No matter which medication I am taking or not taking - the one symptom that always stays with me - no matter what, is paranoia. I have had it since I was a kid, I remember the door bell ringing as a kid, I must have been 13 or 14 yrs old.
No one was home other than me and my younger brother. I nervously answered the door and saw a guy (stranger) standing on my porch. I freaked! - ran out the back door and kept running, leaving my brother alone in the house!
I called the cops from a neighbors house - turned out this guy was a sales person, but you never know right?
Till this very day, paranoia at different degrees always is present with me - the more anxious or depressed I am, the more intense the paranoia. Lately not delusional, not hallucinating, but always paranoid and anxious!
i feel for you, thankfully my paranoia is diminishing.
i found your story funny though, this screaming kid running down the streetā¦and your poor brother left ā home alone 'ā¦what the !?!
take care
lol yeah I know @darksith - I look back at this incident, and I kind of have to laugh. But at the time - sheer terror! 
Glad to know your paranoia is getting better!
You just need to know there is something wrong with a lot of peopleā¦The psych doctor is gonna tell you that you need to consider this just something wrong with you. Only way I can deal with it is ignore themā¦I think it best to just expect to be treated badly by some people for the rest of my life.
I was raised by a demanding, bully parent with nothing nice to say so I donāt have a response to the bullies as took it everywhere else as kid too for being fat. Only thing I can control is my reaction & know there is something wrong with a lot of part-time psychotic people who follow orders from the voices to stalk people, vandalize, harass someone about private info, trespass and screw with customers/coworkers in their employment. The latter is the scariest to me after successful & comfortable self support by employment for so many good adult years and now Iām treated like a POS at work. This behavior is called gang stalking/cause stalking/thought broadcasting. Some of the church pastors here were even encouraging their parishioners to act like thisā¦there is lots of hatred toward anyone on welfare/disability check.
You can desensitize yourself by exposing yourself to it one step at a time. You need to have a plan on how you are going to handle each problem you encounter & you can build up a thicker skin to thisā¦eventually the anxiety fades. But, some communities have so many people who will mistreat another the social problems are really severe for us as there are a lot of angry people in some communities who went mental and got no disability assistance from the governmentā¦
Remember, mental care calls a lot of stuff delusional while you are just confused. They are not allowed to discuss the social problems or offer you any help coping. But, if you get angry you will be confined to the mental hospital at your own expense for as long as the doctor can justify it. There are some real limitations with mental care policies unfortunatelyā¦
One church denomination I attended explained exercise of āgraceā for some of the people in their congregation who are confused and verbally mistreating someone. You just ignore it. ā¦But if I see worse in the group, it is better to leave sometimes or limit the amount of damage some of the aggressive people can do by keeping a lot of your life & EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION private. Unfortunately, some will ruin a well employed person even to use her, or him so have to know when to excuse yourself as bad stuff goes on which is kept completely legal and cops will ruin someone bad for complaining about what happens next.
I am sorry you always have paranoia, Wave. Liveing with paranoia is stressful. Maybe you can try to overcome it with the reason of your mind.
Yeahā¦ I have always been pretty fearful and jumping to conclusionsā¦ I remember one time my friends who lived next door to me had me totally freaked out and convinced their house was haunted. One of the brothers was hiding in the house and turning the electrical breakers off and on making the radio and tv start up. Plus he was making all sorts of bumping noises in the house. To make it even more convincing his brother played the part of getting freaked out too so I emulated his emotional state. They really got me
My first hospitalization was pretty full blown paranoiaā¦ the lousy thing was it wasnāt entirely unreasonable. I had just gone for a training at a major corporation and they had really tight security and plus all my fellow trainees were talking about rumors of military projects the company was involved inā¦ political upheavalsā¦etcā¦
I had a really bad turbulent flight to the wrong city followed by a really long creepy cab ride home with a creepy dude who said he had done some military operations in South America and asked me a lot about my political views. I made a lot of weird (and maybe not so weird) assumptions and didnāt seek some more evidence for my suspicions so I got really freaked out and ended up in the hospital. After 20 years I am still not entirely sure if my suspicions at the time were totally unfounded. Oh well, probably will never find out either.
At any rate, nobody does their best thinking when they are emotionally overstimulated. Plus our brains are being constantly bombarded with fiction where the most unlikely things happen. If you are watching a tv show or movie someone is pretty likely to get hurt on it, the laws of physics will be defied etcā¦ Everyday reality for most people is actually mostly pretty mundane. I donāt think anyone on this board is a firefighter or works in a mineshaft.
There are some real dangers for everybody howeverā¦ if you are crossing the street, driving a car, going down stairs, or even eating there is a reasonable amount of danger involved and you have to be vigilant. Even your distrust of the stranger isnāt necessarily unreasonableā¦ there are people out there who have really lousy ethics. Itās more a matter of responding in a proportional manner. Calling the police calmly might have been sufficient but running out the back door might have been going overboard.
Be cautious always, seldom fearful.
Hi @green6 Yes I have been trying to do this - using reason, and it helps a little, but the irrational thoughts keep popping in afterwards. I have been challenging myself using what I have learned through CBT, and it does help a little but does not eliminate my paranoia/anxiety completely. I was paranoid and mistrustful since I was 5 years old! I am going to have to learn new ways of coping with it - but yes thanks for the good advice
Wow very cool words - I will try to apply this philosophy - thanks @keepsimple! 
Very good advice @Stillperkin - something for me to try out - thanks!
I think my son started out with anxiety.
I wake up with it most mornings-I really have to talk to myself sometimes. Life seems pretty overwhelming at timesāwell, a lot!
I`m glad you can laugh about itāit helps a lot!**
I know that at the time one of the best coping mechanisms for paranoia is isolating in a comfortable environment, but with that in my experiences I begin to hallucinate and become delusional. There is no right answer for you to deal w/this problem. If one mechanism doesnāt work keep trying until you find the one w/the least negative outcomes. It wonāt go away but it may subside enough to deal with. I hope you keep trying.
maybe CBT could help you rationalise some of the paranoia?
a little paranoia is normal even if you are on medsā¦
my paranoia never leaves me either. half the time i know its irrational but i cant stop the feelings and thoughts and fight or flight response from starting