Mentally ill people – Have you built a whole belief system based on periods of psychosis and grandiose?
My brother has delusional disorder, which is closely related to schizophrenia, but the only symptom is delusions. He had developed a system of delusional beliefs that also make him happy and feel in control. Although I want him to know the truth, because I personally am a skeptic and a rationalist and don’t entertain in any beliefs without evidence and logic, and I think that approach is always better. I think happiness is not a goal in itself, but rather only a useful indicator that things are probably going well and you shouldn’t change them – and in mental illness or mild, non-clinical psychosis (which I think most humans suffer to some extent), this goes wrong and happiness keeps us from making progress instead. But I’ve always been scared that one day, if/when he realizes he’s been wrong about all of it, that he might become severely depressed, or even suicidal. Which is why I’m really not at all that pushy with him about treatment and about making him see the truth.
