can someone please tell me what paranoia is and what a person thinks who has it??

Answer 1

Here the patient becomes a prey to premature delusion. According to Kraeplein, in the disease the cause of delusion is internal, and no hallucination is involved.

The main symptom is permanent delusion. It should be kept in mind that there is delusion in schizophrenia also but in that case it is not permanent or organized. In paranoia the symptoms of delusion appear gradually, and the patient is sentimental, suspicious, irritable, introverted, depressed, obstinate, jealous, selfish, unsocial and bitter. Hence his social and family adjustment is not desirable, and while he has the highest desirable, the effort that he is prepared to expend is correspondingly little. Here the person does not acknowledge his own failures or faults, and by sometimes accepting certain qualities as belonging to himself, even when imaginary, he develops paranoia.

The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", fourth edition (DSM-IV), the US manual of the mental health professional; lists the following symptoms for paranoid personality disorder:

preoccupied with unsupported doubts about friends or associates
suspicious; unfounded suspicions; believes others are plotting against him/her
perceives attacks on his/her reputation that are not clear to others, and is quick to counterattack
maintains unfounded suspicions regarding the fidelity of a spouse or significant other
reads negative meanings into innocuous remarks
reluctant to confide in others due to a fear that information may be used against him/her
Kinds of paranoia
Persecutory paranoia - This is the most prevalent type of paranoia, and in this patient makes himself believe that all those around him are his enemies, bent on harming him or even taking his life. In this delusion people of an aggressive temperament often turns dangerous killers.
Delusion of Grandeur - In this patient believes himself to be, a great individual, and according to Bleuler, this delusion of grandeur accompanies a persecutory delusion.
Religious paranoia - Here the patients suffer from a permanent delusion of a primarily religious nature. He for example believes, that he is the messenger of God who has been sent to the world to propagate some religion.
Reformatory paranoia - In this the patient turns to considering himself a great reformer. He accordingly looks upon all those around him. As suffering from dangerous disease, and believes that he is their reformer and curator.
Erotic paranoia - Here the patient often tends to believe that some members of the family of the opposite sex, belonging to an illustrious family, want to marry him. Such people even write love letters and there by, cause much botheration to other people.
Litigious paranoia - In this kind the patient takes to feeling meaningless cases against other people and feels that people are linked together to bother him. Sometimes he, even tries to murder.
Hypochondrical paranoia - In this kind the patients believes that he is suffering from all kind of ridiculous diseases, and also that some other people are to blame for his suffering.
Cause of Paranoia
1) Homosexual fixation: According to Freud, the patient suffering from the disease has repressed his tendency to homosexual love to such an extent that he develops a fixation concerning it. Freud's view has been found correct in many cases, but it does not explain each and every case of the disease.

2) Feelings of inferiority: Here the psychologists have found that the main cause of paranoia is a sense of inferiority that may be caused by a variety of condition such as failure, disgust, sense of guilt.

3) Emotional complex: Certain psychologist points out emotional complexes, and also believe that they are seen to be present in other mental diseases as also in normal individuals.

4) Personality type: Cameron believes a certain type to be more susceptible to this disease, a personality that has sentimentally, jealousy, suspicion, ambition, selfishness and shyness etc. Patients of paranoia do exhibit these peculiarities of personality but on this basis they cannot be said to belong to definite personality.

5) Heredity: In the opinion of Fisher the main responsibility of paranoia lies fairly and squarely upon heredity, although he does not deny the importance of repression and emotional complexes. The causes of paranoia are not physical because no patient exhibits any signs of physical deformity and among the causes there are many important" ones, such as defects of personality, sense of inferiority, repression etc.

Treatment and Cure of Paranoia
A cure of paranoia is very difficult and it is essential that treatment should be started immediately the disease comes to be known. Once it grows on a person there is no curing to it. The chief method of curing it is the following:

Psychoanalytic method - Compared to other mental diseases, this disease does not respond immediately to psychoanalytic treatment because, being suspicious, the patient does not cooperate with the doctor. Even then, with due precaution, certain results can be achieved by employing this method.
Injection of Insulin- some patients also responds to this treatment but this cannot be said of all.
Prognosis of Paranoia
Predicting the prognosis of an individual suffering from Paranoia is quite difficult. Paranoia generally becomes a whole life or lifelong condition if there exists any underlying mental disorder, such as schizophrenia or paranoid personality disorder. It certainly and sometimes get better with some treatments or remission or with slight changes in medication. People who have symptoms of paranoia as part of another medical condition may also have a waxing and waning mental course.

Sometimes it is the case that paranoia is caused by the use of a particular drug or medication. In this case, it is possible that discontinuing that substance may completely reverse the symptoms of paranoia.

Answer 2

Paranoia is an excessive fear of people
Its is caused when the person is under stress of some sort and the person who sufferes it dreams up unnatural scenerios of people talking about them planning against them and generally it leaves the person very paranoid and doubting the words and actions of people thinking they will result in their harm

Answer 3

Paranoia is characterised by a deep-seated mistrust, for no apparent reason, but always reasoned well by the paranoid person. They believe they are right in mistrusting seriously.

I myself have doubted my misgivings about something, only to watch a disaster unfold before my eyes. Other times my fears were unfounded. -Or was I only lucky?
These things torment the paranoid person (and many others), but the Paranoid suffers greatly, and most often - needlessly.

Answer 4

Paranoia is a disturbed thought process characterized by excessive anxiety or fear.
Some people probably make fun of it but some may take it serious.

Answer 5

Chuckle, I'm not going to tell you what I think, because I know all of you are out to get me & you'll use that information to track me down & kill me. I know all of you work for some secret government organization & you want me to take off this foil hat so you can manipulate my brain like you're doing with the rest of the population.
Ed

Answer 6

I think my husband has paranoia, because he thinks people are looking at him everywhere he goes. I don't know whether he thinks they fancy him, but he thinks blokes are looking at him also. He will be talking to me, and looking at someone else, as though they are listening to his conversation. I tell him, he's supposed to be talking to me, that woman doesn't even know you. I don't think he realises he's doing it sometimes. He also say's "what are they staring at", someones going to lamp him one day.

Answer 7

i suffer from paranoia, you imagine things happening in your mind and believe it to be true, for example, if your partner is going out with their friends to a nightclub, you may picture in your head that they are cheating on you when they prob aint. it starts disstrust and paranoid dillusions

Answer 8

I drew a picture of it once - a person looking out a window with barely any of their face showing and all they see is eyeballs everywhere looking at them. I think it is a manifestation of grandiosity.

Answer 9

paranoia is when you always think that people are talking about you or that everybody is sceeming against u

Answer 10

i am highly paranoid, i think every body is after me......People say i should get over it, that who is out to get me?
i have one thing to say..."Just because ur paranoid, it dont mean that theyre not after you."
they are, they always are.....Specially the US Govt.
oh great, now the Feds are gonna track me down.
Dont be naive, dont trust so much, cuz ppl are a load of ****,
well not all, just a lot.....
THEY ARE COMING!!!!
ps. im not shitting you....

Answer 11

What are you trying to say?
Who told you about me, you're all in it I bet, stop the whispers right now!