Paranoia Anyone?

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I can suffer extreme mental anxiety at times. Even though I may appear calm, albeit a tad pensive to others, inside my mind is racing at the gallop with all kinds of anxious thoughts, bordering on the paranoia.

I can rationalize that I am being paranoid and I stop short of OCD rituals to stop the anxiety, but it seems that as soon as I have defeated one anxiety producing thought, another one just pops into my head.

It is exhausting! Do any of you get this and/or what do you do to stop it?

Have you ever thought of seeing a therapist for this type of problem? I am supposed to see a therapist for my anxiety. I also have the same problem.

I've thought about therapy on and off, but have never taken that final step... not even when anxiety was at an extreme (in my 20s) I've always managed to survive somehow.

I hope your therapy goes well.

Its perfectly 'normal' for an aspie to experience paranoia.

For example, I don't understand people's intentions and motives and so I tend to send detailed emails wth very specific information and requiring very specific statements of intent from those who receive the emails. Something along the lines of my posts in Wrong Planet ... sorry, it is just me boring the hell outta everyone else or amI just being paranoid?

I send the long emails at work to try and create certainty in my mind upon which I can base my own thoughts and actions. I have only recently become aware of my aspie-ness so these are very recent insights. I have thought for many years that I have a deep insight into the plans and purposes of other people, but I am now very aware that my 'insights' are rational lists of possibilities i.e I am very knowledgeable about the possibilities but no idea which is true in any situation. I am therefore socially paranoid and it affects every part of my life.

I have come to understand this quite recently and it is also dawning on me that others have been aware about my paranoia all along. Scary thought because I thought I was the adept one in this area. I now think people have probably just been kind to me and tolerated my paranoia or... simply failed to answer my emails and quietly laughed at my obvious anxiety or ... let me list the possibilities ...

Not sure about therapy because I never had any. I just bumbled along in life and learnt through some very hard knocks and some very intensive self-analysis over the years to figure out why these things happened. I got some of it right and as for the rest, I merely endured it all. I don't advise attending The School of Hard Knocks because these spawn paranoia if you aren't sure why the Hard Knock occurred.

Heavy anxiety, like you describe and the way you describe it...such as..."so far I've made it', is bull s**t. No god damned need for it in this day and age and I'm not saying meds and or med pushers. Find out what is wrong first, then think about the subject at hand.

Ask me how I feel now? I do feel much better, no meds, no docs, just me and mine. No easy step to get here, but by god I finally am and I don't mind it at all. Still have bad days and I still have better days then most ever will ;p


Cutting my anxiety level down has been one of the most positive things I have done to controlling all the other "mind funk" that generally goes on, and that, was no easy matter. But I'm still doing it and doing it on a newer level today. I have a cold tonight so I feel like hell, tomorrow, I'll be...fine and I'll figure out something new to worry about. ;p

Sounds very familiar. I really struggle to judge which of multiple possibilities best represents 'truth' in many situations. I particularly struggle with verbal communication from others. Many phrases in spoken language seem ambiguous to me. Such phrases trigger multiple interpretations in my mind which I then have to choose between.

By the way, I should mention that I have a lot of paranoia. Pricipally I struggle with a conviction I have that others, including my wife, will use me, disrespect me, and generally seek to dehumanise me if it happens to be convenient in their efforts to enact their own agendas, even for pretty trivial reasons.

I get paranoia. For example, I don't trust that people will like me, so with that comes all kinds of fears. If in a bind, I don't trust people will really be there, or if in a disagreement with someone, I don't trust that anyone will come to my defense. Sometimes I feel people want to exclude me. Sometimes it is hard to tell if the fears are warranted or not. Paranoia can make you feel really really alone at times.

Last edited by tjr1243 on 18 Nov 2012, 1:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have this also. I work hard to rationalize it away, but at the end of the day whenever I am dealing with neurotypical people I keep my guard up. Since I can't determine which of the many possibilities are true about another person, in any given situation with a neurotypical person I try not to care what they think about me, and just make sure that I am able to get done what needs to be done.

I dont trust anyone or anything. I float around so often i cant tell whats really there or not so i take nothing for granted.
As for people, sooner or later they let you down or show that they arent trustworthy.
You do start to question exactly what they would have to do, to show theyre trustworthyness tho.

Its a bad path to be on i think.

I have a long history of being taken advantage of by people. I have had social issues all my life, typical theory of mind stuff, but I wasn't diagnosed until I was 42. I know I couldn't possibly be aware of all the times I was used to entertain others. Having the explanation only does so much. I know it wasn't my fault, but sometimes it's difficult to really believe that. Maybe in time...

There is so much resentment, trauma, and paranoia from the past. The future could be better, but I don't know how much. I could get better at guarding myself, I could learn not to blame myself, or even them, but I will probably never be able to actually see it coming. Sometimes, I don't know if I should expect myself to continue.

Do you find yourself feeling anxious about any things in particular, OP?

I have a hyperactive mind, too, though I can't say it usually manifests in anxiety, so I'm not sure what that would feel like.

When I do start to feel anxious about things, I sit down and write out exactly what it is that I'm worried about. Make a dumb list. Then go through it and look at each thing and think about whether it's actually worth worrying about. If it is, take steps to reduce the cause for concern.

If you're worried about your house burning down, get a few fire extinguishers, get one just to practice with, do some research on fire prevention and emergency preparation, make sure your documents are in a fire resistant safe, etc.

If you're worried about losing your job, start working on your resume and researching job opportunities locally and nationally.

If you're worried about money, put your budget into a spreadsheet and stick with it.

There's always something you can do, you're a very powerful individual. You're not a cockroach. Just organize your desires and concerns so that you can understand and deal with them more effectively.

At least, that's how I look at it.

I am a very paranoid person. I presume everyone is like me.

Yes, I do too - all my life, it's really enervating. A minimum of one, but even better a couple hours of aerobic workout helps a lot. It comes right back the next day, but the exercise gives me a small "vacation" from it.