What is Paranoia?
Paranoia involves intense anxious or
fearful feelings and thoughts often
related to persecution, threat, or
conspiracy. Paranoia occurs in many
mental disorders, but is most often
present in psychotic disorders.
Paranoia can become delusions,
when irrational thoughts and beliefs
become so fixed that nothing
(including contrary evidence) can
convince a person that what they
think or feel is not true. When a
person has paranoia or delusions,
but no other symptoms (like hearing
or seeing things that aren't there),
they might have what is called a
delusional disorder. Because only
thoughts are impacted, a person
with delusional disorder can usually
work and function in everyday life,
however, their lives may be limited
and isolated.
Symptoms of Paranoia:
Symptoms of paranoia and
delusional disorders include intense
and irrational mistrust or suspicion,
which can bring on sense of fear,
anger, and betrayal. Some
identifiable beliefs and behaviors of
individuals with symptoms of
paranoia include mistrust,
hypervigilence, difficulty with
forgiveness, defensive attitude in
response to imagined criticism,
preoccupation with hidden motives,
fear of being deceived or taken
advantage of, inability to relax, or
are argumentative.
What Causes Paranoia?
The cause of paranoia is a
breakdown of various mental and
emotional functions involving
reasoning and assigned meanings.
The reasons for these breakdowns
are varied and uncertain. Some
symptoms of paranoia relate to
repressed, denied or projected
feelings. Often, paranoid thoughts
and feelings are related to events
and relationships in a person's life,
thereby increasing isolation and
difficulty with getting help.
Treatment of Paranoia
Treatment of paranoia is usually via
medication and cognitive behavioral
therapy. The most important
element in treating paranoia and
delusional disorder, is building a
trusting and collaborative relationship to reduce the impact of
irrational fearful thoughts and
improving social skills. It can be
difficult to treat a person with
paranoia since symptoms result in
increased irritability, emotionally
guardedness, and possible hostility.
Often times, progress on paranoid
delusions and especially delusional
disorder is slow. Regardless of how
slow the process, recovery and
reconnection is possible.
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