Paranoid Personality Disorder
What Is Paranoid Personality Disorder?
The main characteristic Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) is the tendency to be suspicious and distrusting of others. People with PPD perceive others as having negative or malicious motives towards them when it is usually not the case. Someone with PDD may imagine their friends gossiping about them or plotting something against them. People involved in romantic relationships may suspect their partner to be cheating on them behind their back. They may be very sensitive to criticism and they tend to hold grudges for a long time. These attitudes usually lead to strained relationships that worsen according to the level of stress and paranoia that they are experiencing.
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How To Treat Paranoid Personality Disorder
Research shows that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is very effective in treating Paranoid Personality Disorder.
The first step of the CBT treatment is to learn skills to cope in order to increase the client’s belief in their ability to reach their goals. The therapy treatment focuses on helping the clients improve maladaptive thoughts in order to perceive situations from a more realistic and balanced perspective.
The therapists teach clients to become more aware of their interpersonal reactions and how their suspicions affect others. They may be asked to trust others with small matters and evaluate the outcomes.
These are called behavioural experiments and the purpose of them is to allow clients to test their assumptions for themselves in order to distinguish between true signs of bad intentions and to detect and acknowledge signs of good intentions and attitudes.
These strategies facilitate the shift of paranoid thoughts into more adaptive ones and as a result, clients learn that others are not so threatening. This usually leads to a sense of relief, and the ability to maintain and enjoy healthier relationships.
