Do you have anything in common with Charlie Sheen?

Who is this?

• He is talking a lot about his awesomeness this week.
• He thinks he cured a long-standing issue with just his brain and his alone.
• He proclaims himself to be too complicated for anyone to understand.

If you guessed Charlie Sheen, you'd be right. If you guessed the ego-maniacal leader in your office, you'd be right too.

While Charlie Sheen is a celebrity constantly in the news lately, others have similar self delusions. You've heard people at work take credit for someone else's work? You've had executives, or dates perhaps, who think they are so complex they are hard to figure out. You've had coworkers who want to rush through solutions without research, trials, or input from others.

Charlie Sheen thinks he is bigger than life, that everyone wants to be him, and that he is more special than everyone else. But he is not alone. He's just on morning shows talking about it. His self-hype may be caused by long-term addictions, but there could be other causes as well--for him and for the manager at your workplace.

Delusions of grandeur could be caused by never being told "no," by being surrounded by people who reinforce the perception, or by being sheltered from the bigger world out there. There could be many causes of it. The point here is that the actor is in the spotlight about it, while others have similar views of themselves privately. Some people are making fun of the actor, others feel sorry for him. We all could use a self-check to ensure we are not as blinded as he appears to be.

So, how do you know if you've got the Charlie Sheen disease of self-delusion? Here are 11 ways to tell if you are deluding yourself, a la Charlie Sheen:

1. If your conversations, blogs, tweets, and posts are about you 90% of the time, you may be infected.
2. If people withdraw from being around you, you may be infected.
3. If no one lists you as one of their top 365,947 role models, even in your field of expertise or family, you may be infected.
4. If you actually say things like, "No one understands me," you might be infected. (No one is that complicated; get over yourself.)
5. If people respond to you with statements like, "Really? You think that?" you may be infected.
6. If you are excluded from meetings, lunches, and gatherings with people you think are less than you, you may be infected.
7. If web sites and blogs (or coworkers at the water cooler) talk about your delusions of grandeur, you may be infected.
8. If your friends during a time of crisis are un-respected egomaniacs, you may be infected.
9. If your behavior has made you the joke of the office and people want to be around the same way they want to watch a car wreck, you may be infected.
10. If you are unable to rally support for your ideas, causes, or jobs, you may be infected.
11. If you think you are more newsworthy than US military fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, you may be infected.

If you find yourself infected with the Charlie Sheen disease of self-delusion, the best solution is to look yourself in the mirror...ah, never mind, you'd just get stuck there.

If you find yourself infected, you'd probably deny it anyway; however, that doesn't mean it is not true. You might not see it yourself, but those around you see it and eventually will disengage completely, lose respect, and cut ties. Perhaps that look in the mirror would be worth your time after all, just in case.

(Any other questions to ponder to discover if you have the Charlie Sheen disease of self-delusion? Share in the comments section.)