Paranoia

[JamesBondsMrs]

Does anyone else find their anxiety makes them paranoid?

I feel everyone dislikes me or even despises me and people are only nice to me because they have to be. I think people are ignoring me or saying mean things about me and sometimes I can't tell if someone is actually being a bit horrible or wether its me being paranoid. How do I tell the difference?

Hi. Yes, I can feel like that too. I try and challenge my thoughts with 'that's not true' etc sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but I have to keep trying. I guess it's better to assume people aren't being horrible

Yep, I had this full flow earlier this year, it was awful. Eventually, through therapy and things getting horrifically awful in my head, I had to step back from worrying about what everyone else was thinking about me. I only had space for what I thought of me and that was horrific and I am still working through it. In my personal experience, it was all an indication of my own self-dialogue. It genuinely had nothing to do with anyone else. So I would advise you not to worry about whether you can tell the difference, and try and listen to why you are so concerned with what others think or say about you.

It's very unlikely that "everybody" would dislike you, and furthermore if they're nice they don't really have to be nice, usually. It's far more likely your anxiety is playing tricks on you and that you're imagining these things. People might find you are a bit withdrawn, and therefore feel insecure about you and how to approach you, and you on your side might interpret this as them disliking you even though there are no such feelings involved. Then, again, there are actually some people who may be "a little bit horrible" and they are like that with everybody, so their behaviour is not necessarily caused by you.

I have quite severe paranoia which was at a peak about 12 months ago however has reared its ugly head. My CPN talked to me about thinking 'Stop' when a thought came into my head and then having a specific time in the day to do all your worrying....in reality your supposed to forget at the specified time but for me, it didn't really work. I'm now on a combination of medication and am hoping to get therapy in the near future