[Atypical_Disaster]

How do I know that this website isn't a hallucination/delusion? How do I know that my therapist is real? How do I know that any of this world is actually real?

How do I know that I'm real, for that matter?

I don't know the answers to any of those questions. I can't prove that I'm real. Nobody can prove that anything is "real". So why have so many people told me that my perceptions are bull**** and couldn't possibly be real, and yet they can't prove one darned thing about their so-called "reality" actually being real?

[Ash0198]

I find i question reality a lot too...who can i trust in this unreal place? who is really there for me...are these things all real or is it a figment of my imagination??...or is it even my world...my reality that has come into play finally?
do u know any grounding techniques?
Here's one that one of my psychologists taught me...all u have to do is name five things with all ur senses in the room/place ur in...it will put u in ur place and as u 'feel the cushion' underneath u u will begin to feel at peace, but rather its kind of a reality check too....i find it helps

[costello]

It's an interesting question. I don't like the word 'real' for describing hallucinations and delusions. First, they're 'real' in the sense that the people who experience them will change their behavior in response to them. Second, I believe there is meaning in these experiences (at least to the same extent as there's meaning in dreams - some dreams have meaning IMO and some seem like random nonsense ). To tell the person experiencing a delusion that it's not 'real' negates what is very likely a profound and important experience.

For example, during my son's last episode he had an elaborate delusion that he was married to three women and had seven children and each child was born with a dragon (he told me later that he somehow knew he wasn't able to care for a child, hence the dragons). To me it's a touching delusion that says a lot about his longing for connection and love and family. It was touched off when the last gf 'broke up' with him by just not responding to his texts anymore. It was just too painful to accept, so he rejected 'reality' and created a 'reality' more to his liking. She hadn't broken up with him. They were married and had children. (Then the delusion got more elaborate over time. That's how it always seems to work with my son. It's like a snow ball rolling down hill, picking up random stuff on the way.)

I prefer the term 'concensus reality.' Maybe only Atypical can see the staring guy, but that doesn't make him not real. He's just not a part of concensus reality.

The problems come when the person experiencing the delusion expects the rest of the world to accept it. My son, for example, would call the police to report non-existent crimes. Once he called them to report that his uncle had raped his wife. When you make a call like that, the police have to come out and investigate - and my son is scared of cops.

[wolfie205]

Been asking this question a lot lately, so how do I know what is real from what's not? I'm still at the early stages so I do have times when the delusions, paranoia and voices don't bother me so much. It's hard to tell yourself your thoughts and experiences aren't real because they feel really real and no matter what people tell you, you believe it's real, that's why it's a delusion. Half the time I don't even know whether the voices I hear are really there or whether I'm imagining them because I have no idea where they come from. On the days that I think a little clearer, I try to differentiate what's real from what's not real, but sometimes I really never can tell. So now I just tell myself that most of it isn't real and I should try to ignore it as much as I can.

[KUREHA]

I always hated - this is because you can't tell what is and what isn't real.

Well I do know the difference.

[Ultra Darkness]

I think about this sometimes, usually when writing. This is because different characters see things in different ways, especially when one of them is mentally ill. I've concluded that reality is what you make it, and that no one lives in the exact same reality as anyone else.

Note: When I say reality is what you make it, I don't mean to imply that we think ourselves into/out of hallucinations and delusions. It was more of a "believe what you want to believe" kind of thing.

Okay, I'm just going to offer an example, because I'm not explaining my thoughts well.
Basically, if you're religious and you believe in God, He's real to you even no one else believes in Him. Does that convey the thought?

I don't know what I'm talking about...

[AlternateUniverse]

I get really frustrated when somebody says to me 'oh but that's not even real' or similar when I have just tried to explain to them something that I thought was really important. It was something that bugged me a lot when I was at my worst. To make it even worse for a long time I believed that it wasn't me but everyone around me who had gone psychotic, and that I had some connection to reality that nobody else had.

These days I try to be more accepting and take the more philosophical view that there is no such thing as 'reality' because (as has already been said here) we all see things differently from each other.

[faerie_moon_x]

I write stories, you know? And I create these people and I can see them. I create their whole world. I know how they look, how they dress, what they would choose to eat on the menue. I know everything about them. I decide what's going to happen to them. I can give them magical powers or take them away. I can make them good or evil. I decide if they will live or die.

They are only imaginary to me. But, it's possible, I guess, that's it's like they have their own demension and I created it. So, maybe they are real somewhere living in their own reality. I give them life, and then when I'm done with the story, then what? Maybe their world goes on.

I think about this a lot. And how maybe we're just characters in a story. And God is just a story teller somewhere.

So yeah, reality is a strange thing....