what’s gangstalking?
In: 11
There’s little psychological research on gangstalking. So I’ll relay its description without commenting on whether it’s a common problem or if it deserves its own label as a mental illness.
Gangstalking is a delusion held by some people that they are being persecuted and their lives torn apart by the government. They believe the government is actively sending out gangs of perpetrators whose sole job is to mess with the brains of these people and prevent them from having normal lives.
Some examples of these activities:
* The person might receive strange phone calls or texts from unknown numbers. The caller/sender might say nothing, or they might make vague threats or accusations.
* The person might notice that random people are staring at them, or they might think they’re hearing people talking about them behind their backs.
* The person might see the same kind of cars with the same colors following them everywhere they go, even on different routes and at different times of day.
The issue remains: there’s virtually no research whatsoever about this phenomenon. It may easily be considered psychosis, paranoid schizophrenia, or OCD with psychotic features.
But the biggest development has been that these people who think these delusions are true are organizing and conversing on online forums. Psychologists worry that these have become echo chambers that only confirm these people’s delusions and perpetuate their paranoia. Users on these forums typically don’t recognize they struggle with paranoid delusions or they’re going through a mental health problem, but rather bounce off of each other that their beliefs are absolutely true and the government must be restrained.
Some of them banded back in 2015 and [convinced the city council of Richmond, Ca., to ban the use of space weapons on people.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8NPQsgHko)
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