How To Treat A Person With Paranoid Personality Disorder

Paranoid personality disorder is a personality disorder in which the individual who suffers from it has a pattern of suspicion and distrust of others no matter how close your relationship is with the other.

The symptoms of this type of disorder are usually identified during adulthood, however, in some individuals they can be identified earlier. The constant distrust they have towards others and the frequent worry that they may hurt them and that they may be deceived and/or betrayed by the other, causes these people to remain in a state of alert all the time and with a high degree of anxiety. .

It is for all these reasons that over time they become people who can be considered cold and who flee from contact with others, also preferring to attack first than to be attacked. They live frustrated and usually have a very bad character, which is why they generally do not treat the people around them well.

People who suffer from this disorder have a series of characteristics in common, so if what we want is to help or know how to treat a person with paranoid personality disorder, it is necessary to be informed. Some main features of this type of condition are the following:

• Belief that everything others do will be done against them.
• Incapable of fully trusting someone, so they constantly doubt the loyalty of close people.
• They tend to be quite spiteful.
• They tend to be on alert all the time, so they are rarely relaxed.
• Sometimes they tend to be quite aggressive.
• If they have a partner, they suspect that he or she betrays them without having any real justification.
• They feel offended and attacked easily.
• They usually have a bad character.
• They behave distantly and coldly towards others.

Before mentioning the treatment that is applied to people who have this type of disorder, it is important to mention that it is very difficult for a person with this condition to want to go for a consultation or ask for help. But why is it so difficult for them to ask for help? Simply because due to his own paranoia, it is almost impossible for him to even trust healthcare personnel. Next, we are going to briefly mention what the treatment for this type of disorder consists of.

Psychotherapy

The goal of psychotherapy is to eliminate, as far as possible, the symptoms associated with paranoid personality disorder. To do this, the patient must be extremely involved and determined to improve because, otherwise, the intervention would be doomed to failure.

Some of the techniques that are normally used in psychotherapy are, for example, cognitive restructuring with which your negative and inappropriate thoughts are modified and that lead you to maintain certain behaviors such as avoidance, aggression, etc., and replace them with more objective and assertive ones.

The person is also trained in social skills with the purpose of improving the relationship with others, as well as improving the perception you have towards people. On the other hand, they are also taught to perform relaxation exercises that you have to carry out constantly in your daily life so that you get used to feeling less tense and stop being on alert all the time. It is worth mentioning that depending on the individual situation, some people also require pharmacological treatment.

As we have already mentioned before and, above all, if we live with a paranoid person right now, we are very clear that it is very difficult to deal with them, it may even be that at a certain moment, oneself may be feeling worse than the person who suffers from this disorder. However, in case we have to deal with her constantly because she is an important person for us or with whom we are forced to deal with for a long time, there are a series of recommendations that we can follow to help ourselves and also try to help her. as much as possible. Some of these recommendations that will help us know how to treat and live with a person with paranoid personality disorder are the following:

1. Motivate that person to go to a professional, either with a doctor, psychologist and/or psychiatrist. It is advisable that you do not tell him directly and that you test the waters little by little, first, to realize how aware he is that he needs help, then how willing he is to do something to be better, also pay attention to what type of professional has less distrust, etc. Keep in mind that, on many occasions, they may be complaining of some other discomfort that is an indirect consequence of the disorder and that this is what can motivate them to seek help and not precisely because they detect that they have this type of condition, so you can do this leverage.
2. Remember that this person has a disease. On many occasions, we enter into the same game and react to the provocations that the other person may be making to us, however, it is important to remember at all times that this person is sick and that is the reason why they act this way.
3. Do not respond to their attacks, better avoid them. Whenever that person is behaving in a hostile and aggressive manner towards us, the best thing we can do is avoid them, rather than confront them or try to calm them down. Simply leave the place where he is and after a while, when he has calmed down, have contact with her again.
4. Try to be empathetic as much as possible. This means that it is advisable that you listen to that person and take an interest in them, for example, you can ask them how they feel, be kind, etc. However, we should never allow that person to say or do things that harm us.
5. Keep calm. Although it may sound complicated, it is necessary to learn to stay as calm as possible, especially when we have to constantly deal with this person. To do this, it is advisable to train ourselves in relaxation exercises, meditation and everything that helps us feel calmer and at peace with ourselves.
6. Take distance. If it is a person, such as a coworker, a neighbor, a distant relative, or someone who is simply not that important to us, the best thing we can do is distance ourselves from this person. If it is someone whom you are forced to see every day even for a moment and you cannot avoid it so much, a good option is to remember that they have an illness, continue doing what you are doing and avoid being affected.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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