Paranoid ideation: how to deal with mistrust

Almost all of us have come across people who tend to mistrust others, who attribute bad intentions to comments or actions of others and, in general, they suspect that behind the setbacks they suffer there are "black hands" conspired to make them fail.

Being protagonists and victims of persecutions, injustices or misfortunes concocted by others... These types of beliefs form what is known as paranoid ideation., quite widespread among humans. It is not for less, because it is a defense mechanism that can even be adaptive in certain situations. However, it becomes a problem when this style of thinking turns into more severe manifestations, with a distortion of enough reality to cause great psychological discomfort or disorder (going from paranoid ideation to delirious).

• Related article: "Paranoia: causes and signs of this type of delusional thinking"

What is paranoid ideation?

It is important not to confuse paranoid ideation with paranoid personality disorder; not only because of the different intensity of the symptoms, because it is also not the only pathological picture where these mental ruminations appear:

can be found in schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder (BPD), or schizotypal disorder. It is also common for substance use to favor the appearance of paranoid ideation.

Some of the main factors influencing the development of paranoid attitudes would be high social anxiety and style of insecure attachment (Martin, 2001), parental figures of distant and avoidant attachment, or excessive external criticism (Carvalho, 2018), a threat-based social mentality (Macbeth, 2008), among others, and its incidence is more pronounced in older populations (Chaudhary and Rabheru, 2009). All these cases are relatively frequent, so it is easy for us to deal with relatives, friends, acquaintances or co-workers (one of the most common places to develop it, by the way) with different degrees of ideation paranoid.

• You may be interested in: "Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment"

To do?

Whether we are dealing with a profile prone to suspicion or people with conspiratorial beliefs (there is a relationship between the paranoia and the belief in conspiracy theories (Darwin, 2011)), it is not easy to approach someone with paranoid ideation, since obviously will tend to mistrust us.

The temptation to dispute or disprove the belief, or to engage in an exchange of defensive behaviors and end both angry is very high, so it is especially important to know how to act in a relationship with someone with traits paranoid.

1. Do not invalidate the person's perception

As absurd as their beliefs may seem to us, they are always built on some actual perceived fact that is central to them. When we openly reject someone's internal experience, we generate hostility (“but man, Paco, how are you going to have afraid of that little spider?", or any other disqualification of emotions or feelings that you can think of), and therefore the other will be defensive.

You have to be very aware that it is not simply a question of “going along”, but of better understanding what cognitive process and what true situation has led them to these excessive conclusions in order to maintain a productive conversation on an affective level and social.

2. Look for other explanations together

If we have followed the first point, we will be able to present alternative explanations or arguments more adjusted to reality and that are plausible for someone with paranoid ideation.

Here we are going to have to overcome their tendency to jump to conclusions (JTC or Jumping to conclusions) before gathering enough information or evidence.

Freeman found that people with paranoid ideation are more than twice as likely to rush to judgment than others (Freeman, 2008). This does not mean that they are not capable of redecide or modify their conclusions in the face of more evidence, but rather that it is more difficult for them to do so.

Anyway, subclinical paranoid ideation is not an intellectual impairment, they can reason as well as anyone; they just prefer conspiracy explanations.

3. Do not enter competitions to be right

This point, which is valid for the communicative exchange with anyone, is more important in these specific cases. It's tempting to argue with someone who claims they're being followed by the police, but we are not going to achieve much by confronting him with our arguments against: basically it is a competition of wills and we will find that we have no more evidence than our own belief that ours is true.

From that position it is very difficult to convince someone who is also capable of making very "solid" explanations. It is essential to abandon the fight for reason, which can only generate more mistrust.

4. Avoid condescending

a paranoid delusion does not imply any type of cognitive disability; the person can be as intelligent or more than us, even though he believes that aliens built the pyramids and incognito inhabit among humans. In fact, you can be convinced of this and lead a normal, adapted and happy life. Putting her down or condescending as if she had a brain injury will only deepen the alienation and mutual misunderstanding.

5. Validate the emotions that underlie the beliefs

paranoid ideation part of a limiting core belief: that others are a potential threat, and you cannot trust even the closest ones. Hence, the favorite emotion of people with this problem is fear, from which they actively defend themselves, which is why outside observers see agitation, anger and confrontation, and it is easy to miss or confuse the emotional background of the issue with rage.

On the other side of the coin, individuals with paranoid ideas usually do not realize that this defense generates rejection in others... that by moving away from them they confirm their suspicions. Understand that it is fear that activates their responses, and not that they dislike us, in order to act with assertiveness, understanding and compassion. Like everyone else, they need the contact and warmth of other human beings, despite the fear that this contact causes them.