This model developed after a friend told me she was concerned that a childhood friend of hers was developing schizophrenia. He was obsessing about conspiracies regarding politics, media, and supernatural occurrences. She said that the things he was talking about were probably true, but it was the amount of time he focused on it that was damaging his health. It wasn’t about the content of his thoughts- it was about the level of focus.
In this case, there were not sincere issues with delusion. The focus on reality was what was damaging this person's life. I wanted to categorize the human experience and perspective of reality but I wasn’t sure how to categorize illness caused by untrue beliefs when it was equally damaging. Then I learned more about narcissism. There I realized problems with inaccurate perspectives of reality often stem from denial. But denial is rampant, and studies have repeatedly shown that human memory is not accurate. So when everyone has different memories and beliefs of what is real, how do you find out what is actually real?
One way to find out is using a Reality Map.
Graph:
Positive
Untrue Conspiracies Denial Neutral Reality Classified
(True Conspiracies)
Negative
This map is a spectrum. Left-to-right measures reality and denial, and up-to-down measures positive, neutral, and negative experiences and beliefs. The longer someone spends time thinking about things closest to the end of the right or left side of the spectrum, the more they lose their mind.
Positive and Negative
There is nothing I’ve found that better represents the judgment of positive and negative labels than this fable from marriage and family therapist Emma McAdam:
"Once there was a farmer whose horse ran away, now he could not plow. His neighbors came to him and said "How horrible for you, this is terrible, this is awful, you lost your horse!" the farmer replied, "I don't know, we'll see" and he went back to work on his farm.
The next day, the farmer's son went to find the horse. Not only did he find the horse, but two additional stray horses followed them home. The neighbors came over, and said "Oh this is wonderful for you, this is so good, you found your horse, and got two new ones!" The farmer replied "I don't know, we'll see", and he went back to work on his farm.
The next day the farmer's son decided to break in one of the new horses, a few days in, he got thrown off of the horse, and he broke his leg. He had to get a cast, and stay off the leg, so he couldn't help work on the farm, and once again all the neighbors come over, and they say, "Oh my gosh this is horrible, this is so bad!" and the farmer replied "I don't know, we'll see", and tried to get back to work on his farm.
Now one of the neighbors insisted, "How can you be so relaxed about this? Without your son's help, you'll have to work long into the night to get all the work done, you don't seem to understand that this is a catastrophe!” and the farmer calmly replied "We'll see", and went back to work.
The next day, the emperor decided to implement a draft for a war that was starting, all of the eligible men in the whole village were dragged off to war, because of his broken leg the farmer's son was spared from the draft. All the neighbors came over, and told the farmer, "Oh my goodness you're so lucky, you're so fortunate, this is so good for you!" and the farmer just replied "I don't know, we'll see", and went back to work."
How is something measured as positive or negative, when these are judgments? Positives and negatives can be generically defined in the manner in which our physiology -or the physiology of others- is damaged or is healed. Positivity outside of moderation-as seen in top right and left corners of the reality map- breaks down physiology. It's important to note the breakdown in physiology can be delayed- an example is how some disabled people who are cured through medical advancements are unable to recover from the identity crisis of losing their disability.
To avoid judgment, it’s best for the graph to be short and wide and truly identify things as neutrally as possible.
Healing and growing is not a comfortable process. However, there is a distinct difference between pain caused by harm versus growth. This pain has historically been very difficult for the healthcare field to determine.
Reality and Denial
Focusing too much on either end of the spectrum causes illness- moderation is the best way to stay centered. (pun) On the negative side, reality is painful. It is sincere pain, unlike the addictive pain of denial. How is the pain of denial addictive? Pain and stress releases chemicals in the brain somewhat similarly to addictive substances. This is why some people find themselves self-harming or seeking situations that cause adrenaline rushes, despite the harm it causes. Fake news about stressful topics creates stress-induced highs as well.
On the positive side, denial presents as toxic positivity. Toxic positivity is about falsely believing things are better than they are. This has serious negative impacts on people in difficult situations when toxic positivity causes victim blaming and worsening the situation when it was never taken seriously. Positive denial can also present as delusions that bring positive emotions. Excessive positive reality is at this point in time under-researched. One example can be excessive focus on what could be described as “science that we don’t yet have the technology to comprehend.” It’s one of those things that is rather difficult to explain with the current lack of research, and it is among the information that belongs in the “if you know, you know” category. Excessive meditation without moderation would go in this category as well.
Untrue Conspiracies and Classified
Untrue conspiracies and classified information are on the extreme ends of the spectrum, and it’s where excessive focus causes the most harm. Untrue conspiracies are often invented stories that have highly addictive qualities. Classified are conspiracies that are true. It is characterized by two additional things- if information was made public, the person presenting the information would be harmed or killed or if information was made public, other people would be harmed or killed.
Sometimes conspiracies and classified are -on paper- the same information. There are some key differences. Untrue conspiracies present the information in a way that is glorified, glamorized, romanticized, or sensationalized. People interested in this information seek it to experience addictive emotions. They have no idea what the information means, they don't understand it, and they don't want to understand it. If the classified, truthful version of the information was exposed, conspiracy addicts would be among the first to harm others. Classified information, while true, is often presented in a manner that is simple and boring. If it’s interesting, it provides no more satisfaction than completing a math problem or reading about a historical event. (outside of the context of workaholism)
The Reality Map in reference to psychology is a band.
I'm a bit short on time so I didn't make a formal graph. I for sure didn't know how to make a graph in the shape of a band. But why is it a band?
When researching classified information I realized that some people focus so much on these topics so much that as they lose their mind, they cross over into Untrue Conspiracies. I came to this conclusion after hearing the stories of right-wing conspiracy followers who started their decent with factual information, but were later unable to determine the difference between fake news and reality in later stages. A real-life representation of this band is seen in two groups of people that move to and exist in the same rural communities: people who wish to escape society because of racist, politically right-wing fears, and people who wish to escape society because they are politically left-wing and wish to live communally or escape societal discrimination.
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