Paranoia

Paranoia (ancient Greek, from parà "against" and noûs "mind"; literally, "against the mind, crazy, insane") refers in the narrower sense to a mental disorder centered on delusions; more often, the adjective paranoid is used (see the info box on ICD-10), referring to fears of persecution or delusions of persecution. Sufferers suffer from a distorted perception of their surroundings towards a hostile (in the extreme, maliciously persecutory) attitude towards themselves. The consequences range from fearful or aggressive mistrust to a belief that others are conspiring against them.

The spectrum of paranoid reactions ranges from neurotic forms of a paranoid tendency to a paranoid personality disorder to severe psychotic manifestations. The neurotic paranoid personality is characterized by exaggerated sensitivity to rejection, particular sickliness, and distrust. It tends to interpret criticism as hostile or contemptuous. Recurrent unjustified suspicions about the sexual fidelity of the spouse or sexual partner (jealousy mania) and quarrelsome insistence on one's own rights are often evident. On the other hand, those affected tend to be excessively self-centred (ICD-10).

Overview

Paranoid symptoms are very diverse and occur as a concomitant of many underlying diseases, including neuroses, psychoses such as schizophrenia, many personality disorders and some degenerative diseases. The course of these disorders is different in each case. They are also part of the symptomatology of people who have suffered long periods of real or perceived persecution, but who are not actually psychotic or personality disordered. Paranoid symptoms may also occur as a result of other precipitating moments such as somatic agents (agents), neurological and/or psychiatric disorders. Examples include:

• paranoid personality disorder
• Borderline personality disorder
• schizotypal personality disorder
• schizoaffective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Brain Tumors
• brain damage due to alcohol abuse
• Alzheimer's disease

Impact

The patient has the feeling of being persecuted and develops conspiracy theories. A paranoid person often believes that others intend to harm, deceive or even kill him. He can often present "evidence" of this that seems completely convincing to him, but means nothing at all to outsiders. These beliefs are delusional. The patient cannot be dissuaded from them by anything, rational arguments and attempts at persuasion by outsiders are unsuccessful and are rather counterproductive, as they only reinforce the paranoid person's mistrust.

If paranoia does not appear as an independent but as an accessory symptom of an underlying disease, such as in paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, it can only be treated in the context of this disease. In principle, psychotherapy, drug treatments or even surgery (for example in the case of brain tumours) may become necessary.

The object of the persecution mania varies greatly from case to case. Sometimes, for example, the secret service of the respective country is suspected of being behind the persecution. The methods of surveillance in the delusional scenario, for example, tend to adapt to the current state of technology. When the system changes (for example after the Second World War, after the reunification of Germany), the supposed persecutor often changes as well (for example Stasi - BND). This shows that the persecution mania consists primarily in a deviation from the norm in the thought processes, while the thought content can vary.

Again, organized action can also take on delusional features, in that intemperate actions are constructed as inevitable in order to ward off possible dangers.