It goes without saying that the patients suffering from the paranoid personality disorder are mostly characterized by possession of various symptoms, especially the long-term ones, including the suspiciousness of all the surrounding people and a pervasive distrust long-lasting pattern. Every person that suffers from such a disorder will in majority of cases believe that the motives of all the other people are potentially malevolent and suspicious, at least. The patients with the paranoid personality disorder usually tend to assume that all the other people will somehow harm, exploit or deceive them; moreover, for such people there’s no need for any evidence of this and/or any other additional conditions and proofs of such behavior from the outside world.
Of course, everyone tends to have some percentage of paranoid thoughts in their minds during the different situations of their personal lives; however, the difference of the psychically healthy people between the individuals suffering from the paranoid personality disorder reaches the highest point in this condition, when it’s every aspect of professional and personal life of the person is affected by the paranoid thoughts; especially, the different socially relationships with the other people. Therefore, it is obvious that the people with such a disorder are mostly difficult to communicate and cooperate; moreover, the different conflicts in relationships with such people are imminent to occur.
The current paper will discuss the details of the paranoia and how it is connected with the other personality disorders like the social phobias, schizophrenia and even eating disorders. As the people suffering from paranoia are emotionally unstable and may act either being emotionally “cold” to everything that concerns them, or being extra aggressive during the different social relationships despite the fact that they can seem rational and objective, their inner hostility and suspiciousness to the other people may result in the additional disorders mentioned above.
In detail, regarding the connection between social phobia and sub-clinical paranoid syndrome, there has been a study that has proved a considerable relationship between these two disorders in the general population and with a dose response. Despite the fact that the items described all the psychological processes researched in the study in mostly an indirect way, the authors of the study have their strong reasons to suggest that the association between these disorders most probably occurs because of an overlap in psychological mechanisms in both of them. Moreover, there has been a registered proof that the individuals that suffered from the paranoid thoughts sub-clinically at baseline had the greater probability of having a developed social anxiety during the next 2-3 years. However, there has been found no considerable evidence for the assumption that social phobia somehow precedes the paranoid personality disorder, especially when considering the frequency of such cases .
In addition, the registered fact that for the certain group of patients their paranoid ideation is followed by the social phobia has the several clinical consequences of a considerable importance. Such individuals might try to conceal their suspicious behavior and hostility from the others with the continuous development of the awareness of their own relationships with the other people, therefore, they might start searching for any proof that the others have noticed their paranoia. Such behavior is mostly consistent with so-called “safety behavior” that has also been registered frequently in the individuals with paranoid syndrome .
A significant correlation has been found between paranoia and the eating syndromes, as well. Researchers state that the patients suffering from the eating disorder caused by paranoid personality disorder tend to disavow their responsibility for under- and overeating. For example, one overeater with paranoia found the cause of his obesity on the cafeteria, where he used to eat and its constantly fattening food; moreover, he blamed the surrounding people for not handling him with the needed sensitivity, as such emotional response from the outside had the reverse effect on his body and personality.
Moreover, the eating disorders that accompany the paranoid personality disorder usually tend to use the eating disorder to justify the individuals suffering from over- or undereating, just like the unprofessional computer operator blames his computer for its malfunctions instead of accepting the fact that it’s the operator’s fault that the computer doesn’t work, first of all. Mentioning the examples with the eating disorders, some overeaters may justify their chronic inability to function and their fatigue with their obesity invocation, while the undereaters had the identical reasons for invoking their anorexia. Eventually, there are some paranoid individuals with anorexia caused by their delusions, as there are groups of the patients considering that their food is poisoned etc.
Finally, there’s a big section to discuss in the association of the paranoia and schizophrenia, as the connection between these two syndromes is the greatest; moreover, the separate type of schizophrenia called “paranoid schizophrenia” is considered to be the most common type of schizophrenia that an individual can have as it’s the paranoid schizophrenia has its popular symptoms of hearing voices or strange sounds that the normal people do not hear and/or having various visual delusions that obviously aren’t real. The symptoms can also be complemented by anger and aggression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and behavior, anxiety, emotional distance and/or self-important manner, therefore, it’s clear that such type of schizophrenia is obviously affected by the paranoid syndrome, as well . Moreover, despite the fact that it can be effectively treated, this disorder lasts for the whole human life, therefore, creating a great danger to the physical and mental health to its bearer.
Summarizing all that was mentioned above it can be clearly stated that the paranoia has its respective associations with the social phobia syndrome, different eating disorders and schizophrenia. The most dangerous fact about this interrelation between these disorders is that they can be combined as symptoms for one total mental disorder that will make an individual life simply unbearable. Therefore, a proper medical treatment should be offered for such individuals, as the worsening of their mental state will affect their physiology, as well; moreover, these disorders have their respective probability to be irreversible and life lasting without an adequate treatment. Nevertheless, such symptoms can be hard to diagnose, due to the reasons mentioned above, as the schizophrenic and/or paranoid individuals may consider themselves healthy and adequate; however, once they will become aware of their potential mental illness from the outside people, they may become hostile and suspicious to everything they say, do and offer, therefore, the further development of schizophrenia, paranoia and eating disorders in combination is not a theoretical issue, but a real fact that can be easily faced with, but hard to treat.
References
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Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2013). Paranoid Schizophrenia. Retrieved 11 03, 2014, from Mayo Clinic: http://www.riversideonline.com/health_reference/Behavior-Mental-Health/DS00862.cfm
Psych Central. (2014). Paranoid Personality Disorder Symptoms. Retrieved 11 03, 2014, from Psych Central: http://psychcentral.com/disorders/paranoid-personality-disorder-symptoms/
