Sociopath Community

I would say I'd have a mild form of paranoia then.

I defintley exhibit some of they symptoms(social anxiety, general distrust of others, isolation). I try to avoid people because whether they intend to or not they end up fucking you over one way or another. I reason I also tend to isolate myself from people is because they expect things from you or try to borrow favors or services from you.

Example 1: I talk to no one at work. Simply because they are all old, gossiping vultures that are so eager for drama that they can't wait for it too happen. They draw irrational conclusions of of thin air, one of them asked me what I planned to do in the future. I said possibly college down the road, working on investments. They took that and twisted it too my superiors, so I had multiple people going to the supervisor telling him that I didn't want to stay here and that I was going to quit. Almost didn't get hired.

Example 2: My company hired another Marine, so I made an exception and talked to him. We were cool and became friends, sure enough the fucker asked me to stay over for him on a Saturday because it was "his son's birthday". In the breakroom(in front of everyone in the company) he asked me and try to put a guilt trip on me, to force me into saying yes. I denied him twice before he pulled out "C'mon man, one Marine to another?" I felt every eye on me, spotlighted, I reluctantly said yes. He never showed back up to work for me to confront him, he quit right after.

The reasons for not trusting people is endless and since I've been more of a recluse I've halved my life's problems. Yes, people are beneficial but the cons outweigh the benefits. I have family and a small circle I can get these benefits from. In my eyes, people are hazardous and unneeded.

So could you kill yourself already?

Most of the time I'm just cautious and not paranoid at all, but I have experienced a mild form of paranoia in the past.

Part of the reason I started seeing a psychologist originally was because I was having brief psychotic episodes. The psychologist called them micro-psychotic episodes because it was a type of paranoia that didn't last very long.

I used to think my house was bugged with listening devices and my phone was tapped. I thought undercover cops were spying on me. Sometimes when I walked down the street and someone would look at me, I wondered if they were spying on me. Fortunately the paranoid thought never lasted long.

It's been awhile since I last had a micro-psychotic episode. I think what triggered them initially was the fact that my homicidal urges had gotten stronger. I was discussing it more online with other like-minded people and I started wondering if some of them were cops.

The line is drawn when reality is no longer the base for the caution. Paranoia distorts reality: exaggerations, excessive worry and doubt, projection, denial and catastrophic mindset are all distortions of reality.

From my perspective, my paranoia derives from my OCD. This paranoia are thoughts that go round and round and around chaining my obsessions in an eternal loop of spiraling chaos. The obsession goes over and over, labeling and finding reasons for the thoughts, etc, etc, ultimately "finding evidence" in whatever the other person did. Paranoia and Obsessions are the worst combination as they are not mutually exclusive.

 Have you ever been paranoid? Examples please.

Imma make the anecdotes short and sweet.

The most severe paranoid delusion I had had when I was a child was when I thought for years (around 2) my father was not my real father. That no one in my family was my real family. That me and my brothers were kidnapped at birth, and I created false memories of another woman in my mind in which I believed was my real mother and somehow set myself to "act like a daughter" to look for evidence in my grandparents' house. I jolted whenever my father and step-mother opened the door to my room, or when they called my name. I would actively avoid them when I had to go to school in the morning or when I came back. For two years I felt like I pretended to be their daughter, lol. It was fucked up. I still have my seed of doubt, but I came to terms with the thought by simply thinking that if my current parents aren't my real ones, they are doing an okay job anyway. I'm not sure whether this would be considered Capgras Syndrome or not, but it sure as hell is one gigantic delusion

Several others consisted in mostly lesser forms, like: avoiding a street that lead to my school because I thought there was a mafia in one of the stores that's seen me. I would avoid certain places because there was this "man" waiting for me in all of them even if I couldn't see him from outside (even if the store was empty). People were always "looking for me", and I would sit in the back of the bus (or cover my back with a wall, my backpack, etc, when in a crowd) because I always was on edge that someone might stab me in the back. I freaked out in taxis because I thought the drivers were trying to kidnap me and my brothers (because I wasn't familiar with the route they took to get to my relative's house). I would think that there was someone around the corner trying to jump on me so I would actually walk closer to the curb to avoid the assaulter. So on and so forth.

An example of some real conspiracy/confabulation paranoia would be when I believed someone in my family was dying my hair overnight (this actually lead to the severe paranoid delusion) because my father has black hair and my mother has blonde hair. Lol.

Distrust of people is a given. You try to make yourself believe you are trusting them, but the thought is always there "they will definitely cross me". It is often because of misunderstandings. Bonds are pretty short-lived and suspicion never goes away ("Why did you become my friend? What is it you really want? Are you going to betray me? I know you are going to betray me. I can see it now!! lashes out"). And yeah, you know how my rassumptions are made...

Paranoia by itself doesn't do much (slight paranoia which means you think bizarre but it doesn't disturb your reality nor impair your performance in life), until your reality is so distorted you actually do things to "prevent what is feared from happening". Hence, you fall prey to your paranoia/obsessions. 

In my opinion, you can have slight paranoia even if you're not paranoid, but I doubt any of you has the degree or severity to be diagnosed as someone with legit paranoia (in the psychiatric sense, the psychotic break).

 Have you had any experience with paranoid people?

Honestly, I've never met someone paranoid in all the sense of the word. At least not in the sensationalized version of paranoia. Sure, some are worry-warts and distrustful people, but to the point they'd do the same things I did? Nope. That's why I am more isolated than most, I guess. I never was one to go around telling people "hey, I think this is happening!" because they wouldn't believe me anyway.

I did meet a Paranoid Schizophrenic. But he was medicated so he seemed really chill. 

PS: kinda interesting they listed social anxiety as a mild form of paranoia.

It doesn't surprise me at all, and it also makes sense of things that have happened to me in the past. I think I've told this anecdote before, that I was so scared of people in school I would fake vomit in order to stay home and avoid them.

 Bonus:

Neurotypicals also misunderstand the Aspies bluntness and also put meaning to what we say or do that isn't comprehended by the NT (when we actually didn't mean it the way they say we did). So yeah, paranoia, folks!

The blight of the mind.

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Now you can decide whether you are paranoid or not. :]

I am paranoid you won't die in a car crash

I am far too attractive to die.

Any examples of advantages in daily life?

I also tend to over-analyze things but it has nothing to do with paranoia. I like to control things in such a way that I feel confident that people can't get the jump on me though, and I will feel uncomfortable if I fail to do so.

What specific things can you get paranoid about?

Being prone to trying to figure how things will happen in advance tends to give me a slight ahead start.

Paranoia of something not being "good enough" gives me motivation to not do a lazy job. It makes me meticulous, which is double-edged.

Being used to chronically dissecting motivations has me occasionally able to have insight others don't bother to think about. That doesn't make me "gifted" or some crap like that, it just means that I bother to think about something that is usually hand waved as not worth the time.

It's helped me both be motivated and focused enough to read people's faces.

While I am said to "overthink things" or "worry too much", I tend to be prepared in some fashion as a result of it.

I can allow it to be more noticeable to instigate people into feeling superior to me, which is actually very useful. It doesn't even have to be an act.

I suspect it's part of what robs me of sleep, so any advantages/disadvantages related to my Insomnia I can attribute to it as well.

Paranoia doubles as a mental exercise, and the brain is a muscle (well, not literally...). Exercising it near constantly has me used to multitasking mentally, quickly, and enduringly.