Delusional Disorders – Understanding The Signs Of This Serious Illness
ccording to the Random House Dictionary, the basic definition of “delusion” is “false belief or opinion.” While most of us have held a belief that was later proven incorrect at least a few times in our lives, how can we distinguish between an occasional inaccurate idea and a delusional disorder that needs psychiatric treatment?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, utilized by psychiatrists to categorize mental illnesses by symptoms, defines delusion as the following: “A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture.” (This last portion is important because it excludes commonly held cultural or religious beliefs from this diagnosis.)
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