What is paranoia
Paranoia is not when you talk to a cat, but when you are afraid to say too much in front of him, says a popular joke on the Internet. She aphoristically conveys an important feature of this mental disorder. They talk about paranoia when a person for a long time has the feeling that there is some kind of conspiracy around him or that he is being persecuted in one way or another.
Paranoids often have a distorted view of reality: it seems to them even more hostile than it actually is. In the random actions of others, they can detect consistency and logic directed against them. They can associate routine events with malicious intent. They may blame you for missing their socks or see the machinations of the world government in bad weather over the weekend.
It is known that paranoia is often accompanied by a feeling of powerlessness and depression. Given their suspiciousness and problematic character traits, paranoids often remain lonely and isolated.
Medical instruments of the past - instruments of torture or life preserver
Modern medicine is amazing. More and more procedures are painless and quick. Going to the dentist is no longer as terrifying as it was, say, three decades ago. Today doctors can even defeat cancer. And recently, American scientists announced the second case of a complete cure for AIDS...
Medicine is moving forward with confident steps. Of course, much remains to be improved, but no one will argue that today progress in the field of medicine has taken a huge leap forward. Let's take a look at how medical procedures have changed over the past few centuries, and what creepy devices doctors of the past used.
Iron lung device
Before the polio vaccine was invented, patients were placed in an iron lung machine that simulated breathing.
Once inside this thing, which looked like a medieval torture device, the patient could not move for hours. He saw only his reflection in the mirror above and could only speak when the machine “exhaled.”
Sunbathing babes
Winter hypovitaminosis is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin D, which leads to weakening of bone tissue. Today, the patient is usually prescribed vitamin D complexes. In the past, this was done using artificial tanning, even applied to infants.
Plague Doctors
In the past, these terrifying plague doctors were often called upon to treat the bubonic plague. To protect themselves, they wore creepy masks with long beaks, which they filled with fragrant herbs, believing that the plague spread through “poisoned air.” Their “procedures” included flogging (because the plague was considered God’s punishment for sins) and bloodletting.
See also: People with xeroderma are killed by the sun's rays
Tool for forcibly stretching the canal
You can't help but wince just by looking at this device. If a man's urethra was too narrow for normal urine flow, doctors would insert this thing into the tip of the man's penis. The nut was then turned to separate the wedges and widen the urethra. If there was blood coming from the penis, it was considered a good sign.
Guillotine for tonsillectomy
Until antibiotics were invented, sore throat and other similar diseases were a serious threat to life. To prevent patients from biting off the doctor’s finger, such a terrible guillotine was inserted into his mouth to remove the tonsils.
Artificial leech
Nothing will help a patient more than bloodletting. That's what we thought before. When the doctor did not have real leeches on hand, he used artificial ones. The rotating blades cut a wound in the patient's skin, and the cylinder provided a vacuum to suck out the blood.
Hemorrhoidal forceps
If the patient had hemorrhoids in the past, he could simply accept this diagnosis. Of course, if the case was difficult and the patient could not bear it any longer, then this “cute” tool would come to his aid. With its help, the doctor grabbed and crushed hemorrhoidal cones. And the cones inside the rectum were pulled out with a hook.
First plastic surgery
It's hard to believe, but the first plastic surgeons appeared in ancient times. Although until the 20th century, plastic surgery was quite primitive. Doctors created these creepy masks to hide the injuries on their patients’ faces.
The first wheelchairs
Dr. Clark's spinal apparatus was advertised in 1878 as a device that would allow people with back problems to walk for a few minutes—or even hours—a day. In reality, the wooden frame on this terrifying device was so heavy that even a healthy person was unable to take even a couple of steps, not to mention patients with a bad spine.
Cradle of Utica
This “cradle” was used mainly in mental hospitals - it did not give patients the opportunity to walk, sit or move. By the 20th century, these cruel cages had disappeared from use and were replaced by straitjackets and padded rooms.
Dental pliers with screw
If you think that modern dentistry is not humane, look at what we have moved away from. A screw on this ominous device drilled a tooth, which the doctor held tightly with the same pliers. This made pulling out the tooth much easier. For the doctor, of course. And yes, dentists used this subject of torture BEFORE the invention of painkillers.
Ring for spermatorrhea
During the Victorian era, masturbation was considered very unhealthy. To prevent men from doing it, doctors invented a ring for spermatorrhea. It's simple: a man put this miracle ring on his penis, and every time he got overexcited, sharp thorns dug into his manhood, knocking down the whole mood.
Cough syrup with heroin and cocaine
Before heroin and cocaine were proven to be dangerous, addictive drugs, they were widely used to dull pain. For several years, heroin was present in cough syrup, until Bayer - the same company that gave us aspirin - discovered its narcotic nature.
First dentures
Prosthetics appeared in ancient Egypt.
Until relatively recently, most of them looked like something out of the world of steampunk. They were inconvenient, impractical and often embarrassed the owner.
bone chisel
To cure headaches, doctors used trepanation - they drilled a hole in the patient's skull. This is what a bone chisel was used for. Fortunately, there is now paracetamol.
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14/03/2014
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Is paranoia a disease?
There is no such diagnosis as “paranoia”. A person who is called paranoid may be diagnosed with one of three psychiatric disorders:
1. Paranoid personality disorder. This is what people usually call simply paranoia or everyday paranoia. This is what we focus on in this material.
2. Paranoid schizophrenia. It manifests itself as delusions and hallucinations.
3. Delirium of persecution (mania of persecution). It is usually characterized by a long-term fixation on a certain fictitious problem (for example, the patient may be sure all his adult life that the intelligence services want to destroy him).
Psychotechnics of paranoid communication
Author - A.P. Egides. The book “How to understand people, or Psychological drawing of personality”
Psychotechnics of communication
Paranoid right and left, like a volcano, erupts conflictogens. His manner of communication can be said to be shameless. Every now and then he literally throws sharply unpleasant, offensive epithets, is sarcastic, openly insults, and can throw juice in his opponent’s face. A cautious person is often a coward to a paranoid person; an opponent who expressed doubts is a stupid person. The paranoid person speaks tensely, even if everything is in order, quickly switches to shouting, simply yelling, waving his arms. He “cuts the truth” in the eyes and behind the eyes.
Or even, as one of the paranoid said about himself roughly but accurately, “pushes the truth into the womb.”
He doesn’t bully or overhear, he simply gives all the sisters the earrings they “deserve”, paying little attention to the negative effect this produces. In communication, paranoid people can be difficult because they are, in principle, inclined to give negative assessments - and without reason much more often than with reason. At the same time, they evaluate themselves positively along the same line. This is the work of unconscious self-affirmation mechanisms, the desire to rise by humiliating another. A paranoid person loves praise and recognition, and can also fall for flattery; he himself gives almost no positive assessments to people, except to praise them for their devotion to him, for good work in the name of his cause. If a paranoid person understands that this is necessary for business, he may approve of someone, but his spontaneous statements of an evaluative nature are still more often negative. If you are paranoid, keep in mind that all this, naturally, people do not like, does not make you likable either in their eyes or in your own. I give advice: think more about the positive in people, talk about it more.
Think more about the positive in people, talk about it more.
Negative ratings are only given when you can’t do without them.
If a paranoid person has made the establishment of social justice his main task, then he behaves accordingly. In relation to enemies, he denounces them, calls on the whole people to fight them, while being disingenuous in small things.
In the paranoid person, negative assessments more often than in other psychotypes turn into accusations. It is also important that paranoid people do not just have an accusatory approach. They, as we have already said, love to scold people close to them for anything: for being late, for negligence, for dirt. The paranoid is always grumbling, imposing sanctions and punishing himself. Unlike epileptoids, their punishment is excessively severe and inadequate for the offense. They always go too far. This is in their spirit - vendetta. The Red Terror was worse than the White Terror. They are prone to lynching, to genocide.
Paranoid people, it must be said, can curb their aggressiveness if psychologists seriously work with them and help them understand that many of their decisions are irrational. Psychologists should help them stop, look around, and comprehend everything. Help them live not reflexively, but reflexively (trying to understand not only everything around them, but also the motives of their own actions).
The paranoid person himself suffers from the fact that he simply does not see the positive around him, he is full of negative experiences, and is always dissatisfied with everything.
He is angry, but he cannot even be called irritable; he is not restrained and irritable, like an epileptoid, but is simply unable to contain his passion and gets turned on half a turn. He considers himself always right and entitled. He lets himself go. His rage is crushing and terrifying. He does not reproach himself for anger, as happens with an epileptoid.
These outbreaks occur with or without reason, for everyday reasons and because people do not want to accept the new order in society imposed on them. He doesn’t just get angry, he denounces, demands to repent, swear allegiance.
Those who disagree are for him philistines, conservatives, retrogrades, petty bourgeois, enemies of progress, counter-revolutionaries, bureaucrats who hinder progress...
The paranoid does not think that all this pushes away potential allies. But if he has enough intelligence to understand explanations on this topic, he can quickly change tactics, improve the psychotechnics of communication and become more careful in his statements, but at the same time he usually remains unconvinced.
Paranoid people, more than other psychotypes, are intolerant of other people's opinions and unrestrained in denying them. And if criticism is heard against them, it is rejected out of hand, and they always have counterarguments.
Which of us loves criticism? But the paranoid simply cannot stand it, and if the criticism has a real basis, is logical, constructive, if he sees that he has been caught, that he really made a mistake (and he does not like to admit his mistakes), then he will twist and twist the arms of logic, although later, perhaps, it will quietly improve.
The president of a Russian republic was once told that although he considered himself a Buddhist, he behaved like a pop star, while Lao Tzu said that a Buddhist ruler should rule in such a way as to be invisible. He answered that he had three tasks: to create the image of the president, then the republic, then the people - that is, he simply answered the question - a primitive manipulative trick.
An epileptoid, if he is caught, does not get out of it, but usually admits a mistake and apologizes, tries to make amends for his voluntary or involuntary guilt, although he does not like apologizing.
The paranoid person is categorical and categorical in his judgments, even those not related to the assessments of certain individuals. What he accepts for himself is in itself an immutable truth, and everyone else must still understand it. And if they don’t understand, they become enemies.
The categorical nature of his judgments turns into edification. He loves to give advice when he is not asked, he loves to teach.
He has a “parental” position towards adults, even strangers. And his grown children are the very first object for edification, and they defend themselves, snap, avoid contact, and try to avoid teachings.
How is paranoia diagnosed?
The leading features of paranoid personality disorder are mistrust and suspicion. But you can’t call every distrustful person “by sight” paranoid. According to the diagnostic criteria developed by American psychiatrists, a person who meets four of the seven parameters listed below can be called paranoid.
- A person, without sufficient grounds, suspects that someone is using or betraying him, or wants bad things for him.
- Immersed in doubts about whether I can trust others and friends.
- He is not inclined to trust others due to an unjustified fear that the information will be used against him.
- Sees hidden evil meanings in ordinary events or words.
- Constantly feels discontent and embitterment (for example, does not forgive old grievances).
- Sees an attack on himself or his reputation in things that are not obvious to other people. Tends to react quickly and angrily to them.
- Has regular unfounded suspicions about the fidelity of a spouse or partner.
Of course, only a psychiatrist can correctly use these diagnostic criteria.
Tip 5: Distract yourself.
This is a great way to cope with fears, as long as you don't overdo it. By overdoing we mean an extremely strong passion for any factor, which can overstimulate the nervous system before bedtime.
- Read a book. Avoid books with intense plots and horror. Read something you can immerse yourself in. This will allow you to focus on the story rather than your fear.
- Watch a movie. There is a slight contradiction here. Recent studies have found that using technological devices at night disrupts sleep. If you want to distract yourself with technology a few hours before bed
, this method will work. - Listen to calm music. Music should relax you and give you a pleasant feeling.
- Count. Count normally or count backward to distract your mind until you feel yourself falling asleep.
Source
Can paranoia be treated?
Another joke about paranoia – “paranoia is the only disease that you can diagnose yourself with 100% accuracy” – is completely untrue. Paranoid personality disorder makes life difficult for those who suffer from it. But they do not consider themselves sick, so they almost never seek help. Moreover, mistrust in doctors (as well as in others around) complicates treatment: after all, trust is necessary for effective psychotherapy. When working with such patients, psychotherapists try to help such people develop trust and empathy, improve communication skills and increase self-esteem.
Features of treatment
How do you treat paranoia?
Doctors do not consider this disorder as psychosis, despite all the problems that it causes to the lives of the patient himself and the people around him.
As stated above, the first thing to do is acknowledge the problem. This is not always easy to achieve.
As for drug treatment, most often they start with taking antipsychotics, such as Moditen-depot or Haloperedol decanoate. However, one should not assume that just using these drugs will get rid of obsessive fears. Therapy must be comprehensive. If the case is severe and advanced, hospitalization with a long therapeutic course and corrective procedures for the emotional background cannot be avoided.
Self-medication is strictly prohibited - this is important information for those who want to treat paranoia at home, allegedly relying on some real cases of cure without the participation of a doctor. This is a high risk of aggravating the patient’s condition and leading to more serious mental disorders.
Psychotherapeutic methods
Among the types of treatment for paranoia, an important place is occupied by the basic areas of psychotherapy:
- Cognitive-behavioral – when the patient is taught to control emotions, master the mental process, set up positive thinking and reduce aggression towards others.
- Gestalt psychotherapy is working with the emotions of a paranoid person so that he can accept this world as a whole and find himself in society.
- Family – working not only with the patient, but also with his relatives, searching for optimal ways of relationships that would improve the patient’s condition and contribute to his recovery.
- Work in groups and individual.
Hallucinations are not observed in this disorder (with the exception of the acute form), but even without them there are enough symptoms that seriously worsen the life of a person and the people around him. The help of a qualified psychotherapist may be exactly what you need.
Drug treatment
Do any pills help with paranoia? Indeed, a doctor may prescribe drug treatment for this disease (which, as a rule, occurs simultaneously with psychotherapeutic sessions).
The most commonly prescribed medications are:
- Traditional antipsychotics , also called antipsychotics. They block dopamine receptors in the human brain, and it is this hormone, according to scientists, that is responsible for the development of paranoid ideas. Speaking of antipsychotics, we can recall Navan, Mellaril, Thorazine, Haldol and others.
- Atypical antipsychotics . These medications are considered more modern and effective because their action is aimed at blocking dopamine, as well as serotonin (another hormone responsible for delusional thoughts). In this case, we can talk about Geodon, Clozaril, Zyprex, Risperdal, and so on.
- Antidepressants with tranquilizers . A doctor may prescribe such sedatives if a person is highly anxious, psychologically depressed, or has trouble sleeping.
