Why do Aspies feel Paranoia?

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I have people tell me I'm paranoid, but I agree with the posters above in regards to the fact that if you've had people be cruel to you for no reason many times than there's a good chance that you'd be wary of it happening again.

When you grow up in enviroments where you are damned if you do and damned if you don't, you tend to feel as though everything you do is the wrong answer and constantly feel the need to walk on egg shells.

Sometimes you go through it so much that you lose your will to fight. When that happens, other people's hypocritical stand points have ruled and over powered you.

The problem is picking up on things on time. some people exploit this in you. If you picked up on the cues, would you tell that person who is attempting to degrade you off? I know I would. I plan on doing that for now on because these people are bullies and don't deserve grace.

interesting thread--I'll chime in even though I'm not a dx'd aspie.

I"ve always been slightly paranoid and felt people had private codes, conversations to which I wasn't privy,as if they were discussing something about me or that involved me. Then, I dismiss it because I don't care enough and realize it's an irrationally based idea. It goes into the irrational cateogory in my mind along with other ridiculous ideas I've had. I know my imagination gets the best of me and I imagine all kinds of scenarios.

Yet, sometimes I am accurate and hit the nail on the head. I have a fairly good sense of when someone is going to start avoiding me, or when I've done/said something to offend someone. It's pretty obvious because he/she will no longer converse with me. It doesn't phase me anymore--I expect it. It's somewhat of a relief because then that's one less person to have to deal with in my life. I can only handle a few.

equinn

I think it varies from person to person, and is fairly common even in NTs. My family (especially my mom) tend to be more on the socially paranoid side than me. By that I mean they seem to me to read way too much into things, ascribing intentions or motivations, or even thoughts to other people that seem plausible, but don't seem worthy of counting on as the only possibility. It could be that they are reading something about the person that's really there that I'm just unable to pick up on. It could be that my lack of social intuition has made me more open minded to a variety of possibilities, and making me more careful at judging from the patterns and not from the first/last impression. I also rarely hold on to grudges for this reason. Mabe I'm being naive, but I think people change way too much way too fast for it to be really worth my while to dwell on what I think they may be thinking at any given time. That doesn't mean I'm unconcerned about what other people think or feel about me, I just don't always feel very motivated to try and figure it out right away and form a static opinion of them based on it.

My grandma told me a great saying once. "When I was in my 20s I was constantly worried what other people thought of me. When I got to my 40s, I didn't care what others thought of me anymore. By the time I got to my sixties, I realized that people weren't really even thinking about me to begin with." Even if it's not 100% accurate, it does seem like people tend to way over think other peoples thoughts about specific things, when those thoughts are often minimal to non-existant about those things.