![]() For parents, this can be particularly distressing, as your love for your child means you want them to live a healthy, happy, and productive life. Witnessing how the disorder affects your child’s other relationships as well as their life in general can also be painful and disheartening rather than seeing your child thrive, you watch them retreat into their paranoia, often becoming socially isolated and professionally compromised. The disorder may also have caused your child to lash out at you or accuse you of things you haven’t done, leaving you with devastating feelings of confusion, sadness, and powerlessness. As the parent of an adult child with paranoid personality disorder, you have likely borne the brunt of this symptomatology your words may have been twisted to mean things they don’t, and your child may have pushed you away due to their paranoia. Rather, they are rooted in a desire for self-preservation.ĭespite lack of malice, the symptoms of the condition can be extremely hurtful for others. But while people with this condition remain connected to reality, the distrust and the behaviors it spurs are not malicious. Paranoid personality disorder symptoms arise not from a break with reality, but from an overwhelming fear of being harmed, particularly in interpersonal relationships. Rather, they are enduring in nature and must be “rigid, inflexible, maladaptive and of sufficient severity to cause significant impairment in functioning or internal distress.” Additionally, the paranoia of the disorder is not the product of psychosis such as the hallucinations or delusions experienced by people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and, sometimes, bipolar disorder. In order to receive a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, these symptoms cannot be fleeting or temporary. Inability to admit mistakes or understand their role in conflicts.Susceptible to unjustifiable hostility, argumentativeness, stubbornness, coldness, control issues, or jealousy, often interfering with the ability or willingness to form and maintain relationships.Recurrent suspicion that their partner is being unfaithful.Believing that others are attacking their character or reputation, despite these attacks not being apparent to others.Perceiving benign behaviors of others as having hidden meanings.Reluctance to forgive others for real or perceived wrongdoing.Reluctance to disclose personal information or confide in others for fear that information will be used against them.Doubting others’ trustworthiness, loyalty, and intentions due to a belief that others will harm, deceive, or exploit them.The symptoms of paranoid personality disorder encompass a spectrum of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that typically emerge in early adulthood, including: However, learning more about your child’s condition is critical in order to get them the help they need and provide the kind of support they need both during and after treatment. Urging them to seek treatment and supporting them through the disorder can also be challenging, both due to this lack of common understanding and the nature of the illness itself. For parents of an adult child with paranoid personality disorder, understanding their child’s symptoms can, therefore, be difficult, as there are few pre-existing narratives about the condition in mainstream culture. This is partially the result of reluctance to seek treatment on the part of those struggling with the condition, leaving most undiagnosed and untreated, shutting them out of growing conversations about the reality of mental illness. Some fear that their loved one has developed schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or schizotypal personality disorder, obscuring the reality of their family member’s condition.ĭespite being amongst the most common of personality disorders, paranoid personality disorder is often misunderstood and unrecognized. As symptom severity increases, it can become apparent that something is very wrong, but what exactly that is can seem elusive, as symptoms may overlap with those of other mental health disorders. When symptoms are mild, the distrust of others, suspicion, hostility, and hypersensitivity can seem like frustrating but relatively benign personality traits that are unlikely to require medical intervention. Paranoid personality disorder can sometimes be difficult to see. ![]()
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