I don’t get how anyone feels that actively arguing against someone’s delusions if they haven’t been asked to, or if they don’t know how to do so for said individual, is helpful in any capacity.
When I’m experiencing delusions and someone decides to argue against them, I either just start believing the delusion more, involving them in the delusion, losing touch with reality faster, feeling really unheard and invalidated, feeling it’s not possible to open up to them, or a combination of all of those.
If you’re a non-psychotic, please don’t argue against someone’s delusions unless they’ve told you it helps them, and you’ve discussed which ways of doing so work for them. But even then, please still ask us with each instance. I say this because different delusions and circumstances can affect us in different ways, so what might help in one instance could do the opposite in another.
Don’t just assume you know how to help us because you saw the term reality checking used once (reality checking ≠ arguing against someone’s delusions), because you saw it in media once, because you know of a psychotic it does help, because it helped us in one specific instance, etc.
And especially don’t take it personally and blame us if your so called help doesn’t actually help us. Listen to the individuals you try to help rather than assuming.