I told my Doctor that I was testing my delusions and he was okay with it.
I’d go up to people and say stuff like…
“Hi! My name is Pat and I have schizophrenia. Are you just a normal guy going about your business, or are you here for a reason which only I would know about?”
I even talked like this to a Police Officer i was suspicious of. Everyone I met was supportive and honest, and I got into quite a few lengthy and deep conversations with some of these strangers.
Have any of you ever done this? Confronted your delusions head on, to seek an answer based in reality?
Now that I think about it, perhaps it isn’t a good idea for everyone…you might get into a spot of trouble.
I think it worked for me though because I am older and harmless looking. I’m usually well-turned out and don’t look threatening. I’m a good conversationalist one-on-one in real life as well which helped…not so much in larger groups.
I think that is very courageous of you, @PatrickT! I used to have a lot of paranoia and my psych team used to tell me to reality test in the same way as you and I could never do it effectively because I always thought that people would lie to me.
I did this with a musical hallucination once. It didn’t turn out so well. Guys looked at me like I lost my ■■■■. But now I mostly bounce things off of my bf. He keeps me grounded.