Persecutory delusions — also called delusions of persecution — are the belief that harm is happening or coming, and that someone intends it. They’re the most common kind of delusion in schizophrenia, and I’ve lived inside them.
For me it wasn’t strangers on the street — it was government agents and corporate spies, directly interested in observing me. This page collects the videos where I describe what that world feels like from the inside, and how I hold it.
Lived experience, not medical advice.
What persecutory delusions feel like
They have two central parts: the thought that harm is occurring or will occur, and the thought that some persecutor intends it. In mine, the harm always sits in the future — something will happen if I’m too revealing, on YouTube, on Instagram, even in private messages. Others experience it as immediate: headaches and bodily symptoms that seem to be injected, by ray or poison, with the certainty that someone meant it.
The stereotyped version — hearing terrible voices and fearing a paranoid trap — is close to real for many of us. There’s even a stock phrase everyone knows: “They’re all against me!”
Paranoid schizophrenia symptoms
Older psychiatry called a version of this “paranoid schizophrenia.” The label has mostly been retired in favour of plain description, but the symptoms people are searching for are these: suspicion at the centre of the picture, the sense of being watched or targeted, and the certainty that someone means harm. Persecutory delusions also appear in schizoaffective disorder, and in bipolar or severe depression when psychosis is present.
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More from this topic
More from the delusions family: Ideas of reference / delusions of reference, somatic delusions, Grandiose Delusions (#15) and Religious Delusions (#19) — all from 24/7 Symptoms, where I set out to define as many symptoms of schizophrenia as I could think of.
Full transcript
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You're tuned in to nednednerB the Schizophrenic.
This is Day 20 of "100 Symptoms".
Persecutory Delusions – "They're all against me!"
These delusions have two central elements: 1) The thought that harm is occurring, or will occur. And; 2) The thought that some persecutor has the intention to cause harm.
Delusions of persecution are identified as the most common kind of delusion in schizophrenia. They have been an aspect of my delusional experience. Off and on, my brain has presented me with the suspicion that government agents or corporate spies are directly interested in observing me. I ponder that my political views and my connections to friends and peers are considered worthy of observation. In general mine are the thought that harm "will" happen in the future, if I am too revealing on YouTube or Instagram, or even in private digital correspondence.
For several individuals, they apprehend the harms as immediate: Headaches and other bodily symptoms are being injected somehow into their experience. Perhaps, this occurs by electromagnetic ray or poison.
Persecutory delusions are also common for those with schizoaffective disorder, and to a degree those having bipolar and during mania or an acute episode. These delusions can also occur in severe depressive episodes when psychotic features are present.
Delusions of persecution are so common that I have found even the stereotypical depictions in media or social media are aware of them. The most commonly represented experience of a schizophrenic is that they are hearing terrible voices and terribly fear they're in a paranoid trap. There is even a common phrase people use to depict the feeling: "They're all against me!"
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This has been nednednerB the Schizophrenic. Day 20 of "100 Symptoms".
For the clinical side: NHS — schizophrenia symptoms · CAMH — schizophrenia.