Have You Ever Been Convinced By A Delusional Person?

I Was. How It Happens

In The Bubble. Made in StarryAi

“Why did you give it to her?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But I need it back,” he said while flailing his arms about.

Very few times in my life have I dealt with the seriously delusional. But every time I did, I felt myself believing. At least for a moment before intuition or reason kicked in.

At 18 I went on a company sales trip to Quebec. It was my first time being on a work trip and put up in a hotel. I couldn’t just stay at the hotel. I had to explore the city. However, we were on the outskirts, and there was not too much going on. I went out into the night anyways.

While walking on a bridge over a river I ran into a guy who seemed like a hot mess. It was dark and I was the only one with him on the bridge. He asked me where I am from. I told him. Then he told me that he accidently gave a woman in a bar 20,000 dollars in cash and now he has to find her to get it back.

“Why did you give it to her?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But I need it back,” he said while flailing his arms about.

I still feel the anxious haste he exuded.

“Do you know where she is?”

“No, but I have to find her!”

His determined demeanor was consistent with his story and this disarmed my inner truth detection mechanism.

“I gotta go,” he said and started to march off. Then he paused, turned back around and asked, “Will you still be here later?”

I wasn’t sure what he meant. Was he asking me if I will still be on this bridge in the middle of the night? Or did he mean in Quebec City overall?

“I have to get back soon,” I said.

He nodded and marched off. I heard him mumble to himself all the way till he disappeared.

As I walked back to the hotel room I thought about how stupid it was of him to give away so much money.

Back at the hotel I told my colleagues the story. They reprimanded me for wandering about at night and talking to crazy people.

I then thought about it. Judging from his dirty clothes and the amount of bags he was carrying, he was probably homeless. The chance of him just happening to have $20,000 in cash and giving it to someone was unlikely.

What seemed clear is that he believed what he was saying. Him believing it made me at least for that moment feel that what he is saying was true.

Then there was the time me and a boyfriend helped a lady look for a cat. We were on our way to a bar when she came out of an alley in panic. She started describing the cat. We started looking in people’s backyards trying to help her. I remember how my high platform shoes sunk into mud at one place. Then the mud got all over my fishnet stockings.

A woman came out of one of the houses and told us that there is no lost cat. That the woman lives in a halfway house down the street and is mentally unwell. She told us that this was not the first time people looked over her fence for a cat. There is no cat. They don’t allow pets at the halfway house.

Then there is my ex. Who was convinced someone was stealing his piano strings. He was so sure. I wrote about the entire incident here.

When someone believes what they are saying it resonates different from when they are lying. There is genuineness to it. Still I think truth feels different from this.

If you are calm and observant you notice that there is something that isn’t quite right about a story coming from delusion. Something is off.

When you enter a delusion you find yourself in a surreal bubble. In a way you are in a bubble. In someone’s imaginary world bubble. When it pops you can’t help but shake your head. Then again, maybe you were glimpsing an alternate reality and not an illusion. That is a possibility too.

When we listen to someone, we should listen with our whole being. Especially if something is asked of us. It is easy to get entangled in someone’s world too far.

I don’t know if my ex was delusional or if there was an actual man:

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Trying To Decide Whether To Look For Him Or Not:

[embed]My Ex Is Sleeping On A Park Bench And It’s Winter In Canada I’m Scared Of Getting The Phone Callkarinapawlak.medium.com

New Developments In Creepy Gym Behavior:

[embed]Gym Creeps And Gym Creep Accusers And Now There’s A Whole Nother Problemkarinapawlak.medium.com