How do you deal with people who suffer with paranoid delusions?
Reality orientation is best. While they will never believe that their delusions are, in fact, a product of a diseased mind, the worst that you can do is validate their paranoia. Often, friends and family of those that suffer from this illness will “go along” with the delusions, going so far as to “help them” by, say, spending exorbitant amounts of money on security (if the particular delusion is a “they’re all after me” delusion) or even helping those that suffer from the “bugs under the skin” delusion self harm in order to purge their imagined infestation. This does a great deal more harm than good, for a few reasons. First, it reinforces their irrational fears and makes them even more terrified, because their worst fears are confirmed. Second, it involves the entire group in a sort of irrational “group think”….many otherwise healthy family members have become paranoid themselves by becoming entrenched in the delusions of their loved one. And third, it is never enough. The delusions
