So I’ll chime in with my personal experience. A similar disorder, but not the same, runs in my family.
We are told we have delusional disorder. It carries on in the men in my family. I hadnt had contact with my dad until i turned 18 so I never once thought i was crazy, I just thought I noticed things others didnt.
I eventually got in touch with my dad and he told me all about his struggles and what I’m “soon to be dealing with”. What he told me was “youre gonna feel crazy, but youre not. Its not crazy when you say ‘i need a lighter’ and 2 seconds later one pops up in your pocket.’ Form a system of belief and stick to it. You only lose control when you let outside influences dictate your beliefs.”
He also told me that it doesn’t matter which paradigm you choose, they are all doorways to faith and faith is the functioning mechanism that enables magick. He prefers Christianity, tho his own sort of offshoot of it, so hearing this from him was eye opening to me.
So in my experience, and generations of men in my family, can tell you that no, not everything we’re told is in our head is in our head.
HOWEVER, as a neuroatypical adult caretaker i have experience caring for clients who are diagnosed with schizophrenia in a one on one setting and I do notice some similar thought patterns, tho how these thoughts manifest is very different. In my clients, they tend to not be able to discern impulses and stimuli from their objective reality.
An example of this process: man with schizophrenia watches a movie with a protagonist who is a veteran. The man with schizophrenia sees how that character was praised as a veteran and so yhe client thinks its desirable to be a veteran. And so the client creates a fantasy in which he is a disabled veteran and he lives this fantasy.
Ive had clients be hung up on fantasies the entire time i had been with them and also clients who would fantasize and let it go a week later as if it never happened. These things are very obvious delusions.
On the opposite end of the spectrum ive had these same clients react to occult phenomena in their homes that staff did not pick up on.
This is as far as my experience goes, hope it sheds some light. If anyone has questions about delusional disorder and living with it, feel free to ask.