How to Stop Paranoid

Overcome pessimism. ^[1] One of the reasons you’re paranoid is your tendency to assume the worst will happen in every situation, rather than being optimistic about the outcome. Maybe you think people are talking about you, that they hate your new hairstyle, or that your new boss is trying to annoy you. But it’s possible that none of that is true. Next time you have a pessimistic thought, stop and do the following:

• Ask yourself how likely that negative thought is to come true.
• When predicting the worst, you should consider all the possible outcomes in that situation, not just the most negative ones. Then you’ll see that there are many possibilities in almost any situation.
• Try to counter one pessimistic thought with two realistic thoughts. For example, if you are concerned that people are laughing at your shoes, consider the following possibilities 1) it is very unlikely that just a pair of shoes will make people laugh all day long, and 2) it is very likely that Some hilarious meme is going viral on the office’s messaging system.

Don’t obsess over trifles. Part of the paranoia is not just the fact that you think people are against you or trying to get you in trouble, but also because you think about it all the time . The more you think about something negative, the deeper you sink into your paranoia, the more you believe it will happen. While you can’t stop these obsessive thoughts right away, there are a few tips to help reduce them:

• Set a “worry period”. Take this time for paranoid thoughts, evaluate them, and try to shrink them. If anxiety comes up at any point during the day, try to forget it for a while and save it for the “worry time”. ^[2]
• Keep a journal of your paranoid thoughts, rereading them once a week. Not only will this help you let go of your paranoid thoughts in a healthy way, but it will also show you that those worries are completely unfounded. Suppose you fear that X will happen one day, but when that day has passed and X still does not happen, then you can accept the fact that your paranoid statements have no basis. keep. ^[3]

Talk to a close friend. A close friend is someone you can talk to about your paranoid thoughts, and they are also someone who offers a different perspective on the matter for you to consider. Just putting those worries into words makes you realize how irrational they are. ^[4]

• If you say that your group of friends hates you, that best friend will give you solid examples to prove you wrong.
• You just need to choose a person who has a firm and reasonable opinion, you certainly don’t want someone to aggravate your paranoia or make matters worse.

Get extra work to stay busy. ^[5] Another way to avoid paranoia is to not give yourself a lot of free time to sit around and think about what other people are thinking of you. While being busy doesn’t get you out of the way, it does allow you to focus your energy on more productive things, like pursuing a hobby or finding a way to achieve a personal goal.

• If you spend a few hours a week pursuing something you really enjoy, you’ll be less likely to wallow in paranoid thoughts, whether it’s yoga or coin collecting.

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. This is a very useful exercise. If you put yourself in the shoes of your friends who are worried about them, you will be able to see that many of your worries are unfounded. Let’s say you’re on your way to a party and say to yourself, “Everybody’s going to find me wearing the same outfit I wore to the party three weeks ago.” Ask yourself if you can remember anyone who wore what to the party that day, you are less likely to remember what they wore.

• Ask yourself if those people think about you as much as you think, what is the probability? Do you spend hours thinking about how much you hate them? Probably not.

Determine if you are paranoid from being too restless. If you feel insecure, your mind will be filled with worries and fears that something is wrong. Restlessness can trigger paranoid thinking, although the two conditions are different. The feeling of restlessness makes you worry that you have some incurable disease, but on the contrary, it is the paranoia that leads you to believe that the doctor is intentionally making you sick. ^[6]

• If restlessness is the main cause of the problem, then you should seek medical intervention to end the cause. ^[7]

Find expert support when needed. Sometimes assuming your friends are saying something behind your back is a lot different than letting the thought completely overwhelm you. In addition, being aware that your thoughts are somewhat irrational is also different from the misconception that people intentionally hurt you. If you feel that your paranoid thoughts are taking control of your life and hindering you in your daily social activities, you should seek help from a psychologist or mental health professional. ^[8]