편집증: 파라노이아 (Paranoia)

By Paul Frysh

Medically Reviewed by Jennifer Casarella, MD on October 02, 2019, 하정미 부분번역, 2021년 9월 

 

파라노이아(편집증)는 무엇인가?

파라노이아는 그것이 진실이라는 증거가 없음에도 불구하고 사람들이 나를 지켜보고 있거나 나에게 해가 되는 행동을 하고 있다는 식으로 생각하며 위협을 느끼는 것을 말한다. 많은 사람들은 살면서 한 번 정도 이런 생각을 하게 된다. 당신이 이러한 당신의 걱정이 실제적인 근거가 없는 것을 알면서도 그런 생각이 너무 자주 발생하면 곤란을 경험할 수 있다.

임상적인 편집증은 보다 심각한 것인데 증거가 없지만 다른 사람들이 공정하지 않거나 거짓말을 하고 있거나 당신을 해치려고 한다고 믿는 드문 정신질병을 말한다. 당신이 그것이 사실이라고 확신하기 때문에 당신이 파라노이아를 겪고 있는 것이 아니라고 생각할 것이다.

 

Anxiety vs. Paranoid Thoughts

A paranoid thought is a type of anxious thought. Anxiety can cause paranoia, affecting what you’re paranoid about and how long the feeling lasts. But paranoid thoughts can also make you anxious.

 

It’s normal to be anxious sometimes, especially if you’re going through something hard like losing a job or the end of a relationship. When in large groups of people, you may worry that others will judge the things you say or the way you dress or behave. You might walk into a party by yourself and think, “Everyone is wondering why I’m alone.”

 

Some call this paranoid, but we all have thoughts like this from time to time. Just because you’re worried that people might be talking about you doesn’t mean you have a mental illness. Clinical paranoia happens when you’re 100% convinced of it, even when facts prove that it isn’t true.

 

If you worry that your thoughts are paranoid, you probably have some anxiety rather than paranoia. If your anxiety isn’t linked to anything obvious and it never seems to get better or go away, you may need to talk to a doctor about it. Feelings of anxiety and panic that last a long time or get in the way of your daily life might be signs of an anxiety disorder. Symptoms of paranoia may be more severe.

 

파라노이아 증상(Symptoms of Paranoia)

 

방어적이며 적대적이고 공격적이다.

쉽게 상처를 입는다.

자신이 항상 옳다고 생각하고 쉬거나 경계를 푸는 것을 힘들어 한다.

타협, 용서, 비판을 수용할 수 없다.

타인을 신뢰하거나 비밀을 털어놓지 못한다.

사람들의 평범한 행동에서 숨겨진 의미를 찾으려 한다.

 

파라노이아의 원인(Causes of Paranoia)

-Too Little Sleep(수면부족)

 

A single restless night probably won’t cause paranoid thoughts. But if you often go without sleep, it can start to take a toll. You might not think as clearly, and you’re more likely to clash with others or have misunderstandings with them. It may start to look like people are working against you when they’re just acting like they always do. If you go without sleep for long enough, you could even start to see and hear things that aren’t there (your doctor will call them hallucinations).

Adults should shoot for 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night to stay alert and mentally healthy.

 

-Stress(스트레스) 

 

When the tension ratchets up in your life, you could start to feel more suspicious of other people. And the stress doesn’t have to be something negative like illness or job loss. Even a happy occasion, like a wedding, can create a kind of stress that brings out paranoid thoughts along with the joy.

 

To help ease the tension, you can:

 

Take time to relax and try to forget about what’s stressing you out

Spend time with friends

Find something to smile and laugh about

Get plenty of exercise

Meditate to clear your mind

Psychiatric Disorders

 

One condition, paranoid personality disorder, can make it hard to trust others. It can cause negative thoughts about people that just aren’t true, like “They don’t like me,” “They’re making fun of me,” or even “They’re plotting against me.” In some cases, no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise. This can lead to true clinical paranoia. Though you might not believe every unrealistic thought that enters your head, you believe some of them.

 

Schizophrenia, another serious disorder, can make it hard to tell what’s real and what’s imagined. Most of the time, you simply don’t know when your thoughts have become paranoid. Friends, loved ones, or medical professionals often have to point it out and try to help you get treatment.

 

Borderline personality disorder, in which you have fast emotional swings where you can worship someone one moment and hate them the next, can also cause paranoid thoughts and even clinical paranoia in some people.

 

Just because you feel paranoid or worry about what others think about you from time to time doesn’t mean you have a psychiatric disorder. The fact that you know your thoughts don’t make sense could be a sign of good mental health. But if these paranoid feelings happen all the time or start to get in the way of your home or work life, you might want to talk to your doctor or a mental health care provider.

 

-Drug Use(약물사용) 

 

Drugs like marijuana, hallucinogens (LSD, psychotropic mushrooms), and stimulants (cocaine, methamphetamine) have chemicals that make some people paranoid for short periods. Once the chemicals leave your system, the paranoia goes away, too. Days or weeks of intense alcohol abuse also can cause short-term paranoia, and over the long term, it can lead to ongoing paranoia and even hallucinations.

 

If paranoid thoughts are making you anxious or if you have minor symptoms of depression, drugs can make them much worse. In some people, they can trigger a psychiatric disorder with true clinical paranoia as a symptom.

 

Alcohol can also worsen paranoia. Plus, it makes us less inhibited, which makes it harder to control these feelings.

 

-Memory Loss(기억상실)

 

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, which are more likely as you age, can change your brain in ways that make you more suspicious of others. You might notice that a loved one with dementia starts to hide things like jewelry or money, or becomes convinced that people have bad intentions toward them. This is part of the disease. Their doctor might be able to help you manage these symptoms.

 

<파라노이아의 치료(Paranoia Treatments)>

If you feel that you’re losing touch with reality, a doctor or mental health professional is the best place to start. Because you can still tell that your thoughts aren’t reasonable, there are things you can do to help.

 

To start with, it’s important to eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise, and get plenty of sleep. All these things are part of a mental balance that can help keep paranoid thoughts at bay.

 

After that, it can actually help to talk to yourself about paranoid thoughts. This works only while you can still tell that your thoughts are not reasonable. Keep it realistic. Instead of thinking to yourself “I’m crazy” or “I’m paranoid,” try something like: “I’m worried about something that’s highly unlikely to be true.”

 

Even if you don’t have a mental illness, if your paranoid or irrational thoughts get in the way of doing things you want to do, talk to a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist. Talk therapy or some kind of medication could help you feel better.

 

WebMD Medical Reference

Sources © 2019 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.