Paranoia Health Article

Definition

Paranoia is a symptom in which an individual feels as if the world is "out to get" him or her. When people are paranoid, they feel as if others are always talking about them behind their backs. Paranoia causes intense feelings of distrust, and can sometimes lead to overt or covert hostility.

Description

An individual suffering from paranoia feels suspicious, and has a sense that other people want to do him or her harm. As a result, the paranoid individual changes his or her actions in response to a world that is perceived as personally threatening. Objective observers may be quite clear on the fact that no one's words or actions are actually threatening the paranoid individual. The hallmark of paranoia is a feeling of intense distrust and suspiciousness that is not in response to input from anybody or anything in the paranoid individual's environment.

Other symptoms of paranoia may include

• Self-referential thinking: The sense that other people in the world (even complete strangers on the street) are always talking about the paranoid individual.
• Thought broadcasting: The sense that other people can read the paranoid individual's mind.
• Magical thinking: The sense that the paranoid individual can use his or her thoughts to influence other people's thoughts and actions.
• Thought withdrawal: The sense that people are stealing the paranoid individual's thoughts.
• Thought insertion: The sense that people are putting thoughts into the paranoid individual's mind.
• Ideas of reference: The sense that the television and/or radio are specifically addressing the paranoid individual.

Demographics

Paranoia is a very human feeling. Nearly everyone has experienced it at some or another time, to varying degrees. Paranoia exists on a continuum, ranging from a feeling of distrust due to an occasional misinterpretation of cues that can be appropriately dealt with and reinterpreted, to an overarching pattern of actual paranoia that affects every interpersonal interaction.

Some research studies have suggested that 6% of all women and 13% of all men have some chronic level of mistrust towards the motivations of others towards them. Only about 0.5% to 0.25% of men and women can actually be diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder, however. It remains interesting to researchers that men are more prone to paranoid traits and mental disorders with paranoid features than are women.