Posted by Diane E. on July 20, 2000, at 15:24:05
Hi,
I have just gotten off the phone with my husband's therapist. He suffers from depression and I had called her
yesterday to let her know that he was doing particularly poorly. She works closely with his psychiatrist. She told
me that his diagnosis is "depression with psychotic features." I had not heard this before (I always thought his
diagnosis was major depression). I asked her to give me some examples of his psychotic thinking. Her examples
were the fact that when he is really doing poorly he is convinced that he will never get better and that
he believes he has a character flaw rather than a mental illness (on better days, he understands that this is an
illness). I always thought that this type of thinking was sympotmatic of depression and not a delusion (i.e., low
self-esteem, tons of self-blame, feelings of hopelessness). She said that it is a tricky distinction, but that she and
the psychiatrist believe these are delusions. Can some one help me to explain this better? When does
depressed thinking become delusional? How can the two be distinguished?Thanks,
-Diane
poster:Diane E.
thread:41047
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000717/msgs/41047.html