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Jul 22, 2013, 07:43 PM
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Member Since: Mar 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 1,486
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It sounds grandiose, but I guess, as Genetic pointed out, it depends on how long this lasted, what other symptoms went along with it, how fully you believed it, etc. It's complicated (as Genetic also pointed out).
In the context of mania, I have felt 'grandiose' (the most brilliant person in the world, no one can think as clearly, as fast, as brilliantly as me), convinced people were flirting with/attracted to me, when afterwards, I seriously doubted this. This was all in the context of not sleeping, tons of energy anyway, speaking a mile a minute with an unbelievable, almost physical (like hunger, peeing) need to talk and get it all out, jumping out of my skin, impulsively saying and doing things, etc., etc., which lasted for some weeks.
As far as delusions, in the context of what my psychiatrist later called a psychotic depression (I wasn't sleeping either, but it wasn't mania, and other things), I was told I had a mass/cyst on an ovary (not cancer, no big deal) and with time became convinced that it was some sort of alien, evil being that had invaded me, trying to hurt me, I had to get it out, tear it out, destroy it... I became more and more obsessed with it, this went on for a couple of weeks, got worse with time. I would look in the mirror and feel like I was being taken over by some evil entity, it wasn't me anymore. It was like I was in a different/parallel dimension, I was disappearing to nothing. It was terrifying, awful.
As far as the 'grandiosity' vs 'delusions' I guess part of the difference I see is that although I am not the most brilliant person in the world  , in theory, it's possible for someone to be a genius. Whereas with the delusion, it's simply not possible for anyone's body, in any context, to be invaded by an alien being. I guess I think of grandiosity as a kind of huge exaggeration, and delusions as something that is just impossible, for anyone, at any time.
This is certainly, though, something that is going to be very different for everyone, it's just how I conceptualize it, according to my own experience.
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