Hallucinations Vs Delusions

Hallucinations and delusions are prominent aspects of psychosis, characterized by distortion of reality to a great extent. Many people assume that both hallucinations and delusions are same, which is absolutely wrong. Hallucination is basically a sensory perception triggered in the absence of any physical stimuli, whereas delusion is a false belief of the individual developed on his own accord without taking into consideration the external reality. This is the main difference between hallucinations and delusion. Besides this, there are several other differences between the two concepts, but before we move on to hallucinations vs delusions, let's try to understand each of them individually.

Hallucinations
Hallucinations are false perceptions that are experienced in a conscious state, in the absence of any external stimuli. These perceptions can be experienced by any sensory modality ranging from visual and auditory to nociceptive and thermoceptive senses. When hallucinating, the person may experience some disturbance or movement in the peripheral vision or hear faint noises even though none of this is actually happening. One of the simplest examples of hallucination is a mirage, wherein a person tends to see water in the desert when it doesn't really exist.

Delusions
Delusion is false belief developed due to incorrect conclusions about the external reality, mostly contrary to the norms of the society. A person is most often subjected to delusions when he is suffering from some mental or neurological illness, and therefore, delusions are regarded as useful tools of diagnosis for various psychological illnesses. Some common types of delusions are delusion of jealousy, delusion of control, religious delusion, etc. An example of delusional belief would be when a person feels that his/her partner is having an affair outside their relationship.

Hallucinations Vs Delusions
Both hallucinations and delusions differ in several aspects. Although both of them are caused due to psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia), a person may also experience hallucinations owing to brain damage, sleep deprivation and neurochemical activity in brain, recreational drug abuse (such as LSD or PCP) and meditation (which deprives the brain of oxygen). On the other hand, delusion is most often caused due to mental disorders, including bipolar disorder, dementia, anorexia nervosa and obsessive compulsive disorder. Delusions are in fact symptoms of delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia.

A person experiencing hallucination owing to some hallucinatory drugs would come to terms with reality when the effects of the drugs subside, but in case of a person suffering from delusions, he will only come to terms with reality when the ailment he is suffering from is cured. A person suffering from chronic hallucinations due to some illness is bound to seek treatment from a specialist, but a person experiencing chronic delusion will never seek treatment due to the lack of insight into his own condition. This makes detection of delusion very difficult and the person suffering from such false beliefs may continue living with them for years together.

This was in short about hallucinations vs delusions. Although they differ from each other, hallucinations and delusions are known to trigger intense fear in the individuals, eventually compelling them to take an aggressive stance. Initially, the person may feel shocked or helpless but with time, the frustration may just increase and result in an outburst that may include harming themselves or other people around them. Although hallucinations and delusions are most often observed with patients suffering from mental illnesses, they need not always imply mental disorder. The best measure to cure these disorders is to provide reassurance to the person experiencing them, and take necessary measures to reduce their occurrence.