Paranoia: When It Seems Like the World Is Against You

Summary

  • Being paranoid. It feels like we’re on the edge all the time. Are they laughing at me?…. They MUST be laughing at me. I ALWAYS get laughed at. When we have these thoughts, it really changes the way we see the world. But some of us probably have these thoughts are our entire lives, and we just don’t know why. We definitely want to it stop, and people tells us the same things every time: It’s all in your head. Doesn’t help.
  • Paranoia is the unrealistic belief that the world is out to hurt us.
    • Paranoia starts from a past event that shapes the way we see the world. - A traumatic event from the past can cause our brain to create an unrealistic belief. The emotional experience we learned for the event shapes the way we think and interpret the things around us. Emotions  We WANT to believe the unrealistic belief, so we subconsciously find all the evidence to support that belief. It’s like the time when you just bought a new car and then you start to see that car everywhere. What we notice and want to see. We tend to find the evidence for it, even if it’s not there.
    • Paranoia has fear and anxiety as the consequences for that belief.
  • Use interruptions to stop your negative thoughts.
    • The reason why paranoia spins out of control is due to the chain of negative imagination attached to it. - First is be extremely clear of what your paranoid belief is. Now tally and count every time you found evidences supporting that paranoid belief, then go back to what you are doing. Every time when you have a thought, the tallying is physically interrupting the chain of thought. You are increasing self awareness for every thought you interrupt. Awareness gives us control. We can’t control how we feel, but we can control how we respond to it.
  • Actively find other possible explanations for your thoughts.
    • To decrease the intensity of your paranoia, actively think of other possibilities for your thoughts. “Maybe the person is just having a good time and not laughing at me.” If you can, focus on empathizing with the person you felt paranoid about.