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6 Common Symptoms of Delirium

Delirium is a condition in which a person remains in a state of confusion. In this condition, people find it challenging to focus. People with this condition often lack awareness of their surroundings and the mental resilience to think through the most straightforward situations. Some of the causes of delirium are certain severe or long-term illnesses, as well as nutrient imbalances in the body. Here are some common delirium symptoms:

6 Common Symptoms of Delirium

Reduced awareness of one’s surroundings
Obliviousness to one’s immediate environment is perhaps the clearest indicator of delirium in individuals. People exhibit their obliviousness in multiple ways when they are suffering from this condition. For example, an individual with this condition cannot focus on a topic during a medium to long conversation. So, they will keep changing topics abruptly mid-conversation. Additionally, because of such individuals’ poor concentration, they will not understand anything and fail to acknowledge the speaker verbally or non-verbally.

Other than this, it is common for people with delirium to get stuck on a past topic during a conversation that has moved on. Such individuals also show a lack of awareness regarding their surroundings by acting completely out of tune with others in their surroundings.

Abrupt emotional shifts
Delirium makes people volatile. Abrupt behavioral or emotional changes are fairly common symptoms of this health condition. It is common for someone with delirium to get angry without much provocation and engage in hostilities with people around them. Apart from extreme and impulsive anger, such individuals may also show extreme, impulsive, and inappropriate elation and happiness by laughing loudly in the middle of a conversation or other ways. Behaving overly emotionally instead of rationally in certain situations is also commonplace for people with delirium.

In addition to personality changes, delirium tends to cause people to exhibit weird or creepy behavior in public places. Some examples include being overtly impulsive, sudden jerking movements, moaning or making other sounds, calling out to people for no reason, moving slowly even in rush-hour surroundings, and yelling for no apparent reason.

When a person shows these symptoms in public, the responsible thing for people in their immediate surroundings to do is to help them get to a nearby healthcare facility for a quick diagnosis and treatment.

Difficulty in mentally processing visuals
Another characteristic of delirium is how it affects a person’s ability to see people and objects around them. A person with this condition will likely completely ignore people in a social or homely environment. Delirium makes them oblivious to the objects and persons nearest to them. Alternatively, such people are likely to imagine things and people that are not in a room with them. This is generally known as delusion, and it is a serious mental health condition. More importantly, someone with delirium may not even identify the people closest to them. For instance, an individual may not recognize and address their family members upon meeting them.

Hallucinations, or seeing abstract things such as ghosts, plants, or animals that are not present anywhere near them, is also a common indicator of delirium in individuals. This particular symptom is shared by several disorders; therefore, if a person suffers from hallucinations, it is imperative for their friends and family to take them to a healthcare center for a screening. An experienced and trained healthcare professional will be able to easily check various aspects of such individuals’ physical and mental states to diagnose delirium (or other illnesses, if any) in them.

Forgetting facts and events
Delirium also seriously affects a person’s ability to recall certain events that they have lived in the past. For instance, an individual may not remember eating their meals and will feel the urge to eat again. Some may not remember their birthdays and marriage anniversaries, two of the most momentous events in their lives.

This is accompanied by forgetfulness in terms of facts as well. For instance, someone with delirium may completely forget that they have diabetes and will not hesitate or be reluctant before consuming some food that contains sugar. This is one of the more dangerous symptoms of this condition.

Anxiety and depression
A person with delirium constantly hallucinates various dangers lurking around them (none of which exist in the real world). Due to this, such people are constantly on the edge in terms of feeling safe. Anxiety about unknown (and illusion-based) dangers is an incredibly common indicator of delirium.

In addition to anxiety, people with delirium may also feel depressed. This symptom involves a constant feeling of sadness or loss and also other negative emotions such as mourning and anger without much motivation. If someone is perpetually sad, angry, or antsy, chances are high that they have delirium.

Oscillating between hyperactive and hypoactive behavior
As the name implies, hyperactive behavior involves people showing too much energy and enthusiasm in any situation, even if it is out of order. While hyperactive behavior may show people to be positive and energetic to be around, it can also wear out the people closest to someone with delirium.

Hypoactive behavior is when someone with delirium displays perpetual apathy or extremely low energy in any situation, even in a high-energy environment such as a nightclub or a sporting arena. This oscillation shows a person may have delirium or other significant mental health disorders.

Disclaimer:
The content of the articles discussing symptoms, treatments, health conditions, and side effects is solely intended for informational purposes. It is imperative that readers do not interpret the information provided on the website as professional advice. Readers are requested to use their discretion and refrain from treating the suggestions or opinions provided by the writers and editors as medical advice. It is important to seek the help of licensed and expert healthcare professionals when necessary.
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