Ideas of reference

Does anyone have ideas of reference...where you think you hear people talking about you but they're being so disrespectful or so mean that you can't believe they actually said the thing?

I go through periods of this, though it used to happen all day long. It makes me feel so weak and crazy. I feel like I can't trust my own judgement in what I hear, so when can I every trust my judgment.

My logical brain tells me that I'm not this important. People are only concerned with themselves. But that doesn't affect the ruminations.

I'm taking 80mg of Latuda, which has decreased this problem thankfully. It's still hard to deal with when it happens.

I think I do. I don't know if I'm reading the situation clearly but I constantly think people are talking about me. My jobs are very public in nature and I always feel like others think I don't know what I'm doing and are making fun of me. I don't know if this is actually true (especially since I lost my last job in March and didn't find work until July) or if I'm paranoid.

Great question. I am curious to hear how folks handle this. I wonder if it is feasible to utilize someone/something to anchor reality vs hallucinations.

That made me think that if I had more self esteem, these things might not happen. I might have a propensity for paranoia and the low self esteem makes it worse.

Always. (IDK how to post pics, but I’m picturing a Severus Snape shot.)

How do you deal with always feeling like this? It's exhausting.

I create awkward situations and make everyone around me feel uncomfortable. Is there a better way? But seriously, it is like my very own little personal hell that I take everywhere with me, and that no one else can see.....and no one else believes is there. Exercise helps. Sleep helps. But it’s always there.

Thanks for your viewpoint, FirstBee.

I get this sometimes when i'm hypomanic. The worst and most embarrassing time was when i confronted my neighbor about it. She was really sweet and assured me i was imagining things. I later apologized for over-reacting and she was very kind about it. One time i confronted someone i caught talking about me with a guy and she explained the guy was saying how much he admired how assertive i was and she was telling him to ask me how i got that way! Well, i sure felt like a horse's *** that time!

My friend and I used to have a code name for when I did this. It was “elephant clouds.” She would get frustrated with me and one day asked why I always think the way I do. I used the analogy of seeing pictures or objects in the clouds —- you know how clouds can bunch together and look like a dragon, or a smiley face, or a gnome, or an elephant, etc? But everyone knows there isn’t an elephant in the clouds — it’s just an illusion and will morph back into “just a puffball” as the wind changes. Sometimes I “see” elephant clouds in my interactions with other people. Their behavior/words/tone of voice/facial expression/whatever collect in such a way that I see things that are illusionary. My brain tries to create a picture of the situation using ambiguous information, just like it does when we stare up at the clouds.