Paranoia

[Raijin]

well lets just jump into it then I am in this math class 3rd semester in college i always have paranoid feeling that these two people keep talking about me now im the kind of person who wear his anger on his sleeve for no reason at all so these people come off as nice so why would they be
talking but you never know i cant help but to listen and they sit a seat or two away from me so when i look up at board for notes there right there in my peripheral vision no matter how hard i try to ignore,act like they dont exist anything, keep earphones on to listen to relaxing music it does not works at all then it goes from being them two to just everybody around me heavy feeling i have always had these problems but never this bad to point i break down completely so im thinking about just staying home tomorrow giving my brain a mental break that it needs and everybody else one
i dug my own grave the only thing i wanna do is just get out of it

how do you guys/ladies deal with it?

 

[kihira]

how do you guys/ladies deal with it?

I don't worry too much or for too long about what other people think about me - what other people think or do is completely out of my control. I give more attention to the people who do like me, not to the ones who don't.

 

[Raijin]

I don't worry too much or for too long about what other people think about me - what other people think or do is completely out of my control. I give more attention to the people who do like me, not to the ones who don't.

i need to write that down in the back of my brain

 

[Beatrice]

I don't worry too much or for too long about what other people think about me - what other people think or do is completely out of my control. I give more attention to the people who do like me, not to the ones who don't.

Yeah, this is something I've been working on and I have made improvements. I just was thinking and reflecting in my journal about this the other day. Just by trying to twist my perspective around, and repeating those sorts of things in my head, like, "It doesn't matter" "Don't worry about it", etc...... After this long of a time period, I can honestly say it has worked That isn't to say I don't have a ways to go. There is ALWAYS room for improvement.

As far as advice goes..... the best advice I have is to try the same thing, maybe? Also, I've found that when I'm anxious if I hum a tune (out loud or in my head, depending on the situation), it helps take my mind off my anxiety and focus on the music. I actually got that idea from someone on this site, can't remember who it was now. Try it


By the way, phocas, I like your avatar

 

[Kiwong]

Paranoia has been a real problem for me. If I heard people whispering I'd immediately think they where talking about me. I would focus on these paranoid thoughts for days and weeks. I'd create all these doom and gloom scenarios about what they had said. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to sleep.

What has helped is testing the opinions of others and being more careful about which ones are important and which ones are not. Like I wrote in another post, my therapist explained to me there are people inside the hand, and people outside the hand.

The people inside the hand are those that matter, the ones you trust. Why worry about the opinions of those who hardly know you? The ones outside the hand. I'm getting better at this.

I've also got better at flitering out the creative thoughts that come to me when my mind is going at a million miles an hour. It is suprising what good thoughts gewt through. I write them down in my blog.

 

[SeniorRedrings]

I don't deal with it.Part of the reason I have become more chronically agoraphobic is because I noticed my front door lock had been tampered with.There are at least three sets of people in my life that spark my paranoia.
1.Ex associates who are hard bitten drug addicts.
2.A group of messed up drinkers who became involved in the spiteful business of documenting my reaction to them invading my privacy.
3.Family member who has unstable moments of extreme suspicion.

 

[Raijin]

these are all insightful and helpful comments its nice to know that you can get good feedback from people whos been through the same thing as you

does therapy work for paranoia or is it something you have to work on by yourself day by day?