Posted by LlurpsieBlossom on December 2, 2006, at 21:59:09
In reply to Where do faulty perceptions end/delusions begin?, posted by capricorn on December 2, 2006, at 1:11:10
> Where do faulty perceptions end and delusions begin?
You know what Capricorn? Most of our Perceptions are "faulty" in a sense that they are not direct one-to-one mappings of the physical world that impinges on our sensory apparatus.
For example: Depth perception. Our retinas are two-dimensional, yet we "automatically" perceive a 3-d world. This is because our minds have clever filters that kind of process information even before we become consciously aware of it. For example, our minds make use of the fact that we have two retinas, separated by a couple of inches, which see ever-so-slightly different images. Our minds use this information to compute the distance of near objects. My cup of tea is 10 feet in front of my coffee table, which is 5 feet away from my window. We also use information about shadows, textures, movement, etc (almost ten different sources of info!) to give us our 3-dimensional visual perception.
There's even more complexity when we get into later visual processes, like perception of colors, movement, object recognition, scene recognition, reading, etc.
All of these complicated processes happen instantaneously, and for the most part without our conscious awareness! They are so reliable that we take our perceptions for granted as accurate representations of the physical world. It's amazing!
Is it any wonder, though, that these complicated processes can be interrupted by intoxication, drugs, illness, mental states, distraction, etc? I think "faulty perceptions" are probably very common, it's just that most people's brains, most of the time, do a really good job out of making sense of the world. given a series of really quick glances around a room, we can form a pretty decent representation about what's there, and whether the furniture is likely to be floating in midair, whether there is an elephant present, etc...
Maybe what you are experiencing is not so much an issue of low-level perception (like the stuff I just reviewed above) but more of higher-level cognition. I'm just speculating here. I hope you aren't offended by my suggestions. Perhaps your expectations of the world are a little off-kilter, and your imagination is telling you to expect your stuffed animal to become animate, even as your common sense is trying to tell your imagination "quiet!!". This leads to a lot of distraction, as the common sense and the imagination kind of argue it out. Takes a couple hours, maybe.
In the meanwhile, your visual system is doing its best to process the scene in front of it, but everytime it scans a stuffed animal, there's a little "glitch", a pause/freeze as it waits from further instructions from the higher-level cognitive centers of your brain... as it's paused, waiting... you become aware of this little glitch and you get an 'error message'.
Does that make any sense to you?
> For example:I will often think that fellow posters hate me based on non replies to my posts or comments made.Invariably they tell me they don't but it's hard for me to accept that.Is that perceptual or delusional?
Depends on how you define perception and delusion. Would you mind clarifying?
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> Also what is the consensus on what makes a thought 'psychotic'?
> The nature of the thought itself regardless of whether you can see it to be not grounded in reality?Common patterns of thoughts in classic psychoses include delusions of grandeur, thought broadcasting, etc. (these things are surely written somewhere online)
> For example: Every once in an infrequent while(like now) it crosses my mind that some of the inanimate objects in my flat could come to life and talk to me ie ornaments/stuffed toys.Then i start expecting them to do so.
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> Although i know that the thought isn't rational/sensible it is difficult to shake off though it does go away after a couple of hours or so.
>I don't think that's classic psychosis. Maybe this is an example of a sensory disturbance. I don't even think it would be classified as a visual hallucination. The other reason I don't think it's psychosis is because you are AWARE that what you are thinking/experiencing is not rational, sensible, etc. You do not act as if you expect your teddy bear to jump off the bed and run to you and snuggle you (that's a happy thought, though :o).
How are you feeling otherwise? depressed? anxious? do you have other cognitive symptoms, like attention problems, memory problems, concentration problems?
anyways, I hope you feel better soon, and I'm happy to respond to your post (sorry my response is so long and technical)
-ll
poster:LlurpsieBlossom
thread:709594
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20061123/msgs/709830.html