Persecution mania, “seeker” and hallucinations from salt in salt addicts

Salt addicts are the most inadequate of all existing drug addicts! They have the wildest psychoses, which last for quite a long time and push a person to indescribable actions.

Although, can a person be called a person under salt? Hardly. This is the behavior of a cowardly and snarling animal...

Maybe it will be funny for you to read about what their mania looks like, but in reality it is scary and dangerous. It costs nothing for a salt addict to kill his own mother and his own child. And there is no need for a reason for this, it may simply seem to him that in this way he is “saving” them from evil demons...

Therefore, if there is a salt addict in your family, don’t wait another second! Admit him to a narcology clinic or a psychiatric hospital, otherwise trouble will inevitably happen. The easiest way is to call a brigade to forcibly transport this figure to the RC. I’ve explained why this is so below.

What is persecution mania?

Persecution mania (also called delusion of persecution) is a mental disorder in which a person thinks that someone is watching him with the aim of causing harm. The condition has another name - persecutory delirium (from the Latin word persecutio, meaning persecution).

The patient is sure that a certain group of people wants to do something bad to him. He sees enemies in neighbors, colleagues and even friends. Sometimes they are animals or inanimate objects. According to the person, they want to kill him, poison him, rob him, or simply mock him.

Let's give an example. Let's say someone diagnosed with persecution mania comes to the cinema to see their favorite film. Other spectators are sitting around him. Naturally, they laugh, talk, and glance at their neighbors from time to time. And there is nothing strange about this. But not for the patient. It seems to him that those around him are completely absorbed in him. They not only make fun of him, but also make plans to do something bad to him. Trying to avoid this fate, the individual gives up everything and leaves the session without seeing the long-awaited picture.

This is just one example. Men and women suffering from persecution delusions are simply obsessed with the idea of ​​bringing their enemies to light. They become withdrawn and aggressive. Moreover, patients often write denunciations against so-called ill-wishers. And they are also trying with all their might to hide, covering their tracks, changing their usual routes, external data, transport, etc.

Persecutory delusions were first mentioned by Ernest Charles Lasegue, a psychiatrist from France, in 1852. A more detailed explanation was given by physiologist Ivan Pavlov. According to him, this disease is a consequence of disruption of certain parts of the brain.

The World Health Organization considers persecution mania to be a disease. According to statistics, this diagnosis has been confirmed in 44,000,000 patients worldwide. Most of them are elderly people suffering from schizophrenia or dementia. The pathology may also be a consequence of alcohol poisoning.

Interesting Facts

Many famous people have had persecution mania. Let's remember some of them.

Jean Jacques Rousseau - writer and philosopher. He saw secret conspiracies everywhere; it seemed that all his friends and acquaintances were against him. The illness manifested itself especially strongly after the publication of his book “Emil, or on education,” which caused a serious conflict with the church.

Edgar Allan Poe also had persecution mania. He was afraid of the dark because he believed that there were monsters and otherworldly forces lurking there who wanted to kill him.

What personality changes does alcoholism entail?

Have you been struggling with ALCOHOLISM for many years without success?

Head of the Institute: “You will be amazed at how easy it is to cure alcoholism simply by taking it every day...

Read more "

Personality changes during alcoholism are a kind of manifestation of mental problems, which consists of moral, spiritual and social components. After a person drinks alcohol for a long time and in large quantities, a change in his mental state can occur in two ways - a vivid manifestation of emotions, which is replaced by complete disappointment and tearfulness.

Stages of alcoholism

The immediate human desire to drink more and more with everyone, and the resulting inability to control one’s own behavior, can be conditionally divided into several stages

At the first stage, a person drinks more and more each time, which leads to a certain loss of self-control.

The following condition appears:

• swagger in behavior;
• inability to remember some events;
• bad feeling;
• sleep problems.

At the same time, he himself zealously condemns alcoholics, believing that he is just a hobby, which he is ready to end at any moment.

This stage is already chronic, in which there is a persistent desire to drink, since alcohol is now the only hobby, and the morning hangover now becomes obligatory, which, of course, leads to binge drinking. Here the need to drink is already manifested at the physiological level, and a sober person already becomes angry and depressed.

The second stage is called the late stage, during which disturbances in the functioning of the body occur. Degradation in this case already occurs at the physiological level, as brain cells are destroyed. Problems with speech, coordination and thinking are pronounced here.

Already literally at the second stage, a person begins to form a so-called alcoholic character, which manifests itself as:

• lack of critical perception of one's own life;
• decreased intelligence;
• increased emotionality;
• tearfulness;
• deceit;
• inability to communicate and behave adequately in society.

Judging by all the symptoms of personality changes listed above in alcoholism, the degradation of a drinking person is noticeable, which is obvious.

All the attention of the drinker belongs only to the desire to drink, which must be fulfilled at any cost. As a result, the alcoholic begins to steal things from home, selling them or simply giving them away for drinks, then he steals from other people or simply begs.

In addition, over time, in order to return to his favorite state of intoxication, he begins to consume much cheaper alcoholic products that are surrogates, such as colognes, medicinal tinctures, pharmaceutical alcohol, and so on. Of course, this further aggravates the state of poor health.

Degradation

At the workplace of a drinking person:

• there is no desire to work;
• gain any new knowledge;
• the reaction worsens;
• a person begins to shirk his responsibilities;
• concentration is lost.

Alcoholic personality changes in combination lead to the loss of former professionalism and the person works only superficially, but at the same time expects the former monetary reward.

At home for a drinking person:

• the sense of responsibility changes, which sometimes simply disappears;
• he does not consider it necessary to fulfill these promises;
• lies come to the fore.

And he explains his own alcoholic intoxication as a physiological necessity, without which he would simply die. The manifested aggression and misunderstanding on the part of loved ones results in constant scandals and even assault.

Saving a family with such a person is only possible if there is a chance of recovery, but for this the drinker himself must want it and make an effort.

As for communication with friends, in a sober state the personality of an alcoholic is not able to communicate on equal terms, since he is constantly tormented by a certain embarrassment, although after drinking alcohol the situation changes radically and he becomes bold and sometimes even aggressive.

Those people who drink alcohol for a long time often suffer from mental disorders; psychology identifies the following conditions:

1. Delirium tremens, also called delirium. It occurs due to: sudden withdrawal of alcohol, the onset of diseases, shock. In such a patient, excessive illusions provoke the occurrence of mania and delusions. In this state, he is dangerous not only for others, but also for himself, since his psyche is extremely unstable.
2. Hallucinosis, manifested in the fact that the patient is sure that he hears someone’s voices, provoking him to commit a particular act. At the same time, the feeling of depression changes into an aggressive mood, which ultimately leads to constant thoughts of suicide.
3. Psychosis. If a patient has a head injury associated with constant alcohol consumption, he experiences delusional psychosis, manifested as persecutory mania, a feeling of fear and incomprehensible speech, while the sense of reality is completely absent.
4. Jealous delirium, the danger of this condition is that often a person with such a syndrome can attack his own partner with the aim of murder.
5. Binge drinking, which has a scientific name - dipsomania.
6. Depressive states.

All these symptoms indicate that alcohol intoxication has a negative effect on the psyche, which leads to disruption of the usual rhythm of life not only for the alcoholic himself, but also for the people around him.

Moreover, it all ends with the loss of family, normal work, injuries, crimes of various types and accidents. Judging by all of the above, alcoholism is the same drug addiction that provokes personality changes and complete degradation, both physically and spiritually.

But don’t despair right away, because a person who drinks periodically is not yet an avid alcoholic. Personality manifestations change over time. Therefore, by starting treatment on time, loved ones and the drinker himself will be able to solve this problem.

Causes

There is still no consensus on the reasons for the development of persecution mania. Some doctors talk about disruption of the functioning of certain parts of the brain, others associate the pathology with mental disorders.

And yet, we can identify a number of reasons that one way or another make a person feel the gaze of a pursuer everywhere:

1. Genetic predisposition. If one of your relatives has delusions of persecution, the likelihood that it will appear in you also increases greatly.
2. Paranoid schizophrenia, accompanied by auditory and visual hallucinations.
3. Psychoses. We are talking about severe stress, loss of inner harmony, obsessive states.
4. Increased anxiety. A person is so afraid of everything that he suspects everyone around him of bad intentions towards him. And bad thoughts become firmly entrenched in his head.
5. Overdose of psychotropic medications.
6. Drug addiction, excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages. In particularly severe cases or, conversely, with a sharp withdrawal from these substances, anxiety and excessive restlessness develop. And this is a direct path to the emergence of persecution mania.
7. Age-related changes, such as senile dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease and other similar disorders.
8. Atherosclerosis, which is characterized by a decrease in the patency of blood vessels.
9. Traumatic brain injuries in which damage to the brain occurs. Delusions of persecution appear if the left hemisphere, associated with cognitive processes, is injured.

There are also several factors that provoke the development of persecution mania:

1. Victim complex. Humiliation and criticism over a long period of time convince a person that he is always wrong in everything. This thought is so firmly fixed in his mind that he is simply afraid to do something. As a result, he not only refuses to make decisions, but also begins to blame everyone around him for his troubles. And this despite the fact that most often it’s all his own fault.
2. Faith in fate. Persecution mania develops in those people who are confident that their lives are controlled by foresight, circumstances, or some supernatural forces. This is called external locus of control.
3. Learned helplessness. This is a feeling of powerlessness, which is the main companion of the victim complex. The person doesn’t even take the circumstances into account. He simply convinced himself that he couldn't change anything.

Here we can add a defensive position, in which the individual perceives any words and phrases spoken to him as a threat.

Types and symptoms of alcoholic psychoses

It's no secret that alcoholism is the cause of many mental illnesses. Metal-alcohol psychoses can develop both in chronic drunkards and in people who have drunk a large amount of low-quality alcohol or its substitutes at one time. However, most often mental confusion occurs in men and women coming out of a long-term binge, that is, against the background of withdrawal syndrome.

Metal-alcohol (also known as alcohol) psychosis is a collective name for all mental disorders that develop as a result of alcohol abuse. They can be mild and resolve within a few days, or be accompanied by serious organic brain damage. The latter, as a rule, have a chronic progressive course, and they are extremely difficult to treat.

Reasons for the development of psychoses

The immediate cause of mental disorders in drunkards is toxic brain damage. In the central nervous system, the processes of excitation and inhibition are disrupted, which leads to psychomotor agitation, hallucinations, disorientation in time and space, delusional ideas, behavioral disorders and even neuropsychiatric disorders.

Psychoses most often develop in people with a family history, that is, those whose close relatives have encountered a similar problem. Additional risk factors include previous TBI (traumatic brain injury) or inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS).

Fact! According to statistics, mental disorders due to alcoholism occur in 13% of people who drink for 5-7 years.

Types of alcoholic psychoses

Each alcohol psychosis has its own characteristic clinical picture, symptoms and treatment. Alcoholics most often develop delirium tremens (delirium tremens or delirium tremens) - psychosis, which is characterized by severe clouding of reason. Less common are pathological intoxication, alcoholic paranoid or hallucinosis (symptoms of each of these alcoholic psychoses will be described below).

With prolonged intoxication with ethyl alcohol, encephalopathy and polyneuropathy develop - organic damage to the brain and peripheral nerves. Encephalopathies are characterized by intellectual-mnestic disorders and psychotic manifestations.

Depending on the duration of the disease, there are:

1. Acute alcoholic psychosis. Accounts for about 70% of all mental disorders in drunkards. As a rule, it lasts from several days to a week, in some cases it can last up to a month. How long it will take for a full recovery depends on the timeliness of seeking medical help, the quality of treatment and the person’s condition;
2. Subacute psychosis. Most often it manifests itself in the form of paranoia. It can last from a month to six months (on average 2-3 months). It ends either with recovery or transition to a chronic form. Sometimes it leads to complications or residual effects;
3. Chronic alcoholic psychosis. As a rule, it lasts more than 5 years. A person has been suffering from progressive mental disorders for a long period of time, and his condition is slowly and steadily deteriorating. Chronic psychoses include alcoholic delusions of jealousy and chronic hallucinosis.

According to ICD-10, all alcoholic psychoses are divided into withdrawal syndrome with delirium and psychotic disorders. The latter include delusional psychosis, hallucinosis, delusions of jealousy and many other mental disorders that arise from prolonged alcohol abuse. Delirium tremens, in turn, may be accompanied by convulsive seizures or be without them.

Pathological intoxication

The reason for its development is the body’s inadequate reaction to drinking a small amount of alcohol. As a rule, it is enough for a person to drink a glass of beer or wine - and he already falls into this state. Pathological intoxication most often develops in persons who have suffered traumatic brain injury, infectious or inflammatory diseases of the brain.

Pathological intoxication can occur in one of two forms:

• Paranoid. It is characterized by a withdrawal from reality, the appearance of delusional thoughts, ideas and experiences. A person does not quite adequately perceive the world around him, which leads to strange actions. He is extremely agitated, can shout, threaten and insult others;
• Epileptoid. Such pathological intoxication is accompanied by the appearance of intense, chaotic, uncontrolled movements. The person is disoriented in time and space, excited, suspicious, frightened, or unreasonably angry.

The consequences of this alcoholic psychosis are quite favorable. As a rule, a person falls asleep abruptly and soundly, and when he wakes up, he feels completely healthy. However, pathological intoxication often becomes the cause of accidents and crimes. Because people in this state do not perceive the world around them adequately and have poor control over their behavior, they become capable of committing the most terrible actions.

Important! Persons who commit a crime while in a state of pathological intoxication are usually declared insane by the court. In this case, compulsory medical measures are applied to them, that is, treatment.

Delirium tremens

Alcoholic delirium (delirium tremens or delirium tremens) is a post-alcohol psychosis that occurs 2-5 days after a sharp cessation of alcohol. As a rule, it develops during recovery from binge drinking in persons suffering from alcoholism for 5-7 years or more. Much less often, this condition occurs after consuming large amounts of low-quality alcohol or its surrogates.

Typical symptoms of delirium tremens:

• pronounced hostility, aversion to alcohol;
• visual, tactile and auditory hallucinations;
• frequent and sudden mood swings;
• insomnia or interrupted sleep with nightmares;
• increased body temperature and increased blood pressure;
• pronounced tremor of the arms, legs and whole body;
• confusion, disorientation in time and space.

Delirium tremens is treated in a psychiatric or drug treatment hospital. Therefore, at the first signs of this mental disorder, relatives of an alcoholic should immediately call an ambulance. As a rule, squirrel pain lasts from several days to a week and ends with recovery. However, in some cases it may last much longer or be accompanied by unwanted complications.

Alcoholic hallucinosis

The most typical manifestation of this group of mental disorders are alcoholic hallucinations (mainly auditory). A person hears non-existent voices, rustling noises, incomprehensible sounds, and cannot accurately determine their location. There is also increased anxiety, restlessness, fear, and insomnia. Delusional ideas, suicide attempts, or harm to loved ones may occur.

As mentioned above, hallucinations during alcoholism also occur in people with delirium tremens. However, with a squirrel, a person is disoriented in the world around him and in his own person, and cannot adequately perceive reality. With hallucinosis, all this is not possible.

Acute alcoholic hallucinosis

It develops in people suffering from chronic alcoholism, and most often it affects females. As a rule, it appears in the midst of a binge or with a severe hangover. Hallucinations often occur after heavy drinking. The person hears insults, threats, and unpleasant statements. He may feel like he is being discussed or being forced to do something. As a rule, hallucinations from alcohol intensify in the evening and at night. This condition can last from 3-4 days to several weeks.

Prolonged alcoholic hallucinosis

At first, the symptoms are similar to acute hallucinosis, but soon depression and delusional ideas of persecution or relationships join in. As a rule, this condition lasts 2-3 months, less often – up to six months. Gradually, hallucinations disappear, the person becomes calmer, and his thinking becomes more orderly.

Chronic alcoholic hallucinosis

It is characterized by daily auditory hallucinations. A person hears dialogues or voices commenting on his actions or advising him on something. As a rule, an alcoholic takes this calmly and behaves quite adequately. In some cases, delusional psychoses may develop. Chronic alcoholic hallucinosis can last from a year to several years.

Delusional psychoses in alcoholics

The most common delusional psychosis is alcoholic paranoid - a mental disorder characterized by the appearance of various delusions. Most often, a person thinks that someone is following him, trying to find him and do something bad to him. Sometimes auditory or visual hallucinations and illusions occur.

Men often experience alcoholic delusions of jealousy (or alcoholic paranoia) - an obsessive belief that their spouse is cheating. Symptoms develop gradually - at first, a person begins to notice that his wife stays late at work, leaves the house for a long time, or treats him coldly. He later decides that he was cheated on before his marriage, and his children were not born from him. Such a man becomes aggressive, he can insult or beat his wife, look for a rival and threaten to kill him.

Acute alcoholic paranoid

Develops against the background of a hangover or in the midst of a binge. Symptoms occur mainly in the evening and at night. It seems to a person that those around him are pursuing him, he feels anxiety, unaccountable fear and confusion. In some cases, delirious syndrome is associated. Acute alcoholic paranoid can last from 2-3 days to several weeks.

Symptoms

Like any other mental disorder, persecution mania has its own signs and symptoms. There are several of them:

• unmotivated aggression;
• isolation;
• the desire to protect oneself from society;
• incessant anxiety;
• problems sleeping, lack of appetite;
• confidence that the people around are traitors, enemies, ill-wishers;
• search for secret meaning in any situation;
• inability and unwillingness to admit the presence of the disease.

As mentioned above, another sign is attempts to confuse pursuers by changing routes, encrypting records and other similar actions.

Stages of persecutory delusions

There are three stages of this disorder, from mildest to most severe.

• At the first stage, the first signs of a disorder appear: an obsessive feeling of anxiety, isolation, irritability.
• At the second stage, delirium becomes pronounced, the patient’s asociality is noticeable, the patient loses the ability to communicate with loved ones and, in most cases, perform professional duties.
• At the third stage, the general condition deteriorates extremely, symptoms of depression appear, aggressiveness increases, as does the feeling of fear. This stage is extremely dangerous, since often the patient, under the influence of delirium, attempts to harm others or himself, even to the point of suicidal actions.

Types of persecution mania

There are seven types of pathology. For clarity, let's place them in the table:

What do salt psychoses lead to?

As I wrote above, most often they lead to jumping from the window. Also – to the murder of relatives.

Take it yourself and google the following phrases: “jumped from a window under the salts,” “killed under the salts,” and you will see how many cases have already been recorded. I simply don’t want to describe all the horrors of these crimes and suicides, look for yourself if you don’t believe me.

And another very common case is death on highways, where for some reason salt addicts run out and rush among the traffic. What they were imagining is no longer possible to find out, since corpses cannot speak...

Development mechanism

Persecution mania develops in stages. At first, the patient feels only slight anxiety, distrust of others, and withdraws into himself. He avoids large crowds and does not make new acquaintances. This is the first stage, which is called primary disorders.

The second is characterized by pronounced isolation from society. The patient is easily excited and becomes aggressive, which causes problems in his personal life and at work.

The third stage of persecution mania is the peak of exacerbation. Accompanied by persistent fear for one’s life and attempts to hide from imaginary pursuers. During this period, even family and friends seem to be enemies. The main danger is the possibility of harming both yourself and those around you.

Why do salt addicts strip naked and run?

Well why? There may be a dose hidden in clothes that was planted by “enemies”! Therefore, the salt lover gets rid of his clothes and moves without them...

And it’s okay if this show is at home, but they also manage to run out into the street, escaping persecution and lawlessness of the cops, and there they instantly become YouTube stars.

How does paranoia manifest itself in salt workers?

From the outside it looks like this: the addict freezes in one place and sits afraid. He can stand near the peephole for five hours, almost not breathing.

Or he can sit in front of the front door with a knife and sit for many hours in a row, waiting for the arrival of those terrible people who are hunting for him.

He can lock himself in the toilet with an ax and not come out...

And God forbid, someone from the family starts to pull on this toilet door or simply opens the front door, which is guarded by a drug addict. He can instantly jump up and easily kill a relative, since he is possessed by animal terror.

Consequences

Ignoring the signs of the disease and lack of proper treatment entails a lot of trouble. Here are some of them:

• inability to distinguish the real world from the fictional one;
• constant anxiety due to thoughts about imaginary danger around;
• isolation, almost complete isolation, refusal to eat, insomnia;
• aggression towards others.

In especially severe cases, for example, with an exacerbation of delusional thoughts, suicide attempts are possible.

Diagnostics

A psychotherapist or psychiatrist must make a diagnosis of persecution mania. You should consult a doctor as soon as the first alarming symptoms appear, as they will worsen over time.

First of all, the doctor will talk with the patient. He will assess your condition based on your symptoms and their severity. Typically, such patients are constrained, look around suspiciously, withdrawn and reluctant to make contact. It also happens that they flatly refuse to talk to a specialist and ask to close windows and doors in order to protect themselves.

The next stage of diagnosis is a consultation with a psychotherapist. The main goal of the event is to identify concomitant diseases, in particular, mental disorders, addiction to alcohol and drugs. Perhaps a person has real reasons to be afraid of others. We are talking about debts, past crimes, revenge, problems with the law, etc. In these cases, you may need the help of specialists in other fields, for example, lawyers.

And finally, testing. Specially selected questions help assess a person’s personal characteristics, his ability to communicate with society, and his state of mind. Typically, psychotherapists and psychiatrists use the Cattell Multifactor Questionnaire, which consists of 187 questions. In addition to it, interpretation tests, drawing tests, as well as memory and thinking tests are used.

During one of these tests, the patient is asked to consider several everyday situations with other people and describe them, coming up with a story for each. Depending on the answers, the specialist decides to make a diagnosis of “persecution mania.”