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Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) causes constant feelings of threat and distrust, leading to difficulties in close relationships. Symptoms include paranoia, distrust, and hypersensitivity to perceived insults. PPD is part of eccentric personality disorders and can be treated with psychotherapy, but patients often don’t seek treatment or struggle to follow it.
Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) is a psychological disorder that causes a person to feel constantly threatened and distrust others. The most common symptoms of paranoid personality disorder include paranoia, distrust, and hypersensitivity to perceived insults or slights. Because of these issues, people with PPD have trouble with close relationships. There are no known physical signs of paranoid personality disorder.
PPD is one of a group of psychological disorders called eccentric personality disorders. People with a disorder in this group behave in ways that may seem erratic or just plain strange to others. PPD manifests itself as irrational and relentless paranoia, the unfounded suspicion that organizations or people are malicious in some way.
Symptoms of paranoid personality disorder usually appear in early adulthood. PPD is slightly more common in men than in women. Studies have shown that PPD may be genetically linked to schizophrenia.
People with this disorder tend to believe that other people, even close friends and family members, are using or deceiving them in some way. They find hidden malice in comments, looks or gestures that were supposed to be innocent. Hypersensitive to negative connotations, they tend to take criticism badly.
These symptoms of paranoid personality disorder cause people with this disorder to have trouble maintaining close relationships. Their delusions cause them to constantly suspect infidelity and not forgive perceived slights. They tend to be reluctant to confide in others out of fear that anything they say could be used to harm them later.
People with PPD also have trouble forming new relationships. Their constant distrust of people makes them seem cold and distant. They may also act hostile as a defense against future attacks. People with this condition seem constantly tense because they never feel confident enough to relax.
PPD can be treated with psychotherapy. The biggest barrier to treating PPD is the patient himself. Most people with PPD don’t know they have a problem. Their paranoia and delusions seem reasonable to them, and so they are often unwilling to seek treatment.
Those receiving treatment find it difficult to follow their treatment regimens. It is not uncommon for PPD patients to suddenly stop psychotherapy because they believe their psychiatrist is secretly gathering blackmail information or to stop taking their medications because they believe they have been poisoned. While no medications treat PPD directly, doctors may prescribe anti-anxiety or antipsychotic medications in an attempt to control the more severe symptoms of paranoid personality disorder.
