Amber HollingsworthRecovery Conversation Simulator, Amber's Recovery Practice Lab · Interactive learning tool trained on Amber methodoloy

Communicating with Delusion

28 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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Amber Hollingsworth explains that when someone is experiencing paranoia and delusions (often linked to substance use), the delusion is a falsely held belief despite evidence, so attempting to rationalize or present evidence usually will not change their mind. She notes that discussing the delusion can be maddening for the caregiver and may even make the situation worse.

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Foreign. This is a great question, because when you're dealing with someone with paranoia, that means they're having some delusion and psychosis. When it's paranoia to the level that you're describing here, which does come along with the substances that you name and a delusion, the literal definition of delusion means it's like a falsely held belief despite evidence, which means there's no rationalizing with someone that has a delusion. Like, you can't give them evidence and then them change their mind. You can't have a discussion about it and have them see it clearly. And I know that is like very maddening on your end, because the more you actually talk about it, it almost makes it worse.