Paranoid thoughts?

[Explosition_Rooster]

Does anyone get paranoind thoughts about people and things? I always seem to, and I don't know if it's due to Autism or if its something else thats the cause of them.

And if you get those thoughts, do you listen to them or not?

 

[76054Pluto]

I have always had paranoia problems ever since I was a kid and as an adult it comes and goes. I rarely go out and if I do I never travel on public transport or go to social events and places where people meet up. I would say that many years ago when I was at school I was extremely self conscious because i felt I acted different and looked different as well as not being good at sports and the general rough and tumble of being a kid. But I live with my good loving family and live in a good house in a good area where I do have a good quality of life.

 

[nowwhat]

Since intermediate school when I was doing lots of drugs. It's stuck with me. As some here have said, it comes and goes. Probably have them til I'm in the grave. Would be nice and freeing to be rid of them, but they're always ready to assert themselves. Doesn't help that my own siblings tried to murder me twice (for real, seriously).

 

[King_Oni]

I've had some doubts if I actually had paranoid feelings or if they were in fact justified thoughts and feelings where I thought everyone was against me. It turned out be a relief when I talked to a social worker and told her what was on my mind and how I felt I was being screwed over. She looked into it with me and actually confirmed that I was quite right about how I perceived it. That in turn made me wonder how crazy I actually am...

A few years ago I had a weird situation with a girl going on and I just had hunches and ideas, my friend called me paranoid over not trusting her and the situation how it was evolving. In short; I knew her and shortly after that I got to know a girl online and I told my friend "something is weird with this... I think this other person is her as well". At the time it sounded totally paranoid to my friend. 4 months later it turned out I was right.

A similar story is about my friend, whom was thought to be paranoid. He thought he was on some kind of blacklist by the authorities over a few things he was suspected of. A psychiatrist wanted to put him on anitpsychotics which he refused to take... turns out he wasn't that paranoid, since at some point the cops pulled him over on an evening and stripped his entire car and pretty much was being told they've been checking up on him.

Perhaps it's that some of us might be either more skeptic, some more gullible, that throws of our perception of what people are up to totally off. Not being able to read of true intentions makes up for weird ideas sometimes... for some reason I feel I've gotten the hang of it and often see through and understand ill intentions well enough to not be caught off-guard and screwed over royally.

 

[chuckintime]

There is always something going on behind the scenes in everything everyone does, as aspies we pick up on these things wether they be truly malevolent or just harmless sometimes we cant tell the difference we just know somethings not right. Which can lead to paranoia. But there is a famous quote not sure who by, "just because your paranoid, doesn't mean people aren't following you." or something to that effect I hope I got it right.

And I don't mean social cues, I mean like logical ones, like a persons intentions. they try to hide it with social cues but we miss all that and instead see that something isn't right. we make awesome lie detectors.

 

[total-recoil]

I recently concluded that when it comes to fact and logic, I can safely assume my cognitive processes are reliable. That is, I can trust my own ability to draw logical conclusions from facts.
However, so far as people are concerned, I'm basically pretty flawed and the paranoia issue is a big one for me. I mean, I always feel some people either look down on me or are against me. In some cases, I assume there are some people who actually hate me. If I'm on a kind of low, this feeling may get worse to the point of doing something to alienate any possible friends. Like withdrawing and cutting myself off. I now realise that if I'm a bit down, it makes sense not to rely on my own feelings as the feelings may well lead me to make mistakes.
Having said that, I can tell you that the way I feel isn't all in my mind. Sometimes it is paranoia and other times I am actually picking up negativity. There is no doubt most people react to me very differently to other people but I remain clueless as to why this happens. What's also very odd is the fact for some unknown reason, despite the fact I often get ignored or targeted in some way, there are people who seem to just give me things. I mean, last week someone gave me about 300 dollars worth of building timber and I've had coats, clothes and free food (in shops) handed to me. As I'm basically well fed and not scruffy enough to be a tramp, I scratch my head over that.
Another very strange and weird fact is I'm around someone I detect dislikes or resents me it triggers nightmares. The nightmares will continue till that individual is no longer in my space.

Does anyone get paranoind thoughts about people and things? I always seem to, and I don't know if it's due to Autism or if its something else thats the cause of them.

And if you get those thoughts, do you listen to them or not?

 

[chuckintime]

Wow that's very interesting total recoil. Im definitely seeing some similarities between us. I like how you have decided to trust your feelings less as your mood worsens. I feel the change as well, as my mood dampens everything I perceive starts to have more negativity to it. I am only just beginning to play around with not trusting my feelings and going along with some things anyways. Its not easy though. feels like you are fighting against the very core of your being, almost like walking against the current in a river. Just with feelings instead of water.

 

[Maddox]

The closer I come to a person, the more often and intense my paranoia kicks in. Afterwards I see how crazy my behavior was, mainly the jumping to conclusions without checking the facts, and when I see how wrong I've been I feel like a stupid a$$hole.

 

[Aidan49]

I always think people are looking at me.

 

[karla]

When I´m out, must of the times I don´t feel safe. I get paranoic about people wanting to mug me, or kill me or something. Most of the time I realize I´m being unreasonable, but still I can´t controle the anxiety.

 

[Judge]

When I´m out, must of the times I don´t feel safe. I get paranoic about people wanting to mug me, or kill me or something. Most of the time I realize I´m being unreasonable, but still I can´t controle the anxiety.

Well, some of that must be relative to how safe your local environment may or may not be. I feel relatively safe in the daytime anywhere in our metropolitan area...but after the sun goes down that changes significantly in certain areas.

 

[karla]

Well, some of that must be relative to how safe your local environment may or may not be. I feel relatively safe in the daytime anywhere in our metropolitan area...but after the sun goes down that changes significantly in certain areas.

Yes that´s true. I live in a safe place in Mexico City, but still in Mexico you here bad things happening sometime. But I see that people feel much more relaxed than I do, because sometime, even if it doesn´t look dangerous, I can feel insecure, at night it gets worse. But your right, it depends on how safe your environment is.

 

[Judge]

Yes that´s true. I live in a safe place in Mexico City, but still in Mexico you here bad things happening sometime. But I see that people feel much more relaxed than I do, because sometime, even if it doesn´t look dangerous, I can feel insecure, at night it gets worse. But your right, it depends on how safe your environment is.

I understand. The DF strikes me as a scary place given the sheer population of your metropolitan area. I'm not sure I could handle living in another highly populated area myself. Had enough of that with the Washington DC area, Seattle and the Northern California.

 

[DogwoodTree]

My biggest paranoia revolves around the question of whether people like me or not...want me around or not...enjoy me or not...want the "real" me or want me to fake it for their benefit.

I'm coming to the conclusion that everyone--and I mean everyone--has ambivalent feelings toward almost any given person. In fact, if you don't have some bad feelings mixed in with all the good feelings toward someone, then you become obsessed. And conversely, if you don't have some good feelings mixed in with all the bad feelings toward someone, then hate and bitterness will eventually take over your life in all areas.

The difference for us is that, since we don't filter and prioritize input the same way that most people do, we clue in to other people's negative feelings about us because we notice signs and behaviors and indicators that other people don't see, and the negative messages convince us that they've already rejected us. Maybe that comes from low self-esteem in general, or maybe it's that the subtle negativities toward us make it hard to believe that the person could possibly like us...as if darkness overcomes light.

At any rate, we're more likely to pick up on the mixed messages, and less likely to ignore the negative ones. Logically, they shouldn't be able to co-exist. Either a person likes me, or they don't. If they show signs of disliking me...then they don't like me. It's hard for me to accept that a person can dislike certain things about me, even a lot of things about me, but still accept me and care about me. It's just not logical.

This goes along with several Aspie traits I've read about and experienced...black/white thinking, logical approach to relationships and social interactions, hyper-awareness of social cues (which causes an overload and often results in decreased sensitivity to the appropriate cues), performance orientation, perfectionism.

To accept that every person is part good and part bad...the realization might actually increase paranoia, at least for a while. But I'm slowly learning to accept and like myself, even with all of my many imperfections. And that helps me learn how to accept the "real"-ness of the people around me, with all of their imperfections and mixed messages, too. And it helps me to appreciate that no one will absolutely like everything about me--there will always be things about me they don't like. But that doesn't mean they don't want me in their lives. And that's okay.

That said...it doesn't mean that some people aren't more bad than good, at least in their relationship with me. I'm slowly giving myself permission to create appropriate, healthy distance with the less-good people in my life, no matter how much they think I owe them my full devotion.