I think I have paranoia. Please help.

Patient's Query

Hello doctor,

Everyone gets those little paranoid thoughts but mine have gotten a lot worse and a lot more frequent over the past four months. I constantly feel like people I know are talking about me or someone is trying to kill me/hurt me. I also get other weird thoughts like, what if the bus tips up, what if there is a bomb in here? This stops me from going out, and I cry a lot over it.

Nobody I know has ever experienced it and they do not know about it, so I do not like talking about it because they may think I am just weird. When I am home alone or not, doors and windows have to be locked and shut so nobody can see inside the house. If I want to go out, I have to be with an older person (parent) or a group of friends. I went out for the first time past 8 o' clock at night the other day and it really frightened me.

I have woken up in the middle of a panic attack twice. Please help.

Answered by Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

The symptoms you have described are indicative of obsessional nature and the behavior is compulsive because of fearfulness. From the brief description, it is not possible for me to decide the category of disorder. But I can tell you that it is not normal and unlikely to go away without the help of a mental health specialist.

You are right in saying that you are suffering fromparanoia but to me, it seems it is secondary to this fearfulness. Having said this, I can assure you that this condition can be treated with the help of antidepressants and antipsychotics or psychotherapy or both. Most of the individuals respond slowly to the prescribed treatment.

At the same time, I would like to inform you that you are not responsible for these symptoms. They just can happen to anybody. You need to talk and discuss your issue in detail to a psychiatrist online after which we can decide the exact diagnosis and a plan of treatment.

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