Paranoia is not just a symptom of psychosis
Many people have ‘suspicious thoughts’ at some time or other. Most people have experienced the feeling that other people are talking about them, or laughing about them behind their back, or have been worried that a group of young people they are passing on a street corner could be dangerous and mean them harm. These feelings can be considered as mild, everyday forms of paranoid thinking.
Researchers think paranoid thoughts might be almost as common as depression or anxiety: they say one in four people have regular paranoid thoughts that influence the way they feel about other people and the safety of the world.
However, paranoid thoughts only become a problem if they stop people getting on with their everyday life because they are frightened of what might happen. They are similar to phobias – a fear of heights, or spiders, for example. Many people have such fears from time to time, but phobias only become problematic for a small number of individuals.
Besides my Mom Dad and Sister I cant go around the rest of my family because I believe they are all trying to hurt me in someway or another. I haven’t been to a Christmas party in years because of this. I also can’t go outside if the neighbors are out there because they scare me. I dont know if this is paranoia or not…it is just the way I feel.
I think it was Firemonkey who posted that once… I’ve a phobia of crocodiles btw. Personally I thinks it’s a very sensible fear to have.
My paranoia and social anxiety I feel stemmed from being bullied for being socially(and physically) awkward and having trouble with social interaction. Now as a result of the paranoia and social anxiety I am fearful/wary and don’t engage much with others which turn means social interaction is as difficult or more difficult than ever. I even get anxious if people get too close online.
I think that many neurotypicals have paranoid thoughts from time to time - anxiety,depression, bipolar, personality disorders can stir up paranoid thinking - same goes for sleep deprivation and drug use etc…
This makes perfect sense. Paranoia is a level constant… not exclusive too when I’m falling apart.
For me personally, I identify myself as crumbling when I’m hallucinating with all 5 senses and I’m feeling a huge sense of panic and deep confusion hit me. My poor cross wired brain is short circuiting and I’m starting to loose control of basic logic, functions, I’ll also have a personal earthquake.
But the paranoia was usually around a 6 or 7 on a 1 to 10 scale and it was fairly constant. I was seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling everything just fine. But I was still very upset by being followed, having people out to harm me, or get to me somehow.
I’ve been working on this with help and little by little I still get some spikes of panic and need some reassurance but on a whole, I think with help the level is dropping.
I think that having severe panic disorder for most of my life, especially childhood kind of made me fearful of everything around me - I never felt completely safe - this causing me to have a lot of paranoid thinking - people with bipolar can be paranoid as well
When my doctor’s was at its previous location I used to have to walk through an underpass to get to it. If anyone was behind me or I sensed they were,young or old, I would get frightened they were going to catch up with me and hurt me,so quickened my step.
That was the worst but anywhere secluded I would feel the same.