We All Feel Paranoid Sometimes, But When Does It Become A Problem?
If you’ve ever been walking down the street and suddenly got the feeling that somebody was going to hurt you, you’re not alone. Practically everyone experiences feelings of paranoia at some point in their lives. We fear that others harbor bad intentions towards us and might hurt us.
Paranoia is something that the Urban Greenhouse blog covers in detail. Sometimes it has to do with the products that you consume. But, for the most part, it is a psychological reaction, coming out of anxiety.
For most people, the feeling of paranoia is mild and usually dissipates in a minute or two. An errant thought enters your head, you imagine that you’re in trouble for a while, and then it leaves.
Paranoia, however, is something that can turn into something more serious.
The Problem Of Misdiagnosis
While paranoia is common, it is also misdiagnosed at an alarming rate. When people with the condition go to psychiatrists, they can sometimes falsely diagnose them with other disorders, such as psychosis and schizophrenia. Worse still, they can prescribe medications for those conditions that cause side effects and don’t deal with the underlying problem.
There’s a growing consensus in the scientific community that many mental illnesses result from specific thought processes in individual patients, not some generic “brain state” or condition. For that reason, the paradigm is changing. Professionals are focusing more on the issues facing individuals rather than providing blanket treatment.
The Approach For Solving Paranoia
Leading therapists are more advocating a treatment approach that seeks to remedy the deep-seated beliefs that people hold that they are in danger. For some, the problem is an overactive flight-or-fight response. They see threats everywhere they look, wondering who is going to jump out and attack them next.
Sometimes this belief emerges from a person’s history. If they’ve been bullied at school or by colleagues, they are much more likely to experience a sensation of paranoia. They come to believe that other people are fundamentally out there to hurt them at an unconscious level. And so their minds play tricks on them, telling them dangers exist when they don’t.
For other people, the issue of paranoia is more self-generated. Lack of sleep, thinking negatively of other people, and jumping to conclusions are all cognitive habits that increase the chance of developing the condition. Researchers call these “maintenance factors” because of the fact that they maintain a person at risk of developing the disease.
Therapy, therefore, focuses heavily on dealing with these maintenance factors. It seeks to look at the root of problems, whether external or internal, and solve them.
Excessive worry is worth dealing with before it becomes a major psychological problem. It can lead to issues such as alcoholism and stress disorders, which play tricks on the mind. Nipping paranoia in the bud early, therefore, is essential. You want to get to a state of mind where you feel like you control your thoughts rather than them controlling you. Living without worry can help improve your life.