i have never met an unpsychotic person who knows what it actually means to “not encourage the delusion” …not a single one
what “don’t encourage the delusion” means:
don’t argue with or challenge the delusion—attempting to disprove someone’s delusions is not helpful at all and will result in that person not trusting you
assure the delusional person that they are safe; be open and honest at all times
encourage them to verbalize their feelings and offer protection to prevent injury to themselves or, possibly, others
start building a trusting relationship with them rather than acting on a desire to control their symptoms
do not confirm or feed into the delusion by asking questions about it when the person is not experiencing a psychotic episode
what it does not mean:
insisting to a psychotic person experiencing psychosis that what they’re experiencing isn’t real
I don’t mean to trivialize psychosis by making a weird comparison, but this guide also serves as a handy checklist for helping someone through a bad drug trip. In both cases your number one priority is to get the person through whatever they’re dealing with unharmed.
i don’t think it’s trivializing at all, nor a weird comparison—as a psychotic person who has had psychotic episodes inadvertently triggered by drug use and/or worsened while trying to self-medicate with drugs, i think this is an important addition.
This is also important for interacting with people experiencing dementia, btw.


















