Yesterday’s post got me to thinking about another area where somehow, someway, people completely miss the boat – and don’t have a clue that they have missed it. What is it I’m speaking of? Thanks for asking.
Some people are delusional when it comes to describing themselves, or at least qualities & traits that they believe are true about them. Only after observing them for a period of time is it found that in reality, they are as far from how they described themselves as the East is from the West.
An example, taken from scoey’s life as a PERS employee – a person describes themself as:
-a person with an eye for detail,
-a linear, patient, methodical, task oriented thinker
-great at problem solving
Sounds like just the kind of person that you’d want to have on a job where lots of information is processed, where accuracy is not only a good idea but is an absolute requirement, & where certain tasks have to be performed over & over, quickly, and with uncanny accuracy… however, the individual turns out to be nothing like they’ve described themself. First, they were dyslexic, (could that be a problem in a job where alphabetizing paper/100K files is the #1 job duty?) Second, they couldn’t figure out WHY a File Clerk 1 would be required to spend all that time filing in the file room; Last, they don’t notice that it could be a problem to take hundreds of files every day & hide them in the supply room. And the coat room. And in big piles behind their desk. Ultimately, their inability to accurately assess themself ends up costing them a state job (which are hard to lose, BTW,) & also creating mounds & mounds of work for everyone around them. The coup d’grat was when they filed a complaint against the supervisor that fired them for wrongful termination.
I’ve got a mound of other examples to choose from, but for the sake of brevity will stop here to ponder:
How does one person get so deluded? Is there hope for the lost individual? Can they be brought back from the world of make-believe that they live in? If so, how?
I think one way a person can become delusional is by not having good people around them to keep them in reality. If you are delusional to begin with then I absolutely believe that you can get help and get better but it takes a whole lot of work and even more than that alot of supportive people surrounding you thru the process of healing. Most truly delusional people don’t have the support or strength to get the help they need. It is very sad.
What Noel said. In additon, we often think that are the few crazy delisionals out there. Actually, there’s more delusionals than there are otherwise (it’s all about the magnitude). I believe it’s because facing the truth is too hard for most. They figure that a fantasy/imaginary world suits them just fine: deny, deny, deny, pretend, lie, and eventually “they” don’t even know they’re doing it. I would know nothing about this personally, of course. ;>)
Yes, Yes AND people get a mistaken compliment from someone, because one time, some place, they accidentally did something right and got noticed. Then they just run with it, pretty soon convinced they HAVE that very trait. Let it go. Know your limits. I play well with two, three, four and five year olds. I do not play well with anyone else. Everyone else confuses me. I know my limits. I would also like to add that I am a very optimistic person…just joking.