AZ: Losing It

[sachmo]

"You seem to be suffering the effects of a Khan worm infestation", Dr. Katz sighed.
"Really?" Sally asked.
"Most definately," the doctor said as he scribbled notes furiously on his legal pad. "The good news is that we can contain the infestation." He looked up at her. "Unfortunately, we'll have to destroy you to do it," he smiled.

[Baron Munchausen]

AgentZero said:
Hey folks, I'm just looking for a bit of help diagnosing one of my characters in a story I'm writing. She suffers from difficulty or a complete inability to seperate fantasy from reality, is a compulsive liar, is often concerned that others around her know what she's thinking, and tends to feel as though mundane, random events are directed at her, ie: while waiting a longer than usual amount of time to cross a busy road, she begins to feel that all the cars whizzing by are doing it on purpose to make her late for work, etc.
The symptoms have always been present, but haven't been pronounced enough for anyone around her to take notice, aside from thinking she's a bit 'odd'. Now, however (in her early 20s) the symptoms have grown progressively worse, prompting her to visit a psychiatrist who eventually tells you "You seem to be suffering from-" And that's where I'm stuck because I've just realized I don't know.

Anyone have any ideas?

Sounds like plain old psychosis, actually. "Inability to separate fantasy from reality" is the short "layman's" definition of it.

http://www.mental-health-today.com/a.../psychosis.htm

Psychosis - Understanding it

...

There are many psychotic symptoms, all of which can be described as disorders of perception (the way we experience or make sense of the world). People suffering from psychotic disorders can exhibit any or all of these at different times depending upon the exact nature of their illness.

...

Thought disorder means non-hallucinatory psychotic symptoms which have to do with problems in interpretation as well as understanding. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. However, here are some of the more common symptoms:

[Your character doesn't have all of the symptoms given in the list, but here are two that she does have...]
...

Thought broadcasting:

This is the opposite of thought insertion. Here sufferers believe that their thoughts are being broadcast to one or more others. This can be extremely distressing, particularly when the sufferer is thinking about past regrets or secrets. Even without such thoughts the lack of privacy they perceive is very difficult to come to terms with. Conversations become strained and often bewildering for others, especially if the sufferer believes they only have to �think� their part of the interaction. A particularly interesting version of thought broadcasting, Gedenkenlautwerden, has sufferers believing their thoughts are openly �bouncing� around the room for all to notice.

Ideas of reference:

Quite simply this means that sufferers believe innocuous things refer to them. For example the people on the television may be talking about or even to them personally. A bird settling in a tree or the fact that there were exactly three people on a passing bus may represent some incredibly complex fantasy which may be extremely threatening. Other people�s casual conversations take on a whole new significance and can be extremely frightening. This is one of the most common symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia although it can occur in other disorders too.

--

So, it sounds like your character's diagnosis is Schizophrenia. At least she's not seeing and hearing full-blown hallucinations.