This is a better place to bring this up...

Paranoia is all about thinking the world revolves around YOU, its ego extension. Vanity is another form of paranoia (it is about being watched) but is okay if it is functional. How do YOU define paranoia?

 

Fear of the impossible.

 

I would define it as an irrational fear, that something is really happenening when it isn't (such as, that you're being followed/watched/persecuted, when you really aren't).

I would disagree that paranoia is necessarily about thinking that the world revolves around you. If you get put in jail, etc., it's really gonna be you in jail, and not anybody else. That doesn't mean that the world revolves around you, it just means that you have to be concerned for your own safety first.

There really are people who are being followed/persecuted/watched, etc., and some of those people unjustly so. A paranoid person simply believes it's happening when it isn't, or has an irrational, unfounded fear of other things.

 

I'm not a mental health expert but I think theres two ways of defining it and one is the popular definition of "being paranoid" IE misconstruing what someone said or did or wrote to infer that they or something is against you.
Then there is the clinical definition which is rather larger than this and is more to do with psychotic behaviour as a result of misconstrued sensory data.

The former occurs in everyone to a certain extent and the latter is usually treatable with psychotropic drugs to restore a misbalance of chemicals in the brain

 

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I didn't mean to post these so many times, but I don't know how to delete them

 

I just wanted to say I have always been paranoid -- before and after I started smoking pot.


I have anxiety disorders (OCD, manic depression, etc.); I don't have some FAT EGO. I rather hate myself. A lot of people have these problems, and I think it's hurtful of you (moonlightdelerium) to say that people who are paranoid think the world revolves around them, because it just isn't true. If you look in a mental health book or online, the definition of paranoia is an irrational fear. It does actually have to do with chemical imbalances in the brain.

Please don't talk about things you know nothing about!!!

 

Hey, I take some of what I said back. Even though I do think paranoia is an irrational fear, I think you're also right about it being ego extension. Most people don't realize they're doing it, though, and of course people have to be concerned about themselves first. But I spoke too fast without really considering what you said.

I had a realization about this a week or so ago, and a lot of things made sense to me.

 

Charise said it well ^^

 

Paranoia is fear of something that cannot possibly hurt you in any way. It is extremely detrimental to one's mental health, and any time you spend cowering in fear is wasted time. Time is the one thing in life we cannot make more of.

I found the best way to overcome paranoia was to become completely comfortable with myself. It's not always possible, some times things still shake me up a bit and leave me not feeling in control of my emotions for a while (usually, I'll feel good again after a good night's rest). Basically, I'm nice enough to everyone around me, but I couldn't care less what they think about something I've said or done (unless I've seriously upset someone, which I'd like to think I never do) because I'm happy with who I'm becoming, know where I'm heading, and I'm having as much fun as possible along the way.
I don't speak for all paranoia's though, I only really had a social phobia type thing.
Weed made my paranoia worse. Ecstasy helped greatly. LSD almost cured me. Then crystal meth put me back to square one
I'm back on the path though. Everything's a lesson. You can either be smart and learn from it, or let it happen again…
Nothing but MDMA and LSD for me in future. They're the two that make it so easy for me to talk and meet new people, and the effect carries over to when I'm sober, which is what life's all about. We're in the best position to handle anything life throws at us when in complete control of our thoughts and emotions. No drugs, no fears. Be in control.

 

The difference between paranoia and fear, for me, would be rationality, though 'Regular fears' can always be taken to paranoid extremes as well. Take, for example, the fear of death. Everybody can see its clear uncertainty, and I doubt anybody can face this fact and be completely unafraid. But if this is in ordinary, everyday conversation and your thoughts become obsessive and revolving around it, irrationally - then you've just hit the paranoia inclination, in my book. I wonder what would happen if we could master fear, tame it, and be a less-fearful society altogether.