I have been trying to understand more about PP and my own experience. I have never been officially diagnosed with PP but really struggled with my mental health in 2018 after my baby was born. I have been referred 6 years later to a perinatal psychiatrist to discuss what happened and have more understanding or answers. I have posted about this separately.
I have done some of my own research into finding out more about intrusive thoughts and delusions.
I am struggling to fully understand the difference between the two and examples of each. I am also interested to know if delusions always completely lose touch with reality or is there some insight?
would be interested to hears others experiences of intrusive thoughts and delusions and how these manifested differently
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Tinks24
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Hi. I definitely had insight with my first delusion, when my symptoms were pretty minor. But then after I was sectioned and admitted to the MBU I became severely delusional that I was being trafficked and definitely lost insight for several days/ weeks. I think intrusive thoughts happen when you have capacity and insight and it’s a form of OCD, something that just happens which is outside of your control!
I would say that intrusive thoughts are neurotic and delusions are psychotic.
There is often some insight to intrusive thoughts that they aren’t true, but do have some basis in reality. For example, when people get to the edge of a cliff, people can feel an urge to jump off. However they find the thought distressing and know that is not what they want to do.
Delusions however feel very real to the person but have no basis in reality, and there is no insight to this. It is a firmly held belief that is not true. For example, believing that you have special powers or are being spied on.
I had pp with my daughter in 2018, and at the time I started noticing psychosis symptoms I still had some insight. But when I experienced delusions I firmly believed them, they came from inside of me and reflected my fears and recent experiences, and they had no basis on reality. When on other occasions I have experienced intrusive thoughts they popped into my head as a response to what is happening at the time.
This is only my personal experience and expressed not like a professional would word it, I would suggest it is a good idea to talk to a perinatal psychiatrist as I have read your other heartfelt post where you described how you did not receive a diagnosis. I imagine you have a fair number of questions at the moment and trying to make sense of it all can be quite overwhelming. Take it at your own time. Take good care,
hi Tinks24, I had pp in 2018 and am also interested in learning more about these terms. There might be a medical definition of both of these on the mind website - might help. In terms of my own understanding ( not necessarily accurate) intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts that come to your mind frequently, the thought might be disturbing and scare you but it’s not something you’ve done or will do just a thought that keeps disturbing you that keeps coming back, you can have insight. A delusion is something you strongly believe to be true that is not. The delusion could and probably will be intrusive by word definition but it’s more than the ‘intrusive thoughts’ as if delusional you have lost touch with reality. In terms of could there be any truth in delusions I had asked similar questions I found it useful when my therapist described my delusions and being hooked onto points of reality. That doesn’t mean the delusions is real if just means it comes from/ touches a real let’s say point of inspiration. For example I was deluded that I believed people we’re working to steel babies from the MBU while that delusion had no truth the underlying fear could have been ‘I’m afraid someone might take my babies away if I’m not well’ . For me it’s like a being delusional is like being awake in a horrific dream - that dream might have been inspired by real things that have happened but is completely now played out in the awful unreal delusion. Not sure if that’s helpful. How are you getting on in your recovery. Lots of love and healing. Xx
what an interesting question and a great discussion above.
I was in a mixed psychiatric gender unit for several months. My partner must have gone through hell during this period of time as my light bulb of the hear and now rarely switched on. The hallucinations were real. I was re-living my past and people, who surrounded me changed to the people who were of great significance of my past. In addition, when in isolation, I was involved in a survival game, a bit like hunger games. Very real to me.
I continued with psychotic episodes throughout my recovery during stressful situations. After my dad's passing I continued to hear the church bells ringing for a very long time. I always have had to have reassurance via my partner that it was just in my mind.
Hallucinations is a delusion of our mind when extremely poorly in my opinion.
I suppose intrusive thoughts can be as debilitating as delusions. Because of suffering with a chronical mood disorder, and (between 2010 and 2018) undiagnosed BP and peri menopausal suicidal thoughts have been pretty intrusive and affecting my well being at the time. I suppose having been continuously in a survival mode intrusive thoughts are more frequently, because of lack of coping mechanisms or identifying triggers.
Take good care of yourself, be aware of your own stressors, and making goals more achievable in small stepping stones...The more self reflect one becomes the more one will be able to establish a toolkit for keeping your MH in check.
I just wanted to say that I suffered from delusions but I don't think they necessarily have to be bad or scary, though I 'm sure they often are. I think they are just things you believe to be true that are not based in reality.
My delusion whilst poorly was that me or my son were Jesus Christ reincarnated. I could never figure out if it was me or my son and I wasn't even a religious person at the time.
Great question and something that has often been a question for me too.
In my experience the whole thing occurred on a spectrum of sorts. It started as intrusive thoughts: things I didn't really want in my mind, but just couldn't keep out. A psychologist I recently spoke with says this is more related to anxiety, or OCD if it's the same thought over and over (it did become that.) They also call this rumination. Eventually, I began to believe the things I was thinking, and they became irrational thoughts - delusions. I started perceiving the voices in my head as being other people speaking to me. I perceived external noises as alien voices speaking to me. Once you get there, it's truly psychosis.
This sounds a lot like what happened to me. A terrifying, nightmarish experience. They call it OCD with psychotic features. I did generally retain some insight that what I was thinking was “mad”, but nevertheless found the thoughts utterly frightening, and to a great extent I struggled to not believe them.
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