DELIRIO of GUILT: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

  • Jan 21, 2022
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Delusions of guilt: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

Do you have the feeling that everything is your fault? Do you attribute to yourself all the mistakes and difficulties of everyday life and even those unpredictable and uncontrollable? Then this article might interest you, given that guilt is one of the most present feelings in the Western world for its connotation and link to the Catholic religion, many times we make erroneous attributions and see them completely normal.

The term responsibility, however, makes a causal attribution of the facts and identifies the "causative" without that weight generated by the word fault. The problem is that it is such a common feeling that even when it begins to be irrational and cross certain limits, generating totally irrational ideas. For this reason, it is important to know what delusions of guilt are and how we can treat them "Is it necessary to consult a specialist if I have the feeling that everything is my fault?" Well, in this Psychology-Online article we give you the answer speaking of delusions of guilt: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment.

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Index

  1. What is delusions of guilt
  2. Symptoms of delusional guilt
  3. Causes of delusions of guilt
  4. Treatment of delusions of guilt

What is delusions of guilt?

A delusion by itself is all false and incorrigible belief that is not in accordance with the social and cultural origin of the subject. It is established by a pathological path and constitutes the main axis of the patient's life, dominating his thoughts, but also his mood and behavior.

Delusions are usually a symptom of other mental disorders within the spectrum of schizophrenia, or other disorders that may or may not be psychotic, such as depression. In any case, this can develop a disorder in itself: the so-called delusional disorder.

Characteristics of delusions of guilt

According to K. Jaspers, the delusion has three main characteristics:

  • Extraordinary conviction.
  • It does not influence experience or empirical evidence.
  • Impossibility in its content (falsehood).

Specifically, delirium of guilt is very common in depressive clinical pictures, specifically, as an additional symptom to major depressive disorder. In these cases, the person suffering from this type of delusions presents the fixed, false and irreducible idea that he is guilty of something with a high degree of intensity and frequency.

Without this degree of intensity and frequency, we would be talking about guilty ideas that could appear after the experience of traumatic situations, such as the loss of a loved one by suicide, where the person feels guilty for not having done what enough.

Symptoms of delusional guilt.

The different types of delirium show clinical manifestations common among them. We see them below:

  • Hallucinations related to the delusional theme.
  • Absence of other psychotic symptoms.
  • Affective state in line with the delusional theme.
  • Absence of judgment of illness.
  • Other areas of functioning affected according to the content of the delusion.
  • No significant impairment of psychosocial activity.

Specifically, the symptoms of delusional guilt would be those discussed above, bearing in mind that the delusional theme to which it will refer will be the personal misattribution to one's own person as responsible or "guilty" of any fact.

Like other types of delusions, its course is chronic, that is, it goes from suspicion to delusional creation and from there to its consolidation in a delusion. It is important to keep in mind that, in people with this alteration, any behavior will be integrated within the context of the delusional theme.

In addition, another aspect to take into account in delusions, and something that helps us to differentiate them from other psychotic spectrum disorders, is their late appearance, usually from the age of 40.

Delusions of guilt: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatment - Symptoms of delusions of guilt

Causes of delusions of guilt.

There is no clear cause of delusions of guilt, although we know that mental health illnesses are the result of interaction of genetics and environment with an average ratio of 60-40%. The greater weight of the environment or genetics will depend on each specific case, without being able to make a clear determination.

If it is true that, even without being able to make a rigorous association, there are factors considered risky, which could help us define the causes such as the consumption of drugs and psychotic substances, the history of Previous delusional episodes, family history of psychotic disorders or other pathologies such as the following:

  • Schizophrenia.
  • Schizophreniform disorder.
  • Schizoaffective disorder.
  • Delusional disorder (paranoia).
  • brief psychotic disorder
  • Shared psychotic disorder (Folie à deux).
  • Psychotic Disorder Due to a General Medical Condition.
  • Toxic induced psychotic disorder.
  • Bipolar disorder.
  • Depressive disorder.
  • unipolar depression.
  • Dementia.

Treatment of delusions of guilt.

When delusions of guilt are the result of another general medical condition or disorder, the main treatment will be palliate the main cause that has delirium as a symptom. For example, if a person suffers from delusions as a symptom of depression, the main treatment will be that of depression, hoping that the delusional symptomatology will subside with the remission of this.

If the above situation does not occur, the diagnosis could be that of delusional disorder, which would suggest another therapeutic approach. At this point, we must keep in mind that delirium is difficult to cure and It is usually treated with psychoactive drugs., usually antipsychotics.

Even so, it has been shown that one of the therapies that works best is cognitive behavioral therapyTherefore, if we want to treat delusions of guilt specifically and in isolation, the therapy for this will be based on the cognitive restructuring and confrontation. The objective is to increase the person's capacity for rational judgment towards himself and try to dismantle the construction that he has made around the delusional idea.

Delusions of guilt: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatment - Treatment of delusions of guilt

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Delusions of guilt: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

Bibliography

  • American psychiatric association, (2014). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5. Madrid Spain. Pan American Medical Publishing.
  • Belloch, A., Sandin, B., Ramos, F., (2009). Manual of psychopathology, volume II. Madrid. McGraw Hill / Interamericana de España, S.A.U.
  • Carlson, N. R. (2014). physiology of behavior. Madrid. Pearson Education, S.A.

Delusions of guilt: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

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