Paranoid Personality Disorder - Types, Symptoms, Causes and Treatments

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is mainly characterised by solid mistrust and suspicion affecting thought processes, behaviour and day-to-day functioning. This disorder often starts showing symptoms in early adulthood and is evident in many situations.

Regardless, if you want to know more about PPD, continue reading!

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What is Personality Disorder?

Personality disorders are mental illnesses that can harm people's lives and relationships. People with personality disorders have a wide range of emotional expressions and interpersonally adverse actions, harming their relations.

What is Paranoid Personality Disorder?

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is an unreasonable propensity to see other people's acts as maliciously threatening or humiliating. According to research, PPD affects 2.3% to 4.4% of the general population and is more common in men than women.

Also, this mental disorder is comparatively rare, and studies showed that PPD affects around 0.5% to 4.5% of the U.S. population. However, like most personality disorders, a paranoid personality disorder is generally diagnosed in adults rather than children or teenagers.

What Are the Different Types of Personality Disorders?

Personality disorders can be classified as:

1. Suspicious

Paranoid personality disorder
Schizotypal personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder

2. Emotional and impulsive

Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)
Narcissistic personality disorder
Histrionic personality disorder

3. Anxious

Dependent personality disorder
Avoidant personality disorder
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)

What Are the Symptoms of Paranoid Personality Disorder?

People with PPD remain on continuous guard as they feel that people may attempt to belittle, threaten or hurt them. Also, their tendency to place blame and harbour mistrust and often false beliefs may make it difficult for them to build trusting connections.

However, significant symptoms of PPD include:

Doubting people's sincerity, fidelity, or reliability, thinking they are manipulating you
Fear that people will use your personal information against you, and you are hesitant about confiding in people or disclosing
Being unforgiving and harbour resentments
Being overly sensitive and you receive criticism poorly
Finding hidden messages in simple statements and looks
Recognising attacks on you that are not noticed by others and typically reacting angrily and swiftly taking revenge
Having persistent, unfounded concerns that your partner or loves is disloyal
Being cold and aloof in their interactions with others and exhibiting jealousy and control
Inability to recognise your issues or disputes and think that you are always right

What Are the Causes of Paranoid Personality Disorder?

Multiple elements can become causes of paranoid personality disorder. These include:

Genetic
Biological
Environmental
Social
Psychological

According to research, childhood trauma may be one of the essential variables for paranoid personality disorder. These traumas can include physical neglect, physical and sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and emotional and psychological abuse. Also, a close relative with PPD or another personality disorder may raise your risk of developing it.

What Are the Risk Factors of Paranoid Personality Disorder?

In most cases, families with a history of schizophrenia and delusional illness are more likely to have a paranoid personality disorder. Also, trauma experienced in early life may be a contributing factor.

Regardless, other risk factors include:

Staying in a low-income household
Being widowed
Being divorced or separated
Never marrying

How to Diagnose Paranoid Personality Disorder?

The diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder cannot be made with a lab test. Instead, a mental health expert will typically produce a diagnosis after chatting with you about the following:

Your concerns
Usual behaviours in different situations
Dominant thoughts
Family and personal medical history
Your relationship status

Furthermore, you could also be asked to respond to a few problems from a personality test. This will assist them in determining which of your behaviours may be upsetting you and may be explained by a personality disorder.

How to Treat Paranoid Personality Disorder?

Treatment for paranoid personality disorder might be difficult. This is primarily because patients with PPD may not trust medical practitioners, and their symptoms reflect ingrained thoughts and behaviour patterns. Hence, for treatment, it is crucial to consider any frequent co-occurring illnesses in PPD patients.

After that, the doctor will contrast their findings with the norms specified by the DSM-5. Then they will probably proceed towards the treatment of paranoid personality disorder if they discover four or more symptoms.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the most popular treatment for paranoid personality disorder. Hence, people with PPD may explore and resolve their interpersonal issues through counselling.

Furthermore, because patients with PPD have trouble trusting others, the patient and the medical professional must have a trusting relationship. In this regard, the significant scepticism of patients with this illness may make it challenging to build trusted relationships with people.

The main goals of treatment are enhancing basic coping abilities, including trust and empathy, and improving communication, social interaction, and self-esteem.

Medications

There are currently no medications designed to treat paranoid personality disorder. However, medications can be helpful when addressing symptoms, such as anxiety, that are frequently connected to paranoid personality disorder. Medications can also improve a person's capacity for participating in psychotherapy.

When to See a Doctor?

If you believe you have one or more symptoms of PPD, you must visit a doctor for a proper diagnosis. PPD might also be associated with other problems, such as anxiety, stress, etc.

Also, if you have dramatic or erratic behaviour, eccentric behaviour, and anxious or fearful behaviour, you might have PPD. Besides this, consult a health professional if you have any physical symptoms like neglecting personal hygiene or insomnia due to fearful thoughts. In addition, a person with obsessive compulsiveness can expose their raw skin from excessive washing.

How to Prevent Paranoid Personality Disorder?

Although PPD is mostly unpreventable, it is possible to treat it. In addition, treatment can help a patient learn more effective coping mechanisms for triggering situations and thoughts.

It is essential to remember that paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disease. So, as with any mental health issue, receiving assistance immediately after understanding the symptoms can help cope with the problem. So, you consult a medical professional for a proper diagnosis and treatment of PPD.

FAQs About Paranoid Personality Disorder

All

What is the onset age for a paranoid personality disorder?

People with paranoid personality disorder generally start exhibiting symptoms by their late teens or early adult years.

Are there any additional illnesses linked to paranoid personality disorder?

A few personality disorders most frequently co-occur with PPD include avoidant personality disorder, borderline personality disorder (BPD), and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).

How long can a paranoid personality last?

It is a chronic mental disorder that can last throughout a person’s life. However, some people function normally even after having the disorder.