Why do Aspies feel Paranoia?

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I'm not talking about the type of paranoia where the person is convinced that the CIA is out to get them. I'm taking about the type of paranoia where the person has a negative outlook on life and interprets meaningless/benign signs as potential threats and insults.

What I want to know is why people, especially those diagnosed with paranoia by a mental health professional, feel paranoia.

Is it because they are egocentric or have some type of cognitive problem that causes them to believe everyone's eyes are on them?

Or is it because the ease with which they envision negative outcomes far outweighs the ease with which they envision positives ones? If that's the case, why do they think this way? Is it because if a person consciously expects negative outcomes to happen, then if those outcomes happen, he'll experience positive emotions for being right instead of negative emotions for being caught off guard?

Ultimately, what is paranoia? Does it boil down to fear of surprise? And if that's the case, why would anyone fear surprise so much? Could it be due to some type of trauma?

Last edited by Mw99 on 07 May 2008, 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you've been persecuted all your life, whether you're AS or NT, you are going to be paranoid to some degree.

I'm paranoid for a very good reason. In fact, a lot of time I don't think it's paranoia. Some people are out to harm and ridicule me, if for no other reason than for personal amusement and/or improving their social standing.

But most NTs won't believe you. They'll reason that you are delusional for thinking that some people are out to harm and ridicule you, and since they won't believe you, they won't give you the help you need. I've been there, I know.

Last edited by Mw99 on 07 May 2008, 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't think aspies are either of those...aspies are usually intelligent and go through many different situations in their mind, more focusing on what the other person will think, do, feel, etc. Because of the inability to read the correct signs, we second guess everything.

As for why? That is a good question.

Well, being intelligent is not the same as being very intelligent. But you are right, most aspies are intelligent, and I wasn't thinking of aspies in particular when I wrote that question.

I agree that a lifetime of being misunderstood, misinterpreted, mistreated and deceived tends to make one more paranoid out of sheer survival instinct.

They say paranoia is another form of self-obsession, one that lets you hate yourself and be obsessed with yourself at the same time.

Arrogance andor self obsession are easy things to develop when socially isolated.

I used to be really paranoid and still am but to a lesser degree. I've been picked on off and on throughout school and sometimes I still think that some people are just waiting for the chance to humiliate me in some way.

Sometimes I am too trusting towards people and I could use a healthy amount of suspicions about people.

But when I think about all the social cues and talk I am missing, I am surprised that I am not paranoid yet.

Lets see, you are dropped into a foreign country (or planet) where you do not understand the “customs” and only partially understand the “language” you are left with a minimal support structure. When you do try to communicate you are often met with ridicule or avoidance. Hyper vigilance would certainly be in order and when chronic can lead to paranoid thoughts.

No I do not have any idea why.

bookworm

Exactly. Cross that with the inability to read and understand social cues, and obviously, most people would suffer from a little bit of paranoia out of fear that they'd missed something.

In school, I was bullied in very subtle ways. They'd bully me in ways that I wouldn't understand; I'd think they were joking. It's only with hindsight that I see that they weren't joking, they were actually being very cruel. Due to this, when I'm socialising with people, I'm automatically a little paranoid because I know that in the past, I've been easily misled by by false smiles.

I was always getting in trouble when I was a kid and not understanding what I had done wrong...so, yeah.


When it came to peers, if they were teasing me I had no awareness of it until around 3rd grade when I began practicing "comeback lines" for "if" they called me fat or something. I think I got this way from watching kids make from of other kids. I was less paranoid when I was really young, because I found it difficult to understand why anyone would mock another person. I think it was a blessing of sorts to not be able to read some NV communication because I was unaware of being made fun of and didn't care what most people thought of me, (or wasn't aware that anyone thought any things about me?)

I am hyper vigilant about being robbed/ausaulted/raped because those things happened to me and I have very firmly etched images of those situations,so I think it is one way that our visual memory can inhance our paranoia. I think watching to many "psych" movies probably doesn't help this either because it is believed that the brain doesn't have seperate places to store real/fictional images.

Heck I'm paranoid sometimes too, but I think it has something to do with my College environment...

One way to cut down on paranoia is to study whats legal. That takes unwritten rules off the table because you are being guided by written rules (the law). The next step is to develop a mentality that if your behavior is legal and someone doesn't like it, they can go pound sand.



Missing social cues isn't a crime. Subtle bullying is ineffective if you don't give a crap. I used to get belittling remarks asking "Why do you always talk in riddles"?. I wish I had responded with a middle finger and ask "How's that for not talking in riddles"?

I have a non-autistic friend that seems touched by paranoia. I'm autistic and do not ever feel paranoia. Except the CIA/alien/zombie-type of paranoia.

The first psychiatrist I met told me I must have severe emotional problems by my life-school-background, including distrust and fear of people, even my friends. I was like, what??

I don't distrust people. I don't think I know what trusting other people means. I feel perfectly comfortable with them though, if they do not overload my senses. I do not quite understand why my non-autistic friend who has also gone through rough times has paranoia. I just accept it, but truthfully, I cannot grasp this? Well, I don't need to, I just accept it.

I'm probably too unemotional to even get what the trust vs. distrust thing is. Something like that, oh boy, oh boy.

if more than 5 people stare at me on the street, i have a panic attack