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Are you unsure if you are suffering from paranoia?

In this article I am going to explain and briefly explore this question, the boundary edge rather than simply defining paranoia.

In my opinion most psychological traits and behaviours exist on a continuum. We all have the capacity for general vigilance and even hyper vigilance, suspicion, anxiety, low mood, impulsivity and just downright distrust in others.

The difference however is usually degree, frequency, and whether a specific response actually remains proportional to the reality you are in. It’s important to understand that a certain amount of suspicion it’s not only absolutely normal but on a daily basis depending on where you are, is necessary and at times essential. Without it, people would ignore risks, alarms, scams, deception and just general everyday risks and threats to our safety both physically and mentally.

Your work role in your workplace determines levels of suspicion and distrust of risks or consequences and then tomorrow or next year in a different job that level our vigilance and distrust may dramatically drop or even disappear.

Certain levels of vigilance and high observation are required.

In a nutshell this definition is very close to how many psychologists would think about it.

That line between paranoia and not paranoia!

This line is usually not crossed by vigilance, caution or due diligence or even hyper vigilance unless there is a real reason for it.

A soldier in a war zone territory walking along and scanning for danger is not paranoid. Because the danger is very real and the alertness is absolutely proportional to their environment and the potential risk around them.

If that same person was walking through a town centre with exactly that level of vigilance of danger and looking to see that someone wasn’t going to jump out or harm them or something nasty wasn’t going to blow out of a waste bin, then that would be paranoia when there is no danger!

This is more often crossed when the perceived threat of danger becomes disproportion to the observable evidence. Or the alternative explanation from others stops being considered and then dismissed by that person. The belief becomes increasingly resistant to other statements and evidence. Or the person becomes preoccupied with regularly confirming the threat to their safety physically and mentally. The conviction starts driving behaver even when evidence is very weak or doesn’t exist at all. That’s when it starts to become paranoia. Likewise, people might say you are just imagining.

A fixed belief!

A fixed belief is a strong marker but it is important to know that paranoia can exist and does exist on or before it becomes fully fixed or developed. Someone can experience paranoia or paranoid thinking while at the same time still questioning it. Once it becomes an unshakable conviction despite other or contrary evidence, then this is when it becomes more concerning and established as a condition or symptom that needs managing.

To elaborate further, vigilance is something that could happen so I’d better pay attention. Paranoia is something that is happening or will happen or is about to happen and despite lack of evidence I increasingly treat it as true and act upon it as true.

Clinicians determine this between the relationship around belief and evidence, not the actual intensity of the attention itself.

Additionally, a person can move from one side of this line when it’s not paranoia to the other side of the line when it becomes paranoia at a rapid rate of knots!

When is paranoia not paranoia?

The word paranoia is used too casually and people question other people’s motives probably because they don’t like it, they call it paranoia and dismiss that person as being over the top in their opinion or views. Someone double checks information, expresses amounts of caution or becomes concerned about a possible risk and this label quickly and critically appears on the lips of others.

In daily reality the boundary between paranoia as a symptom and everyday psychological functioning in specific environments is definitely not always as clear as people think.

Humans have evolved to detect threats like electrical voltage. And from an evolutionary perspective our survival depends upon recognising danger before it arrives.

Our ancestors who noticed supple signs of risk would survive better than those who ignored those supple signs and as a result our everyday vigilance is a normal and necessary part of human psychology especially in the social system that we live in now.

Most people engage in some level of over vigilance such as locking doors, checking their bank statements, question suspicious emails along with computers unusual behaviour. None of this is paranoia, it’s a reasonable response to potential risk duarding.

The best way for you to tell the difference between you being vigilant or being paranoid is to question whether your belief remains connected to any real evidence.

Your healthy vigilance allows for a considerable amount of uncertainty. You may think something could go wrong so I will have to pay attention and you may remain open to alternative explanations and can adjust your view when new information becomes available.

Paranoid thinking begins to emerge when the suspicion becomes increasingly detached from the evidence so my question to you is, is your level of suspicion strong, and is it becoming detached from the evidence. Are you able to hold that evidence and rationally and analytically explore it.

Have you become preoccupied with a perceived danger or threat and start interpreting neutral events/safe events as confirmation of your concerns and that alternative explanations around you or from others are being dismissed and contradictory evidence carries less weight than the actual fear you’re experiencing.

At the severe end of the spectrum your beliefs can become fixed and resilient to challenge and you no longer treat the concern as a possibility but has a fact even when objective evidence does not support it.

This does not mean paranoia appears instantly and suddenly although it can but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes from somewhere. It comes from thought and feeling material and how you’re processing it within your mind. Like many other psychological experiences, paranoia exists on a continuum, and there is no sharp dividing specific line in any human being where normal caution instantly becomes paranoia rather there is a gradual slow incremental increase or movement from reasonable vigilance towards increasing certainty, preoccupation and over the top distrust.

This may be useful to you: Normal vigilance says there could be a problem and paranoia increasingly insists that there is a problem. So, take that sentence with you and use it to gauge your daily experiences. If you’d like to take your studies further you can learn more here about paranoia here as the difference in the two is significant.

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