Psychology researchers from Charles Sturt University (CSU) ask, does your mind do strange things when you're feeling even just a little stressed?

Dr James Schuurmans-Stekhoven (pictured) and postgraduate researcher Ms Cara Kingston in the CSU School of Psychology in Bathurst have found that the frequency and intensity of delusional and paranoid thoughts a person reports is proportional to them experiencing relatively minor stresses in the preceding month.

They surveyed more than 250 Australians about minor stresses and strains in daily life – such as disagreements with work colleagues and financial struggles – and the findings of their study will soon be published by the British Psychological Society.

"Psychologists have long known that trauma can trigger a range of mental illness; including depression and anxiety," Dr James Schuurmans-Stekhoven said. "However, in more recent years researchers have found major psychiatric illnesses,for example, schizophrenia and delusions, can follow life-threatening traumas.

"Psychologists are now starting to get a clearer understanding that even the accumulation of fairly benign stressors and frustrations may be an important predictor of increased psychiatric risk.

"Furthermore, these risks appear cumulative. It's not just the super stressed-out who are at risk. The odds of poor wellbeing start increasing from mild stress levels onwards.

"We're not talking about the especially vulnerable, or those exposed to crime or death threats either, we are talking about everyday people and the typical stresses of modern life," he said. "This finding dove-tails nicely with the recent hypothesis, derived from Swedish data, showing that urbanites have a greater susceptibility to psychosis, that was attributed to the extra psychological strain of city living."

Dr Schuurmans-Stekhoven and Ms Kingston's research delved further and found that among people experiencing stress, those who were self-critical and had negative moods were at greater risk of delusions.

"Although the self-critical and those susceptibility to negative emotions were more prone to delusions, these factors do not fully explain the link between hassles and holding false beliefs" he said. "Poor coping strategies, like using psychoactive drugs, and biological factors, also seem likely to play a role in raising the risks."

The research also investigated whether reassuring thoughts and/or staying emotionally positive in the face of stress lowered the risks, but these variables were not found to be protective.

"It appears that positive thinking does not help to alter the risks of delusions, possibly because such thoughts can themselves be wishful and unfounded as it is very possible to feel good yet still hold beliefs that lack empirical support," Dr Schuurmans-Stekhoven said.

He noted that this latter observation is based on his earlier work showing that spiritual beliefs and faith are more common among people who exhibit both a positive disposition and perceptual disturbances akin to those found in psychosis sufferers.