Comprehensive exams for Mental Health Q 92
While looking out the window, a client with schizophrenia remarks, “That school across the street has creatures in it that are waiting for me.” Which of the following terms best describes what the creatures represent?
A. Anxiety attack
B. Projection
C. Hallucination
D. Delusion
Correct Answer: D. Delusion
A delusion is a false belief based on a misrepresentation of a real event or experience. Delusions are defined as fixed, false beliefs that conflict with reality. Despite contrary evidence, a person in a delusional state can’t let go of their convictions. Delusions are often reinforced by the misinterpretation of events. Many delusions also involve some level of paranoia. For example, someone might contend that the government is controlling our every move via radio waves despite evidence to the contrary. Delusions are often part of psychotic disorders. They may occur along with hallucinations, which involve perceiving something that isn’t really there, like hearing voices or feeling bugs crawling on your skin.
Option A: Although anxiety can increase delusional responses, it isn’t considered the primary symptom. An anxiety attack usually involves a fear of some specific occurrence or problem that could happen. Symptoms include worry, restlessness, and possibly physical symptoms, such as changes in heart rate. Anxiety is different from a panic attack, but it can occur as part of an anxiety or panic disorder.
Option B: Projection is falsely attributing to another person one’s own unacceptable feelings. Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. For example, if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that they do not like you. Projection works by allowing the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety.
Option C: Hallucinations, which characterize most psychoses, are perceptual disorders of the five senses; the client may see, taste, feel, smell, or hear something in the absence of external stimulation. The word “hallucination” comes from Latin and means “to wander mentally.” Hallucinations are defined as the “perception of a nonexistent object or event” and “sensory experiences that are not caused by stimulation of the relevant sensory organs.”