Paranoid like Me

It’s a common battle cry in fights for one person to say to the other, “You’re so paranoid! I didn’t…sleep with her, look at him, mean it as a criticism, tell her what you told me, etc.” When we dub someone “paranoid,” we usually mean that the person has exaggerated, or even totally invented, fears that we find irritating or ridiculous. We use the label “paranoid” as a pejorative, in the sense that we don’t share the particular concerns that our “paranoid” friend or lover does, and so we consider ourselves normal by comparison.

In fact, a number of studies have found that paranoid thoughts are quite common.  For example, one study, out of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College in London, exposed 200 people to a virtual reality scenario inside a subway station.¹ Nauert, Rick. “Paranoid Thoughts Are Relatively Common.” 8 April 2008. Psych Central. 21 June 2013. http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/04/01/paranoid-thoughts-are-relatively-common/2104.html The volunteers each got a virtual reality headset that provided both visuals and sound and that took them inside the virtual station for four minutes, at a stop between trains. Computer people (avatars) passed by, read newspapers, and occasionally looked at them, with one avatar smiling and meeting the volunteer’s gaze. In the background, the soundtrack of a train played.

Even though the avatars were specifically designed to appear neutral, 40 percent of the participants experienced at least one paranoid thought.  Those who went into the study feeling good about themselves and with a relatively low level of stress and anxiety tended to find the avatars friendly or at least non-threatening, but those who suffered from low self-esteem, worry, or stress at the outset found things to fear.

One participant reported “There was a guy spooking me out – tried to get away from him. Didn’t like his face. I’m sure he looked at me more than a couple of times though might be imagining it.”

Another said, “A girl kept moving her hand. Looked like she was a pickpocket and would pass it to the person standing opposite her.”

And yet another reported that she, “Felt trapped between two men in the doorway. As a woman I’m a lot more suspicious of men. Didn’t like the close proximity of the men. The guy opposite may have had sexual intent, manipulation or whatever.”

The fact that almost half the participants had such fearful reactions blows up previous notions about the prevalence of paranoia in the general population. “In the past, only those with a severe mental illness were thought to experience paranoid thoughts, but now we know that this is simply not the case,” says Dr. Daniel Freeman, the study director. Dr. Freeman points out that ambiguous situations tend to trigger paranoid reactions, like hearing people talking in another room or seeing a stranger walking toward you. He notes that virtual reality provides the perfect setup for measuring paranoia since it’s easy to construct ambiguous situations.

“Virtual reality allows us to … look at how different people interpret exactly the same social situation. It is a uniquely powerful method to detect those liable to misinterpret other people,” he says.

Of course, there are different flavors of paranoia, and this research hits on only one variety. A participant who feels perfectly safe among the strangers in a subway station, for instance, might get frantic when his girlfriend talks to another man or when a police officer knocks on the door. Likewise, a woman who feels threatened by a man who smiles at her in a subway might feel quite secure when she hears hushed voices in the next room at work. I might have paranoid thoughts if my spouse comes home late, but not if my boss says she wants to talk to me. Paranoia depends not only on your general mental health and state of mind on a particular day, but also, on past traumas that may be triggered by a particular setting or situation. Paranoia feeds on your particular insecurities.

In earlier research using 1200 subjects, Dr. Freeman looked at different types of paranoia.² “Paranoid Thoughts Almost As Common As Depression/Anxiety Reveal King’s College Scientists.” 26 June 2006.. Medical News Today. 21 June 2013. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/45931.php He found that more than 40 percent of people regularly worry that others say negative things about them, almost one-third fear that others deliberately try to irritate them, 20 percent fear they’re being observed or followed, 10 percent think someone has it in for them, and five percent think there may be a conspiracy against them. The results indicate that paranoia is nearly as common an affliction as depression or anxiety, with as many gradations, too.  At one end of the spectrum are those who occasionally have paranoid thoughts about what others think of them; at the other end are those suffering from full-blown psychotic paranoia, constantly obsessed with delusional thoughts about evil plots targeting just them.

It’s certainly worth noting that, as the saying goes, “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” It makes some sense for women to feel worried when men smile at them in a subway station, given the reality that so many women get attacked by men. In fact, just yesterday a World Health Organization (WHO) study came out indicating that more than one-third of all women worldwide experience physical or sexual assault at some point in their lives.³ Reilly, Rachel. “More than a THIRD of women worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives.” 20 June 2013.  Daily Mail. 21 June 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2345551/More-THIRD-women-worldwide-experience-physical-sexual-violence-point-lives.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490   Likewise, up until last week you might have been deemed paranoid if you feared that the government monitors your internet activity—but after this week’s revelations about government surveillance, such worries appear in a different light. It’s also true that for those exposed to terrorist action—like the 2005 subway station bombings in London—feeling apprehensive on entering a subway seems logical rather than paranoid. It’s also worth noting that paranoia is a side effect associated with many commonly prescribed medications such as Ritalin—not to mention a whole range of self-administered stimulants such as caffeine.⁴ Hedges DW, Woon FL, Hoopes SP. “Caffeine-induced psychosis.” CNS Spectr. 2009 Mar;14(3):127-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19407709

In any event, paranoia causes individuals worldwide a fair amount of discomfort. Dr. Freeman wisely observes that the price of paranoia may extend beyond personal suffering to a global concern . “It sometimes seems as if the one thing that unites the diverse peoples of the world is our fear of one another,” he says. “Worries about other people are so common that they seem to be an essential – if unwelcome – part of what it means to be human.”

Taken to the next level, Dr. Freeman’s statement implies that if we could only lessen personal paranoia, we might, by extension, reduce global paranoia, and that would certainly be a marvelous step toward promoting world peace.  It’s a tall order, but apparently certain therapies show promise as paranoia-reducing methods—especially, it would seem, using virtual reality to allow individuals a chance to test out their fears in a safe environment.