# Do psychotics ever have happy delusions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 6, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266 "2013-06-06T02:44:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/1 "2013-06-06T02:44:07Z")
I know when I was psychotic my delusions were abusive (they were delusions of grandeur and of reference). I didn’t have paranoid delusions, but I know a lot of people who are psychotic do. Does anyone have positive, happy delusions and thought disorders with psychosis? Does anyone have delusions that they cured world hunger as a delusion of grandeur, or that they can feel gods love come through the radio as a delusion of reference, or anything like that? If not, has anyone studied why psychotic delusions tend to be traumatic at worst and neutral (delusions the TV is talking to you about nothing special) at best? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/2 "2013-06-06T02:52:53Z")
My aunt was schizophrenic but it seemed mostly to manifest itself with her incredibly strong delusions of a boyfriend who was about to marry her. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/3 "2013-06-06T11:50:18Z")
Anecdotal, because I don’t know the people involved very well. The sister of a friend thought Elvis talked to her through the toaster. She seemed happy about it. I don’t think her meds ever got rid of Elvis, but, once her docs found the right meds, she was quite stable. A friend of an acquaintance refused to take his meds because he liked the voices he heard. He was diagnosed both schizophrenic and bipolar, and he would spiral out of control and be hospitalized during a manic phase. But never was bother by the voices, or so he said. I don’t know how his life has progressed, since I moved away from that town. ---
**Author:** ![applebetty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@applebetty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/applebetty)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/4 "2013-06-06T12:06:05Z")
As a paramedic, I once picked up a happily delusional woman who was smiting people with her Sandal Of God, saving them from an afterlife of hell. The people around her were not so happy about it. Her husband said she refused her schizophrenia medicines because they were instruments of Satan. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/5 "2013-06-06T12:10:25Z")
Yeah, we always hear about “the voices” telling the psychotic to kill people. It seems like _somebody_ must hear voices with other messages. “Maaaake your bed…Cleean uuuuup the yaaaaaaard…Pay your taaaaaaaaxes…” ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/6 "2013-06-06T17:15:39Z")
There is a psychological condition called [Pronoia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronoia_%28psychology%29) which is the opposite of paranoia. When under this affliction you believe that everyone is secretly trying to help you. > [@](#): > > Pronoia is the positive counterpart of paranoia. It is the delusion that others think well of one. Actions and the products of one’s efforts are thought to be well received and praised by others. Mere acquaintances are thought to be close friends; politeness and the exchange of pleasantries are taken as expressions of deep attachment and the promise of future support. Pronoia appears rooted in the social complexity and cultural ambiguity of our lives: we have become increasingly dependent on the opinions of others based on uncertain criteria. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/7 "2013-06-06T17:18:34Z")
My schizophrenic Aunt felt like she was the center of a vast conflict between good and evil that stretched beyond this plane of existence. When she began taking anti-psychotics, losing that feeling of cosmic importance was a huge blow to her. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/8 "2013-06-06T17:26:21Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Yeah, we always hear about “the voices” telling the psychotic to kill people. It seems like _somebody_ must hear voices with other messages. > > “Maaaake your bed…Cleean uuuuup the yaaaaaaard…Pay your taaaaaaaaxes…” Mom, is that you? ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/9 "2013-06-06T17:39:37Z")
[Relevant comic strip](http://drunken-novice.deviantart.com/art/2GAG-Prescription-343363930) I just came across today… ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/10 "2013-06-06T17:50:22Z")
My girlfriend recently spent almost 2 months in ICU. For some reason she developed what they call ICY phychosis. She was seeing very pleasant things such as animals at play or people doing harmless but entertaining things. It lasted about 10 days. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/11 "2013-06-07T10:43:05Z")
I once met a psychotic guy who’d giggle occasionally, because the voices would tell him jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-psychotics-ever-have-happy-delusions/660266/12 "2013-06-07T20:45:14Z")
Maybe all the happy people ARE the delusional ones…