What is Paranoia, the Symptoms, and Causes
While anxiety disorder has been a widely known mental health disorder by many people of all ages, paranoia, on the other hand, might be something new to certain people. In this essay, I will be discussing paranoia, and how it feels like living with paranoia based on a personal experience.
Unlike anxiety, paranoia might not be considered a disorder, rather it is a feeling and way of thinking about certain aspects. Quoted from mind.org.uk, “Paranoia is thinking and feeling like you are being threatened in some way, even if there is no evidence, or very little evidence, that you are”. Paranoia might be included in the list of symptoms of three mental illnesses, including paranoid personality disorder, delusional (paranoid) disorder, and paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoia and anxiety have a really close, yet complicated relationship and are affecting one another. Anxiety might be affecting what the person is paranoid about, and become the cause of paranoia. However, having paranoid thoughts could make the person feel anxious.
Although paranoia and anxiety might seem the same and could be mistaken for the same type of problems, it actually isn’t.
Quoted from mind.org.uk, “Paranoia is thinking and feeling like you are being threatened in some way, even if there is no evidence, or very little evidence, that you are”. In other words, paranoia is the feeling or way of thinking that a person’s life is in danger because people are ‘out to get them’ although there is no strong evidence of it, and it may be portrayed as a delusion. The example of paranoia thoughts include:
- Believing people are talking ill behind your back,
- Thinking that a physical attack is going to happen to you,
- People are trying to make you look bad and being excluded,
- Convinced that people are secretly using double meaning to terrorize you, and many more.
Paranoia itself might be the symptom of several other mental illnesses, including paranoid personality disorder, delusional (paranoid) disorder, and paranoid schizophrenia. However, paranoia also has its own symptoms as an individual condition. Those include:
- Gets offended easily,
- Finding it hard to forgive one’s mistake, and even more, forgetting it,
- Always defensive,
- Can’t or hard to trust others,
- Hard to compromise,
- Feeling that relationship is difficult,
- Believing that the world is full of continuous threats and many more.
Until this day, the causes of paranoia remain unclear, one might have a different cause than the others. However, in general, these are what experts believe to be the cause of paranoia:
- Genetics. Just like many other mental health issues, genetics always played a huge role in determining someone’s condition. Researchers suggest that genetics also played an immense part in paranoia. However, they can’t be sure of the specific detail about it.
- Traumatic life experiences. Of course, traumatic life experiences will be one of the causes of paranoia, since it is also the cause of many other mental health problems. Traumatic life events might happen during childhood and continue to have an effect on their lives after they grew up. But, it doesn’t necessarily always be in childhood, bullying experiences experienced during adult time could also be the reason.
- Stress. Some studies suggest that people who are under severe stress will more likely to develop paranoia.
- Drugs. Some kinds of drugs might trigger paranoia, including cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol, LSD, cannabis, and amphetamines.
Although paranoia might seem very much like anxiety, both are two separate conditions. While paranoia focuses on themselves and delusional threat thoughts saying the outside world is targetting towards them, anxiety, on the other hand, is more of a normal and natural response to stressful situations happening, however, it might go out of hand, and that is when a normal anxious feeling would become anxiety. Anxiety is not just centered on the sufferer, rather it also sees and worried about the danger others might experience. But paranoia is a feeling and thought that focuses on the sufferer’s life.
In conclusion, paranoia is a way of thinking and feeling one has that will cause them to hard to believe people, get offended easily, and always get into the perception that people are harming them. The cause of paranoia has not yet been discovered, however, experts believe that genetics, traumatic life experiences, stress, and drugs are the causes of paranoia. Though it might seem like paranoia and anxiety are similar, both are different conditions with different ways of thinking and facing a situation.
References:
Causes of paranoia. Mind. (n.d.). Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/paranoia/causes-of-paranoia/
Department of Health & Human Services. (2007, November 20). Paranoia. Better Health Channel. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/paranoia
Frysh, P. (n.d.). Paranoia: Symptoms, causes, and treatments. WebMD. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/why-paranoid
Herndon, J. (2022, January 5). Paranoia vs. anxiety: Understanding the differences. Healthline. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/paranoia-vs-anxiety#anxiety
What is paranoia? Mind. (n.d.). Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/paranoia/about-paranoia/
