People with delusions of egotism often think of themselves as great, even thinking that they are superhuman and immortal. The ego is too big and the hallucinations appear, causing these people to gradually move away from reality and engage in harmful behaviors to themselves and those around them. Treatment with drugs and psychotherapy in the early stages will bring positive improvements to patients.
What is egotism?
Grandiose delusions, also known as grandiose delusions, are a type of delusional disorder. This person has a strong unrealistic belief, towards exaggerating himself, always thinks that he is a great man, a leader, even thinks he has supernatural powers, is immortal, superior to all men.
People with delusions of self-esteem always overestimate themselves, thinking that they have supernatural powers that are second to none.
This is a persistent delusional disorder that dominates the person’s thoughts, behavior, or any other problem in the person’s life. At the same time, these unrealistic beliefs are accompanied by unusual religious beliefs and excessive fanaticism. Therefore, they are often accompanied by a fear that they will be harmed, oppressed, or kidnapped because they are holding too many supernatural talents.
According to research, delusions of high self-esteem are most common in people with bipolar disorder, accounting for about 1% of the population, so these symptoms can appear in stages. Excessive self-delusion and hallucinations appear, causing the patient to gradually lose connection with reality, move away from reality and appear dangerous behaviors for himself or those around him.
Common types of delusions of self-esteem
Each individual may have their own delusions about themselves, depending on which symptoms will be somewhat different. However, these types still have the common characteristics of being overly cheerful, having a high mood, thinking quickly, having impulsive behaviors and always thinking that they are number 1, looking down on those around them. In general, it is said that one’s ability and ability is limitless and can do everything.
The patient will always praise himself, thinking that he is the most talented and intelligent person.
In particular, some common forms of paranoid delusions such as
- Believe that you are special, take on important tasks that no one else can do, can save the world, such as ending battles, conflicts or wars
- Have faith that you have a high social status, are famous, have fans
- Superstitious, fanatical, even thinking that they can establish and lead a certain religion
- Considering themselves immortal, nothing can affect their lives, not even disease, injury, not even guns.
- Believe that you are the greatest, the smartest person in the world
- Claiming to have supernatural powers, such as controlling rain, talking to animals, or reading people’s minds
These forms of paranoia will be formed through the influence of the surrounding environment, society, culture, and beliefs. These illusions gradually ingrained in the subconscious, dominate all thoughts and behaviors of the patient, pulling them away from reality and many other serious problems.
Signs of egotistical paranoia
Paranoid egotism will still have all the characteristics of paranoia such as having a strong belief in one’s own thoughts, having too much fun, having illogical thoughts or words, not being able to synchronize with others. The people around should gradually become closed.
Patients always have a strong belief in their own abilities even though the reality is not.
Specifically, some of the typical signs of megalomania are:
- Excessive self-aggrandizement, believing in one’s own worth even though it’s not, so they tend to look down on those around them. For example, they may consider themselves a genius, a successful businessman, a celebrity or even a superhero who saves the world.
- I think I have some natural talent, hidden supernatural power but not yet revealed
- Tend to entice others, seek support through mass media channels to show their popularity and ability
- I love and respect myself very much, always use the best words to praise myself
- Mood is elevated, always in a state of excitement, happy, talking fast, talking a lot constantly and only focusing on themselves or the issues they want to talk about
- Sleep less, especially in people in a manic episode. Even people with delusions of pride can stay awake for 1-2 days without feeling tired
- Irrational speech, jokes, puns and insolence, can move quickly from one topic to another.
- If people are indifferent, do not listen or intend to oppose, they can become agitated and angry because they think they dare to go against them. However, others will appear indifferent, not interested in that person or even say insolent words to refer to that person, thinking that they are jealous of their abilities.
- Often has exaggerated expressions or easily falls into a state of extremes, passionately spinning about a certain issue, such as belief, religion
- Always think that people around you are passionate, worship, and admire you
- Tends to adapt poorly to life due to being too arrogant, speaking illogically, or frequently imposing one’s own thoughts on others, deeming it to be the norm and forcing people to follow it Over time, these people become easily isolated from society, have few emotional relationships, and are even shunned by people..
- Difficulty paying attention and focusing on a particular issue, easily distracted by surrounding problems
- There may be vague hallucinations that directly affect the patient’s quality of life and other behaviors
- Thoughts and attachments of people with delusions of self-esteem are often illogical and unrealistic, but there is no way to change their thinking.
- Persistent, persistent behavior to attest that their pride or personal illusions are real
Some typical stories of self-righteous paranoid people are that they claim to be army commanders who have led an army to battle even though they have not yet enlisted; Or go to the gold shop and ask to buy the whole gold shop to give to the poor because of the illusion that they are the son of a rich family, for their rich mother, do not worry about money or think that their hands can cure cancer or HIV even though I don’t know anything about medicine..
One interesting thing is the fact that there are people with delusions of grandeur who are actually highly intelligent, able to persuade others to follow their fantasies, many of which even create their own religions. Due to social isolation and stubbornness to their beliefs, these people can develop the ability to self-educate, even succeed in society during the disease-free period.
Causes of delusions of high self-esteem
About 10% of the population suffers from delusions of self-esteem, found in many subjects, including many children, successful businessmen, and people of social status. In addition, the study also showed that the disease Cravings tend to be more common in young men between the ages of 15 and 30.
Brain injury can be the cause of personality changes, delusions.
There are many causes of paranoia, such as
- Having a serious head injury accident affects the nervous system and brain. This is also one of the reasons why so many people become completely changed in personality, thinking, and attitude after serious traumatic accidents.
- Alcohol poisoning due to excessive alcoholism or drug addiction not only easily gives rise to delusions and hallucinations, but also increases the risk of mental illnesses such as hysteria.
- People who are quiet, introverted, share little but are under great pressure, especially office workers who do high-intensity jobs are easy to appear paranoid about themselves after a long time of accumulating. compression. This is also the reason why men tend to have the disease higher than women because men often talk less and share less than women.
- People with mental problems such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, narcissistic personality disorder, Alzheimer’s dementia or neurological disorders are also factors that change thinking, cognition, systems the brain should give rise to illusions and hallucinations of the patient. If you have these diseases at the same time, the symptoms will be more severe and the treatment will be much more difficult.
- According to experts, paranoia in children can stem from the fact that parents always flatter their children too much, are too indulgent, expose their children to the internet too much with inappropriate channels. Gradually, children may form perceptions that are contrary to their actual capacity, which already have the mentality of self-aggrandizement, thinking that they are the best, and looking down on others. At some point, if there is a failure that makes the child unacceptable, the trauma leads to mental illnesses such as paranoia.
Paranoia and its consequences
People with delusions of self-esteem do not always have these symptoms, but if they have developed the disease, they will easily appear to have difficult-to-control behaviors. According to doctors, when visiting, 100% of patients confirmed that their thoughts were reasonable and did not accept the disease.
Unreasonable delusions cause the patient to become more and more detached from reality and engage in self-harmful behaviors.
In fact, people with dementia can still participate in work, social activities like normal people, even hold important positions, so sometimes people around them do not realize they have the disease. With words that are too self-aggrandizing, flattering, and illogical, many people just think that perhaps these people’s personalities like to “exaggerate, exaggerate”, but few consider it a mental illness.
The delusional disorder causes many direct consequences to the lives of themselves and those around them. For example, there are people who, during illness, spend freely, borrow money from a lot of people because they always think they have money, resulting in a huge debt. Or if anyone does not believe, the sick person is ready to beat, harm and think that he or she deserves such punishment for daring to offend someone of his dignity.
If this disease occurs in qualified and intelligent people, it will be even more serious, even affecting the whole society. Because they can use their own abilities and words to “brainwash” the weaker people. Many groups and faiths are run by people with this disease and have caused unfortunate incidents.
Treatment of delusions of self-esteem
According to doctors, delusional egotism belongs to the group of autonomic nervous system disorders, while the patient does not believe that he has the disease, has absolute confidence in himself, so if he only uses words to advise just ineffective. At the same time, these people may also refuse to see a doctor or accept treatment from a doctor.
Taking medication in tandem with psycho-restorative therapies will give patients the best prognosis. However, according to statistics from 2014, the treatment of paranoid narcissism still has many limitations and cannot be guaranteed to go away completely. Treatment measures are still aimed at controlling symptoms, limiting recurrence and helping patients see reality more clearly.
Medicines and medical measures
Families should soon bring patients to the psychiatric specialties of large hospitals to fully perform diagnostic testing measures, thereby giving the most accurate results. To avoid non-cooperation in treatment , most people with delusions of self-esteem are often encouraged to receive inpatient treatment.
Patients with delusions of self-esteem are encouraged to receive inpatient treatment at a psychiatric unit to soon improve their disease
With the expertise of doctors and nurses, they will help patients accept medication, control aggressive behaviors or follow treatment regimens. Once the delusions about their own strength are gone, the patient will be discharged from the hospital but still need to maintain some other treatment.
Some common drug classes are often prescribed for people with delusions of self-esteem such as:
- Anticonvulsants (valproate, carbamazepine)
- Psychotic drugs (quetiapine, olanzapine, risperidone, ziprasidone, aripiprazone, clozapine)
- Benzodiazepines (bromazepam, clonazepam)
- Lithium or organ stabilizers for patients with bipolar disorder
If the patient refuses to take the medicine, doctors can use injections or combine it with professional measures to force the patient to take it. Therefore, in the first time, especially patients with severe delusions of self-esteem, they should be treated as inpatients at the hospital. The time for these therapies to be effective depends on many factors, but if you persevere in taking the medicine at the right time and follow the doctor’s measures well, it will definitely bring good results.
Psychological rehabilitation measures
Rehabilitation care is often performed concurrently with or after a period of effective medication, and cannot be used alone because it is difficult to convince the paranoid patient to change his or her own beliefs. If the patient responds well to both of these therapies, it will bring a lot of good prognosis, early control of symptoms to improve daily life.
The delusion of grandeur makes people sink in happiness about their own importance, the harsh reality will make them depressed and miserable so no one wants to get out. Patients themselves can also be dishonest with the therapist, on the other hand they are also completely dominated by delusions, so it is sometimes difficult to grasp the core thoughts, feelings or issues. cause disease.
However, the symptoms of delusional egotism can also only appear in some stages, so the family needs to bring the patient to see a mental counselor in a normal state of consciousness for good results. best. The therapist will guide the patient on how to relax his mind, control his emotions, have a correct view of reality and himself, thereby gradually bringing the patient back to a normal life.
Psychological rehabilitation sessions can be maintained for a long time, until the symptoms no longer recur, the patient gradually controls his emotions, understands himself, has a correct perception of reality. . Families can also participate in these psychosocial sessions to understand how to care for and support the patient in the event of an illness.
Family support
According to experts, families and relatives need to be really skillful to convince patients to go to the doctor, because they do not accept that they have the disease or may also think that they are immortal. for them. If the family keeps advising or affirming that the patient has psychological problems, mental illness even makes the relationship worse, conflicts appear more.
Families should spend more time talking and sharing with the sick person
Families need to accompany and be really tactful, avoiding bringing the patient to negative emotions or denying what they say because it will easily make them agitated. Skillful in conversation combined with a scientific, healthy, and active lifestyle will bring a lot of good prognosis to people with delusions of egotism. Such as
Make sure the patient takes the right medicine, at the right dose
Maintaining a stable sleep every day, avoiding the patient’s continuous activity, staying awake for many people will affect both physically and mentally.
Encourage patients to exercise daily
Meditation or yoga also bring many benefits to people with paranoia
Patiently listen and talk to the patient, absolutely do not have an indifferent attitude, joking or denying when they are trying to share something.
Building a scientific and healthy diet, absolutely avoiding alcohol, tobacco, stimulants..
Consult with doctors and experts about the most effective patient care and support regimen
Depending on the degree, the prognosis of delusional egotism varies, but if you respond well to treatment measures and have a healthy lifestyle after that, the possibility of recovery is still very high. Mental health care, brain re-examination after head injuries; Staying away from alcohol, drugs or limiting children’s exposure to technology too early are the best measures to prevent this risk.
