Flight of ideas: a thought disorder

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The flight of ideas is a disorder that can affect a person’s life significantly, since it implies a communicative break with the environment. This anomaly must be assessed, evaluated and treated by a mental health professional.

Brain flight is a thinking disorder in which ideas jump from one place to another., without apparently having felt. This anomaly is accompanied by an alteration in speech, which reflects the frenetic pace of ideas.

The flight of ideas is a typical symptom of manic states, in which there is a high level of excitement, emotions and energy. Such states are a common component of bipolar disorder, but they can also be part of other problems or occur in isolation.

So, although the most visible thing in the flight of ideas is an increase in the speed and rhythm of thought, in reality corresponds to a generalized acceleration of psychic activity which, in almost all cases, is accompanied by verbiage.

“There is a kind of euphoria in grief, a degree of madness”.

-Nigella Watson-

What is the flight of ideas?

As we already noted, it is a thought disorder characterized by a continuous and uninterrupted flow of associations. That is to say, the person affected by this anomaly has a kind of constant brainstorming. One idea leads to another and this to another… and so on.

The anomalous thing is that this chain of ideas does not have a guiding axis or does not constitute a structure as such.. One moves from one idea to the other arbitrarily. The person mentions an idea and many times without having finished it, they move on to another one that, in principle, has nothing to do with the previous one.

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Thus, speech of a person with a flight of ideas is completely incoherent for the listener. Analyzing the phenomenon, we know that the affected person jumps from one idea to another due to some external stimulus. Thus, if he is talking about a book and hears the door creak, he is likely to focus his speech on this fact. Thus, diction is not dominated by a consistent thread, but in many cases is subject to variations in the environment.

The causes and characteristics

Science has not established a specific cause why the flight of ideas occurs. It is usually associated with another disorder, in particular, bipolar disorder. It is rare for such an episode to occur without another underlying pathology, although it can occur.

What is known is that this problem is related to states of euphoria. There is such intense psychic activity that this ends up accelerating thought and, in turn, manifests itself as an acceleration of language.

In the flight of ideas there is no common thread in the thought and that is why a conclusion is not reached in what is thought or said. Disorder prevails and the messages lack coherence if looked at as a whole, since the associations are usually crazy. However, in this disorder there are no delusions.

Associated manifestations

On some occasions, within that discourse there are ideas that are related to each other. There can be two or three ideas linked together. However, when the message is analyzed as a whole, there is no internal consistency. The structural difficulty persists, which represents a burden in reaching a conclusion or closing the discourse..

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What someone with a flight of ideas experiences is that it is difficult for them to concentrate. His attention is completely dispersed and he cannot focus on one issue, but instead wanders around without order.; in many cases, depending on the stimulus perceived at each moment. That’s why his speech is so crazy.

The primary emotion is excitement. The speed with which they speak and the vivacity of their thinking are evident. This means that its condition is visible to the naked eye and anyone can perceive it. For this reason, this type of disorder usually has great consequences.

A serious disorder

The flight of ideas is classified as a serious disorder, since the affected person completely loses their social functionality. It is impossible to communicate with her and, to that extent, she cannot participate in collective life as there is a rupture that is impossible to bridge.

Thus, it is important that the diagnosis be made by an experienced professional, since This disorder is very similar to some cognitive anomalies. or that affect intelligenceas well as with the premorbid states of some forms of schizophrenia.

There is no specific treatment for this type of disorder. The psychiatrist must evaluate each case and establish if it is linked to another pathology. Depending on the specific conditions, he will establish a plan where the steps to follow will be defined.