? This is a family member and we are running out of time.

I keep thinking when I'm in the house people from my past are in the room with me watching me I know there not really I think I'm over thinking what do I do

I am always scared. I am autistic and adhd as well. I need help now. I don't know what to do. My Dr put me on a med for autistic agitation and something changed a LOT. I now know that this is not real now but it sure feels it. I have 6 children and an amazing Husband. I just want to get better enough to do my best. Please help if you can?

But how to unambiguously recognize a delusion? Some people are really persecuted, surveyed and harassed for explainable reasons, for example for fun or because someone just can do it. So what, are all such victims doomed to be considered crazy?

Carl Jung says about the schizophrenic beliefs as "gem of truth"

I asked a question about persecutory delusions on your other video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KQxGu6J5ihA.html I see you don't tend to respond to questions in comment areas, but I am really interested in getting a response, especially to my question about how you determine whether any given "belief" is a delusion, or a hypothesis based on evidence (fact patterns, etc), and I'm also very interested in how often you find that you or other professionals mistakenly diagnose a fact-based belief as a "delusion" - and what steps you would take to remedy your mistake, should it become clear that an error was made. This is important, as false diagnoses can have very severe impact on a person's life, especially if a diagnosis involves something like "delusions." It means a lot of things, including that the person's perceptions of reality should not be believed by other doctors and anyone else with access to medical records (for example, in court situations where someone's medical records are admitted as evidence).

Okay but I feel this exact way but at the same time people have told me I’m wrong so I have these beliefs that I know others think are bizzarre so I’m like thinking I’m delusional but does the fact I think that mean I’m not

Im being haunted by a video i watched this morning, i woke up tired then went to facebook I saw this video where there was cops surrounding a building i thought the building was going to collapse but instead.. someone Fk i cant say it Im being haunted.. and its causing me not to sleep.. Its 4 am rn

Howdy Dr. Grande. I am having some very paranoid feelings that make me feel very uncomfortable.

Thx a lot for the diagnosis

Well do they come and go? Maybe it just depends on the person.

I always trip out thinking everyone wants to throw me in the psyche ward again, even tho they don't know what I'm going through or thinking. I put on a "im good" face but I'm constantly thinking,"they know I'm not doing good and they just want me to slip up so they can lock me up again" I'm my own worst enemy, don't even get me started on blacking out windows and setting up cameras.

i swear everyone has drugged me with acid

Thank you

How do we fix it?

I know this video is old but I am stick and tired of my delusions, I wish I could block my irrational thoughts, intrusive and psychotic issues I have. It has gotten worse this year due to some instances I do not have control of. I avoid people these days because the people I have gotten closed to have either rejected me, or say things about me in the tone of them thinking they can write the story of my life in a page because they think all men who are first born have mommy issues and not see that the reason I am not dating anyone is because I do not feel safe from past behaviors. I am no longer that person, but the guilt has been eating me since 2019, waking up from your ego can be a blessing and a curse, it just depends on how you face your demons and what things you do to make yourself available to be able to be grateful of the things you have in life. Or you could let your self loathing identity take over you as you have all of these decades and struggle in your mental suffering. It is like your life is a seesaw and no way to know what side you are taking on each day you wake up, that id if you are able to have any shut eye. There are days I go for a 5 days with only an hour to compensate, cold water and coffee are the lifesavers when you have to face the tiredness. Yes, I am in therapy, but like I said it just depends on your end on what you plan to do with your life and what choices you choose and what words you speak to yourself. ♾️

Is it normal to worry you might get attacked everytime you go out if you live in London?

Doc's glasses be THICC!

I had a close acquaintance who was adamant Hackers were coming through My phone to get to his phone because I had the green diode displayed on My phone next to the battery icon but while I was using the phone app, which does not mean hackers. It might mean hackers if you're diode icon next to the battery is green or orange but more likely it means You need to turn off an app and if that doesn't work to turn it off, then it's hackers but hackers will always blow up your data.

Serious question. What if the delusion is yours in thinking that the subject is delusional. Is there a guard against that? I mean how do you know?

what if there was verbal proof to your "dilusion" that you believed added up to your belief but when someone else views it they say that the thing that happened is crazy and diddnt happen when to you you believe that there was proof?

I’ve had paranoid delusions but not anymore

I need some advice. When talking to my paranoid friend she believes a lot of our peers are out to get her. That there are cameras in her car and audio that listen to her. That there are people in tinted cars who honk and harass her. Just in general that everyone is out to get her. At one point things weren’t like this- and because I’ve know her for so long it’s so hard to not believe her. It’s just a horrible feeling, like I feel like I’m going behind her back by thinking these things are false. Her always says “100 percent” that she’s positive on these things. This has been happening for over a year now and she always says “she wishes these people would stop and she can just go back to a normal life”. How can you help someone who refuses the help? And believes that all the people who want to help her are secretly doing it to hurt her? I truly need advice.

How are you supposed to approach this as a family member? And what is the first thing someone needs to do to get help?

I've experimented this ,7 years ago ,actually I'm 27 ,I haven't received treatment

I had this guy that I have known for awhile to come tell me that he thought somebody was after him. He also said that he feels like someone is in the room with him. At the time he told me this he said he was under the influence of cocaine and marijuana. So my question is would these be considered Paranoid Delusions or would it be the effects from the drugs?

How can you overcome this

Is targeted individual persecutary delusion no comments about it been real please I’m trying to help a loved one

I got drunk last week and fell out I had a dream now I feel like I did this in reel life can someone till me I want to the location twice but no one said anything about it or me

This is exactly what i have, but not as a diagnosis bc i dont have schizophrenia. People just dont try to make me as none. M

How complicated would it be to identify any falicies in delusions when treating individuals from other cultures?

A very close family member had these delusions. Literally every bad thing that happened was because of a secret plot by neighbours usually. For example, the engine blew up in his car because of low oil level. Well the excessive heat turned the remaining oil into a tar like substance. He immediately blamed some neighbours for pouring tar into his engine because they were roofers and used tar. Bizarre and sad

I have dlusions of spying from.my parents. Or that i can be gacked by others in my email so i constantly made new email accounts. And delete the previous one. I feel like my parents put cameras or microfones on each room. Idk why i am so scared of them Instrad of poison i am afraid of diseases. So if i let my glass of water i serve myself another bc i think someone drink from.it

This was a very informative video.

Paranoid delusions stem from trust being broken.

Why do i have these, and I know they are not real, but I CAN'T SHAKE THEM OFF.

What if they're not delusions but actually correct perceptions that people are trying to persecute you?

I think I need some legal help! My sister in law keeps thinking that my family is stealing from her, not on her side, and other things. She has self harmed before in the family home. She will threaten to call the cops on us for drugs that we don’t have claiming they’re in our system. We don’t do drugs. We ask her clean one thing and she freaks out and now we’re all of a sudden not on her side. We ask her to pitch in with a bill and all of a sudden she wants to die and miraculously doesn’t use that specific bill (water, electricity, internet, etc.). She moved out finally and she came to get her things. Now all of a sudden we have stolen a blanket and a mini fridge from her. Demanding us to deliver it to her new place over an hour away and threatening to call the police if we don’t. My brother, whom she is married to is in prison therefore can not do anything about this. Where do I even go to get help with this? I was thinking of calling the police to get her put into a mental help facility, but I don’t even know if that will help her. She desperately needs mental help and medication. She went to a doctor and therapist maybe twice and got put on medication for about a month and everything was fine until she just stopped going. She claimed it was our fault she stopped going because we couldn’t give her rides everywhere (she’s over 18 with no attempt to get a drivers license) and absolutely freaks out if one of us can’t give her a ride for any reason.

Thanks to one of markipliers 3 scary games, I have really bad paranoia while playing games

Hard physical work and responsibilities will cure all these paranoid people, nothing else. No time to think and whimpering.

'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.'

thanks

You are very helpfull, i thought im crazy

I remember when youth welfare office was about to take my son into care. Daycare employees and his doctor collaborated with them. I was ready to leave the country to save him. This occured at the same time when my neighbours tried to expel me from my appartment. They used to observe me to find a reason to justify it.

Does anyone ever feel like there girlfriend or boyfriend is cheating ?

What would you call it when a "clearly false paranoid delusion" turns out to be an "actually true legitimate fact" ignored by others because of normality bias? This had happened to me at least 5 or more times just in the last 6 months! I'm not sure what to make of that, especially after over 10 years of being called things like a troll or misinformation. That just makes it harder to tell what's really real sometimes.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you, seriously!

I take olanzapine for paranoid delusional beliefs.

Sad. I hope people who have this get help. Must suck living like rhat

I’ve met nice people @ the second floor:)

I am a poor schizophrenic.

I’m taking olanzapine for delusional disorder.

Can paranoid jealousy fall under this category?

Asking for a friend.

Dr. Grande, please do not ever do a video analysis of the delusional Joseph Kallinger. Unless it’s to speculate on what could possibly NOT have been in his diagnosis.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you :)

Yep you all definitely can read my mind.