Anonymous asked:

I have a character who sees portals (which are real) opening around him, portals to another world. The story takes place in our world, so no one believes they're real when he mentions them. My best guess is that this would be perceived as either schizophrenia or delusional disorder, but I'm not sure which. I'm leaning towards delusional disorder since his behavior isn't really affected by it (except he wants to get proof so his boyfriend will believe him). Does that "diagnosis" sound right?

scriptshrink answered:

This depends on the answer to two questions:

Can your character see these portals, or does he just “know” they exist?

If your character says he can see the portals, that’d be diagnosed as a hallucination, which means your character can’t be diagnosed with delusional disorder.

If he only believes the portals are there, and has never seen them, that’d be delusional disorder.

How long has your character been showing symptoms?

If your character has been showing symptoms for more than 1 day but less than 1 month, he’d be diagnosed with Brief Psychotic Disorder (see the criteria here). 

If your character has been showing symptoms for more than 1 month but less than 6 months, he’d be diagnosed with Schizophreniform Disorder (see here).

If your character has been showing symptoms for at least 6 months AND these symptoms cause a decrease in how well he can function in school, work, social interactions, self-care, etc., he’d be diagnosed with Schizophrenia (see here).

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