How do individuals understand delusions without psychiatric intervention?
20 October 2024
This is a study focusing on how people who have experienced apparent delusions make sense of them, and integrate them, without psychiatric intervention. I will be exploring the processes through which individuals understand prior experiences of extremely subjective unconventional beliefs (typically diagnosed as 'psychotic delusion') outside the medical model.
For this particular study, participants will no longer be experiencing these beliefs, but will have had experience of them in the past.
Requirements
- At least five years ago, you believed that you were someone or something else and/or you believed that something was happening that was not, objectively, possible; and
- You were not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time; and
- You no longer have these beliefs; and
- You have never taken any psychiatric medication; and
- You have a network of social support; and
- You are currently in full-time employment; and
- You would like to share your experiences, entirely anonymously, with a view to informing future research into providing useful support for those with similar experiences who are struggling.
Keywords
Ethical approval
Ethical approval for this study was received from the Metanoia Research Ethics Committee (Metanoia Institute) on 4th October 2024.
About the researcher
I qualified as an integrative psychotherapist in 2020, and have a long-held belief that psychotic experiences are deeply personal in nature; a means of self-expression, often misunderstood. Having spent almost 20 years researching the various positions of the mental health system with regard to psychosis, it seems important to hear from those who have experienced what would typically be diagnosed as 'psychotic delusion', but who did not go through the psychiatric system, and instead have found other ways to understand, process and integrate their experiences. This seems to be a significant 'missing piece' in the collective knowledge available on psychosis and could be of use in developing supportive interventions for those in the future who may be struggling.
