I am not a Psychiatric RN but am a Trauma RN CCRN with 17 years experience in ICU nursing. There is a phenomenon called ICU delirium that can occur when a patient has been mechanically ventilated and sedated for some time. They lose touch with reality, sometimes becoming violent. I am familiar with this and how we care for patients during the event. I can understand it—regaining consciousness, maybe not remembering how or why you got there. The room can be frightening, brightly lit, packed with with electronics with their own lights and beeping alarms. Your body has sensors attached, there are tubes going into your body, and multiple IVs poking into you. You may have a machine breathing for you and you are surrounded by strangers wearing masks, gowns, skull caps, face shields or safety glasses. I would be scared too.
A number of my trauma patients have suffered intracranial hemorrhages resulting from a TBI or CVA. A number of my trauma patients have experienced a hypoxic event without O2 intervention or CPR. These types of injuries often cause cognitive impairments. Sometimes just severity of the injuries and the resulting trauma, shock, or blood loss can result in cognitive impairment. I understand this, there are treatments, procedures, medications to help—it’s logical.
Watching the Jan 6th hearings then listening to some people’s take on the testimony—it struck me that there are people who are unable to accept reality. It’s not logical. A colleague, a Psychiatric RN, told me the term for this, cognitive dissonance. An individual is mentally unable to accept a reality that differs from what they believe. Narcissistic abuse, another new term for me, can cause cognitive dissonance. When a individual in power has narcissistic tendencies, they will use their power to gaslight their followers into accepting beliefs that are false. OMG!
I don’t know much about cognitive dissonance. I keep remembering that punch line—“Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?” Before I start spouting wing-ding conspiracy theories, will someone that has experience or knowledge please offer more information. How does it happen to some people but not to others that have been exposed to the same disinformation? Can a cognitively dissonant individual develop the ability to accurately determine fact from fiction? Are there certain personality traits that make one more susceptible?