# Anyone have success encouraging a delusional person to take meds?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-success-encouraging-a-delusional-person-to-take-meds/592556>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 13, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-success-encouraging-a-delusional-person-to-take-meds/592556 "2011-08-13T06:28:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-success-encouraging-a-delusional-person-to-take-meds/592556/21 "2011-08-16T15:46:18Z")

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> [@Merneith](#):
>
> But people with delusions, mania, and a conviction of their own righteousness can and have caused real harm to numerous families.

The Catholic Church?

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**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-success-encouraging-a-delusional-person-to-take-meds/592556/22 "2011-08-16T16:37:13Z")

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> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> I think the idea of hitting bottom is misunderstood. All it really means is that whatever event caused a person to turn their life around was their own personal bottom because that’s the point where they started rising back up from. For some people, it’s yelling at their spouse; for others, it’s waking up with a dead hooker - whatever makes you realize you have a problem. But people shouldn’t use the idea of “hitting bottom” as a way of not admitting they have a problem. They shouldn’t be thinking that they don’t need to stop because the worst hasn’t happened yet.

I’ve just noticed that there is a pattern of not admitting you need help until something disrupts your normal functioning enough that you realize ‘god, I need to get help’. For one bipolar guy I know, it was sitting in jail for three days at the end of a wild Miami vacation - he realized jail wasn’t the place for him, came home, got sober through NA, went on meds, and went to nursing school. For my friend, it was basically his entire life and identity disintigrating. Unfortunately it seems more likely to be something more extreme than yelling at your girlfriend or whatever, when bipolar disorder is involved. Just IME. It makes sense when you have frequent mania and delusions of grandeur that waking up next to a hooker isn’t going to make much of an impression.

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**Author:** ![SparkleLilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SparkleLilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparkleLilly)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-have-success-encouraging-a-delusional-person-to-take-meds/592556/23 "2011-08-17T02:37:43Z")

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Have you considered getting a Rogers Order, at least for a year or two?

There really isn’t any “convincing” someone who is manic to take meds. Usually they need to be hospitalized to get to that place.

Outside of that, I’d try to get him engage in a conversation about things important _to_ him and things folks think are important _for_ him and see if there’s a middle ground and how he’d get there.

Another thing to try would be getting him involved with peer recovery movement, such as Recovery Learning Centers, Hearing Voices groups, etc. These can be very helpful in getting someone into recovery mode.

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