[aka Bean]

i cant figure out whats real or not

[Sometimes psychotic]

I usually ask other people...

[faerie_moon_x]

I'll ask other people, especially auditory things. I try not to make a big deal of it. "Do you hear music?" Just kind of in a relaxed tone.

Other times I have to do reality checking on my own. It's like a series of questions. Regular people don't appear then disappear, for example.

But hallucinations are easier, in my opinion. Paranoia is harder.

When it comes to thoughts it's hard. Does this make sense? Is not always an easy answer. Are there really spies around the office who report back to the front desk about how long people are in the bathroom? Or is it just coincidence? That's a hard one. I go back and forth. Are they spying on me or not? Did the receptionist send them or not? Is she keeping tabs on everyone or not? And it's hard because she does tattle about things like dress code. So and so got in trouble because she forgot and wore the wrong shoes. We all know who went and told HR.

So, you can see why it's hard. Reasonable or unreasonable? I can't always tell.

[lil-angel-wings]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

Paranoia is harder.

When it comes to thoughts it's hard. Does this make sense? Is not always an easy answer. Are there really spies around the office who report back to the front desk about how long people are in the bathroom? Or is it just coincidence? That's a hard one. I go back and forth. Are they spying on me or not? Did the receptionist send them or not? Is she keeping tabs on everyone or not? And it's hard because she does tattle about things like dress code. So and so got in trouble because she forgot and wore the wrong shoes. We all know who went and told HR.

So, you can see why it's hard. Reasonable or unreasonable? I can't always tell.

I have found this to be true too. I do believe that all those things are real and will never be convinced of it other wise, even though I have been told that it is not really the truth. I find it hard to self analyze it all.

[Atypical_Disaster]

I can only echo what the others have said, do "reality checks" with people that you can trust.

I can't tell what's real and what isn't, either.

[Axiom]

I usually just have mild paranoia so it's not like I'm convinced people are spying on me etc., but it's still often really difficult to know what to believe. Like if my friends are really my friends, if someone is lying to me or being truthful, if there is something bad in the food I got delivered… Stuff like that. I try to silence the thoughts and not get too affected by them. It helps acting like I'm not suspicious of people and just wait for them to show signs that they aren't out to get me, or just wait for the thoughts to pass. I become less obsessed with the thoughts when I try not to think about the paranoia. I won't eat take-away though… and I don't trust a lot of people. Reality checks with other people helps too. And I also do reality checks to figure out some of the hallucinations.