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Are you feeling paranoid? Here’s what to do

Do you constantly feel like someone’s watching you? Or maybe calling your name? Do you sense that danger may be upon you and it makes you intensely anxious and fearful; even if you don’t have any real evidence that it’s true?

If you tend to assume that people have negative motivations, or you find yourself obsessing over trivial things that people do, you may be paranoid.

Paranoid personality disorder is a long-term mental health condition. It involves intense feelings of mistrust, suspicion, and hostility toward people. The disorder makes you feel that people are constantly out to hurt or take advantage of you.

People with paranoid personality disorder lack trust in others, and feel a strong need be independent. They tend to be inflexible, critical, find it hard to work with others, and find it really difficult to accept criticism.

This disorder further makes you:

  • Read threatening meanings in remarks.
  • Hold grudges.
  • Expect to be exploited by others.
  • Have a poor sense of humour and self-image.
  • Detached from loved ones and family.
  • Preoccupied with unjustified doubts of loyalty from friends and loved ones.

What are the causes?

Research suggests that this disorder can be caused by genetics, social factors (how you interact in your early development with family and friends) and psychological factors like personality and temperament.

Luckily, paranoia is treatable; but people who have the disorder are unlikely to seek help because they don’t think they have a problem. Working with a therapist is also difficult, because the paranoid person tends to question the therapist’s motives. Since the basis of talk therapy is trust, this challenge makes paranoia particularly difficult to treat.

Can it be treated?

While there may not be an absolute cure for paranoia, treatment can help you cope with symptoms and live a happier and more productive life. Treatment will depend on the type and severity of the condition. It may include:

Psychotherapy

As with most personality disorders, supportive psychotherapy is the therapy of choice to treat paranoia. This is also known as “comfort care”. The therapist attempts to help you solve problems and find ways of living with the condition.

Medication

If the condition is more severe, you might suffer from hallucinations and delusions. Anti-psychotics, tranquillisers, anti-anxiety medication are all recommended forms of treating these, and can be prescribed by the psychiatrist.

Self-help

Write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal, and reflect on them regularly to help pinpoint your triggers. Talk to someone you trust about your feelings and thoughts. Manage your stress and try relaxation techniques which can help soothe pressure and build resilience. Sleeping well will also go a long way in energising you to cope with difficult thoughts and experiences. How balanced is your diet? Your blood sugar levels can impact your mood and energy levels; so make an effort to eat healthy mood-boosting foods and make sure you exercise for optimal mental health.

All of us may have some paranoid ideas or thoughts at times. It is important, though, to know when these are due to paranoid disorder. If you’re uncertain, why not talk to one of our doctors? They would be happy to help you find the best treatment!

References:

Hypnotherapy – fact or fiction?

When you think of hypnosis, you probably imagine a performance where someone dangles an object in front of the participant’s eyes, trying to snap them into a state. Hypnosis may seem like a hoax, but it’s a genuine form of psychological treatment.

Hypnosis, clinically known as hypnotherapy, is usually used along with psychotherapy, allowing you to explore any thoughts, feelings and memories you might have hidden from your conscious mind. Hypnosis helps you to see things differently, like refraining from blocking awareness of painful emotions.

There are two main types of hypnotherapy used for different treatment:

Suggestion hypnotherapy helps you to better understand and respond to suggestions given by a hypnotherapist. This kind of hypnotherapy can help change certain behaviours like smoking, nail biting and unhealthy eating habits. It can also be used to change your sensations and perceptions and is useful in treating pain.

Analysis therapy puts you into a relaxed state to explore psychological causes of symptoms or disorders like a traumatic event that you’ve buried away in your unconscious memory. Once an incident of trauma is revealed, the therapist would then go on with psychotherapy to give you treatment.

How hypnotherapy helps
It can improve the success of other treatments for many conditions, including:

  • Phobias, fears, and anxiety
  • Sleep disorders
  • Depression
  • Stress
  • Post-trauma anxiety and stress
  • Grief and loss

Recently, hypnotherapy has been used to change behaviours like smoking and leading an unhealthy lifestyle. Hypnosis helps you experience things in a multi-sensory way. It aims to make you feel more in control of your behaviour, so you can reach goals like losing weight or quitting smoking.

It tackles the underlying problems which prevent you from your lifestyle improvement aspirations. The therapist would also train you to concentrate on the negative effects that come with your bad habits. For example, if a therapist were to help you quit smoking you might be asked to think of all the negative things involved with smoking, like the bad odour and possible health problems.

When it comes to weight loss, similar therapy would be used. You would be trained to think and feel differently about food to change your behaviour. For example, if you’re an emotional eater the aim of hypnotherapy would be to separate your feelings from eating. In this way, you will be able to work through your emotions and food will be seen as something pleasurable and as a solution to hunger, as opposed to a crutch for your negativity.

Hypnotherapy is useful for tackling food disorders like binge or mindless eating as it also helps you to identify triggers and learn how to disarm them in a healthy way.

Good to know

  • Hypnosis only works if you’re willing and focused on healing. The hypnotherapist can only guide you. You have to do the work.
  • Hypnotherapy is not a quick fix. It takes time, effort and your full participation.
  • Hypnotherapy is a natural healing remedy, which makes it cost-effective.
  • Hypnotherapy could give you more control of your life, your body and your relationships as it’s focused on empowerment.

References

How is depression best treated?

Not all depression is the same, so if you’ve been diagnosed with depression your doctor will speak to you about the different treatment options available, and which would suit you best. For patients with clinical depression, treatment may include psychotherapy with or without prescribed anti-depressants. For others who don’t respond to standard depression treatments, doctors may offer brain stimulation techniques such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also called electroshock therapy.

Continue reading “How is depression best treated?”