Cached from Wikipedia on Ash Wednesday, 2009
Ideas of reference and delusions of reference
involve people having a belief or perception that irrelevant, unrelated
or innocuous phenomena in the world refer to them directly or have
special personal significance. In their strongest form, they are
considered a sign of mental illness and form
part of a delusional, paranoid,
schizotypical, or psychotic illness (such as schizophrenia
or delusional disorder).
People who are diagnosed with Bi-Polar disorder experience ideas of
reference in the most extreme sense during the elevated stages of mania.
Ideas of reference may include these experiences:
- A feeling that people on television or radio are talking about or
talking directly to them
- Believing that headlines or stories in newspapers are written
especially for them
- Having the experience that people (often strangers) drop hints or
say things about them behind their back
- Believing that events (even world events) have been deliberately
contrived for them, or have special personal significance for them
- Seeing objects or events as being set up deliberately to convey a
special or particular meaning
- Thinking persons or groups of persons are plotting against them
and that precautions must be taken to avert the threat
See also
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