What is paranoid personality disorder?
Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) is a Cluster A personality disorder. Cluster A personality disorder, also known as eccentric personality disorder, often causes patients to develop unusual or bizarre thought patterns.
Symptoms may include
- atypical behavior
- Difficulty forming, building, and maintaining relationships, in large part because their behavior may be difficult for others to understand.
- Another common symptom is paranoia about people and interactions, relationships, and events.
Although the types of Cluster A personality disorder may share some similarities, paranoid personality disorder is distinguished by causing people to exhibit a chronic pattern of suspicion and distrust of others. People with paranoid personality disorder may experience the following symptoms:
- Frequently misinterprets friendly or neutral interactions and interprets them as negative or outright hostile
- Suspicion of other people in your life, often manifested by the belief that people are trying to lie to them or manipulate them
- Fear of confiding in others may be due to the belief that by opening up to others, their vulnerability will eventually be used against them
- Social withdrawal, alienation and isolation
- Uncovering hidden, often malicious, meanings in typical or direct gestures, facial expressions, statements, and conversations
- Extremely sensitive to criticism or rejection
- Angry at people they believe abused them and refuse to accept any apology
- Tendency to hold grudges
- Argumentative and stubborn
- Have difficulty collaborating with others on projects at work or school
- Unable to understand one's own role in conflicts with others
- Believe that you are always right
- Concern about conspiracy theories
- anxiety
It's important to note that while PPD and other Cluster A personality disorders may share some similar symptoms with schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis, they are not the same as psychotic mental disorders. Symptoms of mental disorders may include hallucinations and delusions, while personality disorders involve unhealthy patterns of behavior and thinking.
How is paranoid personality disorder diagnosed?
Paranoid personality disorder can be diagnosed in a similar way to other related mental health conditions. The first step is usually a physical examination by a doctor to determine if there are any medical conditions that may be causing PPD symptoms. This examination may include blood tests and other types of screening tests.
After a physical exam rules out any physical health complications, a doctor or mental health professional may perform a psychological exam. This assessment usually involves talking with the patient about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For personality disorders such as postpartum depression, health care professionals may also consult people close to the patient.
How is paranoid personality disorder treated?
It can be challenging for mental health professionals to treat patients with paranoid personality disorder. General treatments for personality disorders are often used to treat postpartum depression, including talk therapy and certain medications. Many talk therapies are effective in addressing postpartum depression symptoms and rely on a strong relationship between the client and her therapist.
An inherent characteristic of postpartum depression is distrust of others and avoidance of emotionally vulnerable situations, so establishing a connection between a therapist and a patient with postpartum depression can be complicated. As with many types of personality disorders, people with postpartum depression often don't realize there's anything wrong with their behavior and may be reluctant to seek treatment.
That being said, if someone suffering from postpartum depression seeks help from a therapist (perhaps because a loved one asks them to), some therapy may make a difference.
dialectical behavior therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, often abbreviated as DBT, focuses on four key skill areas: mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. The main goals of DBT include helping people better understand themselves and improve general coping skills through higher levels of awareness and behavioral intervention.
DBT can address specific symptoms of PPD. Paranoia is a form of mood dysregulation, so learning more mood stabilization skills may be helpful.
People who practice DBT skills often become better at acknowledging and labeling their feelings, which can counteract paranoia. DBT can also help people with PPD cope with other strong emotions associated with the disease, such as anger, fear, doubt, anxiety, and hostility.
cognitive behavioral therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely practiced forms of therapy. Many psychologists and human behavior experts consider CBT the gold standard for treating a variety of mental health conditions, including common personality disorders.
CBT generally operates on the premise that there is a fundamental connection between the way a person thinks and behaves, so that changing unhelpful thought patterns can play a role in reducing undesirable behavior.
Through CBT, patients with PPD may become more aware of paranoid thoughts, leading them to change those thoughts and begin to see the world as it is. After better understanding their paranoia, they may be able to begin to dispel the belief that their doubts and paranoid attitudes are justified. CBT may also help boost self-esteem, which can help combat some of the symptoms of postpartum depression that are based on anxiety and insecurity.
Reality test
Reality testing is a form of psychotherapy that encourages people to examine the differences between their belief systems and real-life experiences. It may be one of the most effective treatments for paranoid personality disorder.
Here is a typical way a therapist might conduct reality testing with a client suffering from postpartum depression:
- Imagine that a client expresses an irrational belief that their spouse is cheating on them because they always come home late.
- To provide a reality test for a belief, the therapist and client can look at a situation to determine if there is evidence to support the belief or evidence to support another situation. For example, perhaps a spouse is working on an intense project that keeps them in the office outside of regular work hours.
- With practice, clients can learn to begin automatically implementing reality-testing measures when they encounter thoughts based on paranoia or suspicion, thereby eliminating their automatic reactions.
Find support for paranoid personality disorder through online therapy
In some cases, finding a therapist with whom you can connect and who is willing to open up can be complicated for someone with paranoid personality disorder. For clients with PPD, it may be helpful to consider online therapy. Interacting with a therapist over the phone or computer screen may make clients feel more in control and may cause them to let their guard down more than in a traditional therapy setting. Additionally, online therapy can be more easily delivered because you may not have to leave the comfort of your home to attend therapy.
Scientific research has demonstrated the efficacy of online therapy in treating a variety of mental health conditions, including personality disorders. One study reviewed existing research on the topic and found that online therapy can help reduce personality disorder symptoms and may be less expensive than in-person therapy. If symptoms of postpartum depression are negatively affecting your life, you may want to consider contacting an online therapist.
generalize
Living with paranoid personality disorder can be complicated, but there are ways to reduce and relieve PPD symptoms. Dialectical behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and reality testing are all potential solutions to postpartum depression. Contacting a professional such as an online therapist can be one of the best ways to get started with these treatment options.
