I know I haven’t been sleeping well. I haven’t taken my meds as I should.
But here’s the problem.
I have some firm beliefs that I developed when I was delusional and psychotic. Most of my delusional thinking I have discarded as bs or forgotten about. But I do still have some thinking that I obsess about. I seem to fixate on these (weird) things. What should I do about it?? I quite enjoy thinking about what is plain out ridiculous.
I should focus on something productive but it’s hard. I should see these things as mere fantasy or bs lies. It’s just hard!!
I have the same issue, but when I find I’m having a delusional thought the moment I become aware it is illogical I abandon the thought entirely. You can’t stop the thoughts from coming but you can choose not to entertain them.
I haven’t learned not to entertain them. As I say I like to obsess about these things as they became firm beliefs when I was ill. I see them as the truth! Perhaps it will get better if I ignore them as much as I can? I dunno??
Some ideas grow like fungus or mold, a rotten mind easily falls prey. You need to take your meds as prescribed and regain your capacity to block unwanted thoughts.
I also dwelled on what voices said or on my own delusions for months, but eventually my mind was again strong enough to dismiss them. I now think of what I want to think of, 90+% of the time.
What’s horrible with delusions is that it messes up ones whole belief system. I don’t know what’s true or not and my imagination keeps fueling false beliefs! It sucks!!
Every patient goes through this eventually. You won’t be able to remove the delusions completely. Strict diet and physical exercise help to maintain emotional stability, but that’s it.
Try to do the following. Imagine a scenario. There is a list of household chores that you should be doing. Instead you find yourself boiling delusions in your head doing nothing. Measure how much time you waste on thinking about your beliefs and how much time you spend on doing chores. Then pick the most important chore that you neglected and try to do everything in your power to increase the amount of time you do this task and reduce the amount of time thinking about something irrelevant.
Measure your progress over time. When you notice changes, think about what you did differently to identify what helped you. Usually you will notice that healthy sleep, healthy food and avoiding triggers will be the most impactful. At least this is the case for me.
I figured this approach is best after long painful years of mental anguish. Only recently did I discover that it’s actually a component of a formal treatment approach called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).