Hello!

Okay actually I've been meaning to like. Make a diagram of this situation to word it better. My only disclaimer is the third example could also literally not even be a delusion and just... Be Tenna getting tricked, but either way it still can count!

narcissistic does not mean Evil Bad Abusive Person. delusional does not mean Crazy Stupid Person With Bad Opinions. dealing with things such as narcissism or psychosis can and will absolutely ruin your life. and i mean, DECIMATE it. that's not to say other people won't be affected either, but the sufferer is the one who has it the worst. do not use words unless you actually know the meaning behind them, and who is impacted.

i should note that there are various different types of delusions, and the way to handle them depends on which specific type they are. persecutory delusions, characterized by believing someone is out to get the person in some way, may require you to be even gentler than normal in your approach due to that extreme paranoia (very common in BPD). but something such as somatic delusions characterized by thinking something is physically wrong with oneself can require a different approach.

generally speaking, the way to handle delusions is to validate the feelings caused by the delusion, without feeding into the delusion itself. this can show up as you saying "it sounds like this is really upsetting you, can you tell me about it?" this helps the person feel seen without having their delusions worsen. obviously this is not an end-all-be-all statement, but you should keep this general sentiment in mind when interacting with someone experiencing a delusion.

dealing with things such as narcissism, psychosis, psychopathy, and more is actual hell on earth which i would never wish upon my worst enemy. please be mindful of the language you use to describe people/characters because there ARE real people out there who are affected by these things. i am one of those people, as are many others.

Sorry that I'm adding another addition four months later- but this also has really been bothering me. I'd say it's incredibly annoying at best to see people referring to a canonically true thing as a "delusion". It's not! Spamton is meant to LOOK delusional to other people in game, but he isn't!

I think content where he has psychosis in some way is interesting, but it often hinges on the idea that something canonically true is what he's "psychotic" about. When it isn't. It can for sure trigger some other type of psychosis, don't get me wrong! Like him acting religious about it for sure could be something else, but it also could just be the fact that he's praying to an eldritch being. We don't know!

LOVE WINS 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Spamton and Dess are both characters who start off fine (if not a little troubled) before mysteriously going missing, presumably due to forces beyond them. Dess and Spamton are both not mentioned outside of those close to them, likely because they're viewed as a taboo subject. Throughout the entirety of the game, outside of Pizzapants and the Dreemurr and Holiday families, no one ever mentions Dess. Meanwhile, Asriel is mentioned multiple times by several monsters in Hometown. Spamton is similar; he’s only ever mentioned by Tenna, while the other Darkners in TV World and Cyber City seem to avoid talking about him entirely.

Spamton and Dess’s rooms are also both preserved in the same state they were the day they went missing.

(these are the only times in the game the word "unplugged" is used!) Dess’s room is kept preserved that way due to Carol, who has an obsession with keeping all her loved ones close and static, as shown by her preserving snowflakes against Noelle’s wishes:

Carol's obsession with keeping her loved ones close seems to only really drive them away. Noelle feels detached from her due to her attitude, and grows a desire to break free of control and do what she desires to. A desire which grows much deeper in the weird route. Tenna is similarly shown to care a lot about keeping those he cares about close to him, to a degree that harms them and ultimately pushes them away. He pressures Spamton to write a contract knowing something bad would happen, partly because he wanted them to be together forever, he keeps the Z-rank room and the mailroom preserved even years after Spamton’s disappearance, he traps the fun gang in gacha balls in order to keep them playing his games, and he even puts a sleeping Toriel in a gacha ball in snow. In Chapter 5, it’s revealed Asgore feels guilt about his involvement in Dess’ disappearance and pushes everyone away because of it:

In the same exact chapter, Tenna, who’s similar to Asgore in several ways (hangs on to the past, attempts to be a parental figure to Kris) expresses how guilty he feels about Spamton’s disappearance, and how he pushes others away because he's hung up on it:

(It’s also worth noting that Dess’s disappearance and Spamton’s disappearance are directly linked in the story. The Dreemurr and Holiday families grow apart and stop watching TV when Dess goes missing, which is what prompts Tenna to become afraid of being thrown away and make Spamton sign the contract.)

Noelle also exemplifies how Tenna goes into denial about Spamton’s disappearance. In Chapter 5 of the Weird route, Noelle says this:

She makes sure to specify that Dess left; not disappeared, not went missing, left. even though every previous discussion of Dess led us to believe she went missing due to something outside of her control. This is similar to Tenna claiming that Spamton abandoned him in the sword route ending segment, even though we know Spamton didn’t choose to leave and was instead forced to due to his benefactor.

Noelle also explains that she’s struggled with dissociation since Dess left, which is strikingly similar to Tenna saying that nothing has felt real to him since Spamton left:

This feels even more intentional when considering some of Noelle and Tenna’s other similarities, such as their tendency to hang on to the past, their lack of courage to break free from the systems keeping their lives stale despite a clear desire to do so, how they define themselves by others rather than their own selves, and how they both care about Pipis. Noelle is even sad when you give Tenna away to Mettaton in Chapter 5.

"I think you can be a mother... Without giving birth?"

"Prove It. On The Court. Right Now"