Delusions and hallucinations, what's the difference?

Both delusions and hallucinations occur when the brain perceives or processes something that is not actually happening. The two are often mistaken for the same thing but they both have fundamental differences. One is a serious mental illness, while the other is a symptom and can have a variety of causes.

What are delusions and hallucinations?

Delusion is a type of mental disorder in which the sufferer cannot differentiate between reality and imagination, so he believes and behaves according to what he thinks. Meanwhile, hallucinations are a symptom characterized by sensations that are processed by the brain and can affect a person's sensory work.

Based on this understanding, both delusions and hallucinations are conditions where a person experiences things that are not real. Delusions are mental disorders that cause a person to believe that something is not happening, while hallucinations are a symptom when a person's senses experience something that is not real.

Causes of delusions

Delusion is a mental illness so there are risk factors that can affect a person's condition:

• Genetic - As with schizophrenia, delusional disorder is more likely to happen to you if a family member is experiencing the same thing. This is very likely passed from parent to child.
• Biological - Delusional disorders are likely to form when the parts of the brain for thought processes (frontal lobe) and perception (parietal lobe) experience disorders such as the growth of a brain tumor.
• Environmental or psychological - Delusional disorders can also be triggered due to excessive stress, risky behaviors such as excessive consumption and drug abuse. A person experiencing loneliness and isolation due to a hearing and sight impairment may also experience delusions.

Causes of hallucinations

Symptoms of hallucinations can be triggered by several causes, including:

• Mental disorders - various mental disorders that cause a person to be unable to cause reality and imagination such as delusions can cause hallucinations. Symptoms of hallucinations can also occur in sufferers of scrzofernia, dementia, and delirium.
• Drug abuse - it is a common cause of hallucinations. A person can hear or see things that are not real if they are under control of alcohol, cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs.
• Lack of sleep - is more likely to occur if a person has had sleep deprivation or has not slept for several days or longer.
• Health condition - There are various health conditions that cause a person to experience hallucinations including:
  • Currently undergoing treatment
  • Terminal disease such as cancer, AIDS, or kidney and liver failure.
  • Have Parkinson's
  • High fever
  • Migraine
  • Social isolation, especially in the elderly
  • Hearing and visual impairment
  • Epilepsy

What happens when someone has delusions?

In general, people with delusions can work and interact like normal people, but they will show behavioral changes such as anger, irritation or sadness if an interaction has touched something they believe in. What a person experiences when experiencing delusions can vary depending on the type of delusion being experienced, including:

• Erotomatic - causes someone to believe that someone is in love with the sufferer. This belief is also accompanied by obsession and behavior stalking towards someone who has delusional thoughts.
• Grandiose - This type of delusion is closely related to high self-esteem, causing the sufferer to believe that he is an important person, has talent, is influential, and has made important findings.
• Jealous - a delusional type that creates conviction when a partner or partner is unfaithful to him.
• Persecutory - is a delusion that causes the sufferer to believe that he or those around him are being treated unfairly, or feel that someone will do something bad to him. Behavior that criticizes excessive law enforcement efforts is also found in sufferers of this type of delusion.
• Somatic - a type of delusion that causes the sufferer to believe that he or she has a disability or has a medical problem.
• Mixed - is a type of delusion characterized by the presence of two or more symptoms of mixed delusions.

What happens when someone has hallucinations?

When a person experiences hallucinations he will show changes in emotion or behavior according to the sensations he experiences and this depends on the senses that are affected. Types of hallucinations include:

• Hallucinations visual - a type of hallucination that causes the person experiencing it to see a person, object or other object that is not actually there.
• Hallucinations olfactory - a type of hallucination that affects the sense of smell either in the form of a scent or an unpleasant odor on oneself, an object or another person.
• Hallucinations gustatory - a type of hallucination that affects the sense of taste so that a person feels a certain taste. This often occurs when a person experiencing epilepsy feels the taste of the metallic surface on their tongue.
• Hallucinations auditory - is the most common type where a person can hear sounds such as footsteps, repeated speech or tapping.
• Hallucinations tactile - hallucinations that occur in the sense of touch so that a person feels symptoms such as insect steps, movement of internal organs or someone's hand touching their body.

Differences in how to handle delusions and hallucinations

Delusional disorders are treated with psychiatric therapies such as psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and family therapy. The goal of psychiatric therapy in delusional sufferers is to reduce stress, help sufferers interact and bring sufferers closer to their family and closest people. Drug therapy for people with delusions includes neuroleptic drugs and antipsychotics to suppress the hormones dopamine and serotonin in the brain as well as antidepressant drugs.

Meanwhile, people who experience hallucinations are treated with drugs that slow down the work of the brain, but the handling of hallucinations is accompanied by factors that cause them to reduce the severity of the hallucinations. Psychiatric counseling is also needed so that someone experiencing hallucinations can better understand the condition they are experiencing.