What is paranoia?

[Trev Williams]

from my experience paranoia can be one of the most scary aspects of mental illness. it can mean someone's beliefs or suspicions about other people are irrational. and often can mean believing that others may wish to cause them harm.

how can i help someone with paranoia? it is very difficult to support or sometimes even communicate with someone who is experiencing paranoia, often trying to rationalise these beliefs can be very difficult, and it is sometimes the case where people think no-one understands them. people can often be stuck in a loop, and breaking out of this can only really come from the person themselves. Positive re-inforcement of the beliefs which are still rational is a very good way of expanding this loop, focus on interests which you have in common and try and avoid confronting the paranoia as it could just push them away.

Trev

there is more information on the MIND website:
www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Understanding/Understanding+paranoia.htm

[vixie]

Paranoia/Anxiety to me...are

not going to work - i cant get there because the people on the trains are staring at me and reading my thoughts, and in turn i read theirs and know what they really think about me

diverting my psyches eyes - because i know she follows me places and shouldnt ask me questions she already has answers too.

Well, these are effects of paranoia and my reasons to believe them, in fact, having wrote them down from the safety of my home i feel somewhat silly, but they do run riot often in my head, disabling me from the life i want to pursue

Vixie x

[lorraine1]

Hi Vixie

In my experience, people I have met who are suffering from paranoia are often talented and creative people. Also, these types of thoughts are found in as many as 10% of people. Hope the link to the mind website might be useful for you.

[Trev Williams]

A relative to paranoia is disproportionate feelings (although I don’t know what the official label would be). I've been in many problems generally when you have feelings for someone (who generally doesn't know), and therefore their actions are amplified in your mind. This creates an unhealthy skew which can be similar to paranoia..

For example at a recent gig someone screwed up one of my flyers… instead of thinking this was done completely innocently (ie not thinking about it!), the disproportionate feelings skew so I think "they must dislike the event”, and therefore “must hate me".

I have to say that seeing anyone screw up my flyers would create negative thought cycles in my mind, but sometimes the amplification if far greater than the actual event, and it is hard to detach oneself from the emotion.

[anthony]

Trev asked me to have more of an input on the board so I thought I'd share some things about paranoia.

If I compare it to worst case scenarios, paranoia is effectively thinking the worst of a situation without it actually being real. It’s pretty hard to explain to someone who doesn't know about mental health.

Basically my conclusion is, if you've known someone who is susceptible to paranoia, or who has been in the past, be specific about things (particularly problems). A sweeping statement like 'you've upset me' which is left open-ended... will lead to much worse conclusions than eg 'you insulted my friend'... it will lead to 'you never want to talk to me again'... 'You want to kill me', 'I'm worthless I want to kill myself'... for example. Obviously these are disproportionate, but it is important to remember someone with paranoia is thinking WORST CASE scenarios... it's extremely unlikely that any problem in reality is as bad as in their own head.

Another thing that fuels paranoia is secrets. And I think open communication is a key factor to stability. Obviously confidentiality sometimes is an issue, but it is important to acknowledge that knowing something sensitive is NOT a secret, it is information entrusted to you for whatever reason because you needed to know it. And likewise you could share it in the same way (confidentially), if that eased the burden of knowing it.

[anthony]

Another brief point is 'cut off'. It is important to detach from situations if they are too much, and sometime this means cutting people off, or cutting out the situation. It is important to note that this is NOT a reflection on the person, more on the situation. I have cut off a few people in the past because the situation or relationship was wrong. It is not a reflection on them, or on me. It is a reflection that the situation was too much to cope with.

(Sometimes time heals this, and someone could quite easily compare it to an argument, when you storm off. But making up at the end is not always the important thing. Both being able to move on from the situation is far more important)