Pursuit mania is a mental dysfunction that may also be referred to as delirium of persecution. Psychiatrists attribute this disorder to the fundamental signs of mental insanity. Under mania, psychiatry refers to a violation of the psyche caused by psychomotor agitation. Often, paranoia or delusional conditions may accompany it. Psychology considers any mania as a pathological insanity on a separate phenomenon or a specific subject.

Pursuit mania, what is it? In this state, the individual is constantly haunted by obsessive thoughts about the object of attraction. An individual suffering from a mania of persecution is convinced that there is a threat; he is sure that someone is following him or is following him. The danger of the condition described is the rapid wear of the body due to the lack of rest and peace due to unobtrusive thoughts. In addition, in a particularly severe course of the described disorder, people can be a danger to the environment and to themselves. Therefore, the question: "how to get rid of the persecution mania" is quite relevant to this day.

Reasons for Mania Pursuit

The ailment under consideration is a rather complex psychological state, to this day not fully understood. However, modern scientists have nevertheless been able to identify a number of factors that provoke the origin of this mental disorder. These include: excessive external locus of control , position (complex) of the victim, learned helplessness, defensive position of the individual.

People with an excessively high external locus of control are more susceptible to the formation of the described pathology than people with a predominant internal locus of control. Individuals who believe that everything in their life is controlled by forces from outside (for example, fate, circumstances, other people) is dominated by an external locus of control, respectively, among subjects who consider themselves responsible for life success and failure - an internal locus of control.

Reasons for persecution mania. The victim complex develops in people when they are constantly offended and destroyed for a long time. Such a complex gradually develops into sustainable behavior and becomes a means of avoiding independent decisions. The greatest fear of such people is the fear of doing wrong, making the wrong decision. People with this complex tend to blame other actors for their own misfortunes, thereby relieving themselves of guilt.

The learned helplessness usually accompanies the victim's complex, although it is expressed somewhat differently. People with this type of behavior always feel their own helplessness, powerlessness. They have the worldview of the victim, therefore they consider only external factors as a source of personal problems. In addition, such individuals feel that they are not able to change anything or stop what is happening.

A person who takes a defensive position is always ready for self-defense at the slightest threat of his own person. Such individuals can perceive even the most harmless remark in their direction as a personal insult. They constantly feel that they are being unjustly persecuted. This forces people with similar behavior to take a stable defensive position.

Many researchers suggest that the origin of the persecution mania is due to a specific constitution of the central nervous system. Also of great importance is the parental education of the baby, the child suffered psychological trauma at an early age stage. These factors in a certain period, coupled with a stressful state, create fertile ground for the occurrence of the violation in question. However, these assumptions of scientists have not yet been fully confirmed.

In psychiatry, the hypothesis is widespread, consisting in the assumption that mania is one of the signs of brain dysfunction. I. Pavlov was the first to argue this point, arguing that the pathological focus of excitation, localized in the brain and causing a violation of the conditioned reflex activity, is the anatomical and physiological cause of the disease in question.

In people, due to drug abuse, alcohol, treatment with certain drugs, with Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, short-term attacks of delusions of persecution may occur.

Symptoms of Mania Pursuit

Each human subject perceives reality through the prism of his own individuality. Due to various ailments of the psyche, some individuals may lose an adequate perception of reality. Violations of mental processes can cause the emergence of various phobias and mania, for example, often schizophrenia persecution mania go “hand in hand”.

In medicine, it is customary to call the ailment described by the term "delirium of persecution." Delirium is a dysfunction of mental activity, due to which erroneous ideas arise that completely take possession of the individual’s consciousness. Such violations are not subject to external adjustment. In other words, it is impossible for a sick person to explain the inadequacy of his perception of reality. The ideas of people suffering from delusions of persecution are based on false messages, which in medicine are called “crooked logic”.

The persecution mania may be an independent symptom or may be a manifestation of another pathology.

The state of delusions of persecution is characterized by a number of specific differences:

- adaptation disorder (the patient cannot function normally and live in society);

- the inability to adjust from the outside;

- is a violation, not a figment of a person’s imagination;

- there is the invention of various facts about reality.

What is the name of the persecution mania in one word? In essence, the described disease is paranoia , which completely captures the human mind. Under the influence of a delusional state, a person may refuse to do the usual actions, for example, refuse food, believing that it is poisoned. People who are sick may be afraid to cross the road, thinking that they want to crush them. It seems to people suffering from persecution mania that dangers await them at every turn, that bandits only wait for a chance to harm them or even kill them. They cannot be dissuaded from their beliefs. Therefore, doctors, answering the question: "how to behave with a sick persecution mania", advise when the slightest signs appear that make it possible to suspect that a loved one has schizophrenia, persecution mania, immediately take such a person to a psychiatrist.

So, the main symptoms of persecution mania are: obsessive thoughts about the threat to life and persecution, pathological jealousy , distrust, aggressiveness , anxiety .

In the process of developing the described pathology, the delusional state takes on various forms. Patients may fear a separate aspect of life. Some suffering persecution mania can clearly determine the date of the persecution, the results of wrecking, which indicates a high level of systematization of delirium.

The delusional state develops gradually, as the “source” of the threat develops, it can change. At first, the patient can only be afraid of the spouse, considering it his main villain, then prejudice can appear against neighbors or other people from his environment. In a sick imagination of a person in a state of delirium, more and more people become participants in a conspiracy against him. Over time, thinking becomes very thorough; patients describe imaginary attempts with detailed accuracy. The descriptions themselves are at the same time unstructured, they can pay equal attention to secondary points and important facts.

In the future, there are changes in the personality of a person. Sick people become tense, aggressive, alert. They do things previously unusual for them, reluctantly answering questions about the causes and goals of such behavior.

How to deal with a sick persecution mania? In the first turn, no need to try to convince him. It must be understood that the patient is not able to realize the true state of things. In such a situation, the only right decision is to consult a psychiatrist.

Mania Pursuit Treatment

To answer the question: “how to get rid of the persecution mania”, you must first make an accurate diagnosis.

You can diagnose the persecution mania after a thorough study of the clinical picture of the disease and the patient’s history, conversations with the patient’s relatives for the most accurate description of the manifestations, detection of harmful addictions (especially drug addiction and alcohol addiction) and cerebral vascular diseases, exclusion or confirmation of the presence of other mental pathologies, conducting electroencephalography, computed tomography of the brain, x-ray studies.

How to treat persecution mania?

The treatment of the described pathology is usually carried out in a hospital setting. It includes drug therapy: tranquilizers, sedatives, psychotropic drugs, psychotherapy (family cognitive-behavioral ) in a particularly severe course - electroshock therapy. All family members participate in family therapy.

For a favorable outcome, systematic medication is important, otherwise the disease can have relapses.

In addition, it must be borne in mind that most often the pathology under consideration is provoked by certain factors, which must be eliminated before starting therapy.

In the case of a particularly severe course, if there is a threat of harm to others or to oneself, the patient is referred for treatment to a specialized institution. Often the disease takes a relapsing course.

With successful drug therapy, the patient is prescribed rehabilitation procedures.

Many are interested in how to treat persecution mania using folk remedies. Unfortunately, traditional medicine is powerless at the stage of relapse. During periods of remission and with a preventive purpose, you can take, after having previously agreed with the doctor, various soothing decoctions, infusions and teas.