Like you get transported into an alternate universe where everything is almost same, but with tiny differences. The world looks normal to everyone and you’re the only one that have memories of the differences.
Do you think you would trust your memories or would you think you lost your mind?
I can’t imagine you could hallucinate a person in such detail and over such a long period of time that there would never be any indication they weren’t imaginary. I would trust my memories and question the circumstances of their disappearance.
You brain makes up the details in exactly the amount you need to. That is a core problem when your brain itself is the issue.
and it’s for exactly this reason that arguing with a delusion strengthens it. If you show a person with Cotard delusions how to find their pulse they’ll come to the conclusion that dead bodies can still have a heartbeat and if you show a person with capgras delusions a DNA test now the doppelgangers can mimic DNA too. the new information just gets integrated in a way that supports the delusion. all you can do is try to distract them while the antipsychotics hit and try to keep them socially connected through unrelated stuff like hobbies, music, etc.
I would recognize that.
Sometimes I actually recognize that my brain does this at the moment, and then I know that I am dreaming right now.
Perhaps you have no mental illness then…?
IIT most people are going the other way, but IRL I think this is how the vast majority operates.
That being said, the psychotic person I deal with quite often has pretty similar reasoning about the people sneaking into her house and moving things around (it’s always her, there’s even cameras but she was there, dammit, regardless of what’s on the screen).
Inb4 they starting doing Zersetzung, rearranging furniture and then use AI to create a fake security footage.
Oh boy, if she actually understood AI there’d be a whole other layer to deal with. As it is, she continues to believe her fixed delusions, but also can’t support them, so most of the time we can just ignore it and interact normally.