An introduction to paranoid personality disorder

Definition

The name of this disorder is originally comes from the Greek word for ‘madness’

Those who suffering from PPD have lasting, widespread and unnecessary suspicions that other people are hostile, threatening or humiliating. 

These beliefs are persistently uphold in their mind without any real supporting evidence. 

PPD patients are not psychotic but their belief that others are trying to humiliate them in some way often leads to hostility and social isolation.

Description

They do not trust other people.

Has a high level of mistrustfulness and suspicion when interacting with others.

Even friendly gestures are often interpreted as being malicious.

Whether the patterns of distrust and suspicion begin in childhood or in early adulthood, they quickly come to dominate the lives of those suffering from PPD.

Such people are unable or afraid to form close relationships with others.

As a result of their constant concern about the lack of trustworthiness of others, patients with this disorder often have few intimate friends or close human contacts.

If they marry or become otherwise attached to someone, the relationship is often characterized by pathological jealousy and attempts to control their partner. They often assume their sexual partner is “cheating” on them.

People suffering from PPD are very difficult to deal with.

They always hold on to their defenses.

They are always looking for and finding evidence that others are against them.

Their fear, and the threats they perceive in the innocent statements and actions of others, often contributes to frequent complaining or unfriendly withdrawal or aloofness(uninvolved or unwilling to become involved with other people or events)

They can be provoking, aggressive and disputatious. It is common for them to sue people they feel have mistreated them.

Despite all the unpleasant aspects of a paranoid lifestyle, however, it is still inadequate to encourage people with PPD to seek therapy.

They do not usually walk into a therapist’s office on their own.

They distrust mental health care providers just as they distrust nearly everyone else.

Individual counseling seems to work best but it requires a great deal of patience and skills on the part of the therapist.

If the patient can be persuaded to cooperate(something that is not easy to achieve) low-dose medications are recommended for treating such specific problems as anxiety, but only for limited periods of time.

If a mental health care provider is able to gain the trust of a patient with PPD, it may be possible to help the patient deal with the threats that they perceive.

The disorder, however, usually lasts a lifetime.

The Statistics of Paranoid Personality Disorder

The prevalence of Paranoid Personality Disorder has been estimated to be as high as 4.5% of the general population and occurs more commonly in males. Objective To explore the prevalence rate of comorbid personality disorders in patients with depressive disorders and the differences in comorbid pathology, demographic and clinical characteristics between patients with depression and those with dysthymic disorder. Methods One hundred and two depressive patients and 102 normal people were recruited into the investigation and diagnosed by structured clinical interview for DSM-IV. The patients were also evaluated using Hamilton rating scale for depression. Results Fifty-one point nine percent of the depressive patients were diagnosed as personality disorder, 31.4% were diagnosed as at least two personality disorders, and that in normal people was 14.7%.

However, the prevalence rate of comorbidity in female depressive patients was significantly higher than that in male depressive patients (63.5% versus 40.0%). No significant difference on prevalence rate of comorbidity between patients with depression and those with dysthymic disorder was found. Avoidant personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, passive personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder were much common in depressive patients. Conclusion Personality disorders were much common in depressive patients. Clinicians should be aware of comorbidity of depressive disorders and personality disorders.

Statistics. the prevalence of Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) is estimated to be 2%.

They are quick to challenge the loyalty of friends and loved ones and tend to carry long grudges (Dobbert 2007, Kantor 2004).

Read more at Suite101: Paranoid Personality Disorder PPD: Overview of Diagnosis, Prevalence and Treatment of Clinical Paranoia http://personalitydisorders.suite101.com/article.cfm/paranoid_personality_disorder#ixzz0j1H08gF8

A person with PPD on their clothing or car, for example, could easily be taken as an attack on their materialism or selfishness.

Read more: Paranoid personality disorder – dose, children, causes, DSM, effects, therapy, paranoia, withdrawal, person, people, used, medication, effect, women, health, traits, mood, Definition http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Paranoid-personality-disorder.html#ixzz0j1O5NnW1

Symptoms

Based on the research regarding this Paranoid Personal Disorder which also known as PPD is basically considered as a type of emotional or psychological personality disorder that with an extreme level of distrust and suspicious of other social people such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent .This disorder is carried in a long term effect that will usually lead to a disasters within the relationships but sometimes they are quick to challenge the loyalty of friends and love ones and tend to carry long grudges such as unforgiving , insults, injuries and slights with others , by ( Dobbert , 2007 .Kantor ,2004 ). Thus, individual with this disorder is reluctant to confide with others because of unwarranted fear that the information will be used maliciously against him or her . According to Kendra Cherry , as she mentioned that symptoms may often resemble schizophrenia and some research indicates that there may be a genetic link between the two disorders .

There are actually symptoms that are obviously shown in some particular human who got themselves with this disorder .One of the symptoms can be seen is when they kept themselves by avoiding normal social interactions which means they do less involvement in some part of outdoor events , this may be due to they feel very insecure in what is a threatening world for them eventually patient with this disorder is capable in becoming violent too . In this case , they may also misinterpret the compliments offered by employers attempts to get them to work better . Complimenting a person with Paranoid Personality Disorder on their physical appearances or bags for example could easily taken as an attack on their materialism or selfishness .

Moreover , there is another symptom that we could realized that people with Paranoid Personality Disorder are persistently question the motivation and trustworthiness of others , also by declined to share intimacies . Besides , they will fear of such information might be used against them . As a result shows that they become hostile and unfriendly and argumentative in way of communicating or interacting with other social people . In consequently , they are mostly hypersensitive which means they will perceive attacks on their character that are not apparent to others thus they are generally react with anger and are quick to retaliate and take criticism poorly . A hypersensitive described a person who may usually become mentally confused, emotionally upset, and/or physically uncomfortable . It also associated with a heightened sense of awareness and intuition with the surroundings .

There are actually symptoms that shows how an individual with this personality disorder react in a social life for example they will have recurrent suspicions, without reason or justification , that their spouses or lovers are being unfaithful . Whenever there is an argument , the blame usually gets turned around to other people because it’s never their fault . These are generally found out that they unfounded beliefs, as well as their habits of blame and distrust,which might cause interfere with their ability to form close relationships . In this case , they could not see or realized their role in some problems or other conflicts, believing they are always right .

In addition , individual who suffer from this disorder may not realize that they are actually tend to be experience excessive self-importance, which also can be define as excessively high regard for one’s own importance or station along with manifest in a lasting self-referential attitudes whereby a person with an unwillingness or tenaciously to yield . As just mentioned that people with Paranoid Personality Disorder will not confide in people, even if they prove trustworthy, for fear of being exploited or betrayed. Furthermore,they may exhibit thinly hidden, unrealistic grandiose fantasies, are often attuned to issues of power and rank, and tend to develop negative stereotypes of others.

There are some other people might be confused about the difference between paranoid schizophrenia and personality paranoid disorder. Well , schizophrenia is basically chronic , severe , and disabling brain or mood disorder where it is characterized by psychotic symptoms such as auditory and hallucinations. It tend to be bizarre in which case one alone suffices for diagnosis . Thus , individual with this paranoid schizophrenia disorder are much less grounded in reality then the paranoia typical of the personality paranoid disorder . Hence , the common symptoms between this two disorders are usually inappropriate with social skills and inability to make friends as well as difficulty to express their own thoughts, feelings and understanding.

Causes of Paranoid

According to (Baron, Bryne, & Branscombe, 2006), their research identified several factors involved in the occurrence of suspicious thoughts. All of us will have experienced some of the factors. Paranoid is a well-known symptom that occurs in a variety of different mental health problems, as well as a symptom of certain physical diseases. Furthermore, use of certain drugs or chemicals may cause symptoms of paranoia in an otherwise normal individual. Also, the internal unusual feelings, reasoning, neurological diseases, paranoid schizophrenia and heredity.

Stress and major life changes will cause of paranoid. This includes difficult relationships with others at home or at work, and becoming lonely. Difficult relationships with others at home or at work because some sort of argument and bias.

However, stress can frequently cause strange feelings such as feeling abnormal, aroused, and defenseless, as can go restless. Sometimes people may feel odd because they have taken medications and drugs. A number of different medications and drugs can cause paranoia. These include corticosteroid medications, H-2 blockers (cimetidine, ranitidine, famotidine), some muscle relaxants (Baclofen), antiviral/anti-Parkinson drugs (amantadine), some amphetamines (including methylphenidate, or Ritalin), anti-HIV medications, anti-depressants (Nardil). Abused drugs that can prompt paranoia include alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy (MDMA), amphetamines (including Ritalin), LSD, and PCP (angel dust). Unfortunately, withdrawal from addictive drugs may also cause symptoms of paranoia.

Reasoning is the way we think things through and come to decisions and judgments. Regularly suspicious thoughts can take a hold if we do not think of alternative explanations for events, and do not fully consider the evidence for and against our worries. This is sometimes called jumping to conclusions. An example, a company’s boss with this factor will bring negative result to their employees and company. As a result, the employees will get paranoid too because of stress in working. There is an another example which is a husband and a wife. The husband has a feeling that his wife always late home and argument with him, so his husband conclude that his wife betrayal him.

Paranoia can also take place as a symptom of other neurological diseases. Individuals suffering from the outcome of strokes, brain injuries, and various types of dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease), Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease may manifest paranoia as part of their symptom complex. The paranoia may decrease in greatness when the underlying disease is effectively treated, although since many of these diseases are progressive, the paranoia may get worse over time along with the progression of the disease’s other symptoms.

According to National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, people experiencing severe anxiety or depression can develop problems with paranoid feelings, but the most extreme forms of paranoia are usually seen in people diagnosed with schizophrenia or hyper depression. Paranoia is often manifested as part of the symptom complex of schizophrenia. In fact, one of the subtypes of schizophrenia is termed “paranoid schizophrenia,” which actually refers to a type of schizophrenia in which the individual is particularly anxious with delusions in which the world seems to be pitted against him or her. However, schizophrenia is a complex and disabling disorder, and there is still much to learn to fully understand it. Schizophrenia is also a disorder that can assume many different forms.

The main responsibility of paranoid lies fairly and squarely upon heredity, and does not deny the importance of repression and emotional complexes. The causes of paranoia are not physical because no patient exhibits any signs of physical deformity and among the causes there are many important” ones, such as defects of personality, sense of inferiority, repression and others. Little research has been done on the role of heredity in causing paranoia. Scientists have found that the families of paranoid patients do not have higher than normal rates of either schizophrenia or depression. On the other hand, there is some evidence that paranoid symptoms in schizophrenia may be genetically influenced. Some studies have shown that when one twin of a pair of identical twins with schizophrenia has paranoid symptoms, the other twin usually does also. And, recent research has suggested that paranoid disorders are significantly more common in relatives of persons with schizophrenia than in the general population. In addition, the patients also get more worst into paranoid because the style of living environment.

There are certain personality type to be more susceptible to this disease, a personality that has sentimentally, jealousy, suspicion, ambition, selfishness, shyness and others. Patients of paranoia do exhibit these peculiarities of personality but on this basis they cannot be said to belong to definite personality. Therefore, those patients are far apart from reality and do not have an actual life.

Methods

Improve The Method Of Cognitive, Because patients do not trust others, sensitive, suspicious and will not accept any well-intentioned advice, so we must first establish a trust relationship with them, on the basis of mutual trust to share their feelings, to their full description of the nature of their own personality disorders, characteristics, dangers, and correct way to make the right they have a correct and objective awareness and generate demand voluntarily desire to change their personality defects. This is a further prerequisite for psychological treatment.

Personals Training Method, Encourage them to actively take the initiative to carry out friends activities, friends learn to trust in others, to eliminate anxiety. Friends of training principles and the essentials are:

Meet in good faith in order to ingratiate themselves with sincerity. Must be taken in good faith, and actively making friends. To believe that most people are friendly and relatively good, reliable, and should not be to his friends, especially close friends there is prejudice and distrust. Must be clear, the purpose of making friends is to overcome the psychological paranoia, to seek friendship and help, the exchange of thoughts and feelings and elimination of psychological barriers.

Dealings try to take initiative to give intimate friends for all their help. This helps them to know each other, to obtain each other’s trust and consolidate the friendship. Especially when others have difficulty, should help solve the problem, only can obtain friend’s trust and enhance the friendship.

Note that the principle of friends off the psychological phase. Personality, temperament and consistency similar to help mental compatibility, improve friendships. Other than this, gender, age, job occupation, economic level, social status and interests can make them have the psychological compatibility. But the most basic psychological conditions compatible with the values of ideology and outlook on life, similar to and consistent. These are the psychological basis of development Cooperation and the consolidation of friendship

Self-Healing, With a paranoid personality who likes extreme, this is their idea of mind associated with the irrational. So, have to change the paranoid behavior, patients with paranoid personality must first analyze their own irrational beliefs. For Example, I will not tolerate someone shred of infidelity. There are no good people in the world, I’m only believes myself. I must immediately make a strong counter-attack to other attack, let him know that I am stronger than him. I cannot show soft, this will give people the feeling of a non-robust. So now have to change these kind of mind to remove the extreme radical elements. Whenever relapse, should be transformed on the rationalization of the concept of meditation again. In order to prevent their extreme behavior.

Hostility To Correct Training Method, Paranoid personality disorder easy for others and the surrounding environment is full of hostility and mistrust, to take the following training methods will help overcome the hostility against the psychological.

Constantly remind ourselves that don’t fall into the vortex of Hostile psychological. Self-reminder and warning in advance, note that rectify when treat with other people. This will significantly reduce the hostility and a strong emotional reaction to psychological.

We have to know the principle of that when respect others, only others respect back. We have to learn to thanks to the others who have helped us. Of course not only says “thanks you”, also cannot ignore the people who have helped us.

We have to learn how to smile always to the others. This maybe will not accustomed at the beginning, unnatural, but have to do it and put more effort.

learn to be patient in life and have the patience, life in the complex world, of course have a lot of conflict disputes and frictions, so that we have to patience and try to solve these problems.

CONCLUSION

Well, Paranoid Personality Disorder is a type of psychological personality disorder characterized by an extreme level of distrust and suspicion of others. Paranoid personalities are generally difficult to get along with, and their combative and distrustful nature often elicits hostility in others. The negative social interactions that result from their behavior then serve to confirm and reinforce their original pessimistic expectations. Needless to say, those with PPD are unlikely to form many close relationships and are typically perceived as cold and distant. They are quick to challenge the loyalty of friends and loved ones and tend to carry long grudges. In the same time , they kept themselves by avoiding normal social interactions which means they do less involvement in some part of outdoor events .

Hence , the prevalence for this disorder has been estimated to be as high as 4.5% of the general population and occurs more commonly in male whereas female depressive patients was significantly higher than that in male depressive patients (63.5% versus 40.0%) . As results 51.9 percent of the depressive patients were diagnosed as personality disorder, 31.4% were diagnosed as at least two personality disorders, and that in normal people was 14.7% .

Eventually , there should probably some methods to aware and generate demand voluntarily desire to change their personality defects which included some techniques personal training and self healing for instance . It is to help individual to take the initiative to carry out friends activities, friends learn to trust in other and analyze their own irrational beliefs .