A journey to paranoidism?
Paranoia, generally considered a state of extreme distrustfulness, is actually an intense feeling of threat from other people. It is not just one entity, but a whole plethora of variable feelings. It has been estimated that about 10-15% of people in the general population normally suffer from paranoid thoughts. Usually, in the clinical setting, paranoid patients can present with a spectrum of different signs such as defensive behavior towards criticism, hypervigilance, frightening feelings that other people are having bad motives, and harmful intentions toward them. They fear that other people gossip about them and they believe that these people would take advantage of them.
They find it difficult to forgive. The other personality traits include stubbornness and argumentativeness. They are frightened by the thought that their partners would betray them. These scary notions hijack their sense of calmness. The actual predicament related to paranoia is that the person loses contact with reality. His beliefs and concerns are not true and are not reality-based.
Multiple factors have been found to be responsible for the development of paranoid behavior. Childhood emotional or physical abuse, stressful situations such as loss of a job or a loved one, excessive sleep deprivation and substance abuse have been related to paranoia. It is a symptom of many psychotic disorders also such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, borderline personality disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders.
In the development of a personality, many factors are interlinked with each other such as genetics, parenting, society, and the external environment.
Parenting is an extremely challenging task. But unfortunately, many flaws exist in parenting in our society. The humiliation of a child in front of others is a very common practice. From verbal humiliation to physical torture in front of others develop low self-esteem in a child. This is also commonly observed that mothers do not hesitate to complain about their kids openly to their parents, siblings, and peers. Many of them even discuss the private matters of their children openly too. This insensitivity creates a sense of embarrassment in a child. The child hesitates next time to open up and reveals his fears, insecurities, and aptitudes to his parents. These suppressed emotions sometimes appear in later stages of life in the form of some mental ailments.
Too much authoritative attitude and controlling mindset of parents is a major dilemma in our society too. Major decisions of children, such as those related to their careers and marriages, are taken by parents and sometimes by other family members such as maternal and paternal relatives. Child potential and desires are not taken into consideration. The concept of children’s opinions, regarding these matters, even does not exist in certain families. Keeping these important matters in secrecy creates a sense of abandonment in a child. Emotional abuse of a child comes forth in many different forms.
Patriarchy is one such example. Discrimination between male and female kids for food, clothes, and education still dominates in our society. This creates a sense of inferiority and worthlessness in female kids. Comparisons and competitions are especially embedded in the docile minds of the kids by parents. This halters the self-growth process of a child.
The role of society and culture in personality development is crucial also. Lying is a very common practice in our society. In dealing with workplace matters or personal domestic issues, lie has become such a part and parcel of our life that we probably have become pathological liars. Laziness and desire to earn, without working hard, leads to manipulations and blaming. Encouragement, appreciation, and support are deemed to be obsolete traits now.
Rather leg pulling is an increasing trend. Not to mention, bullying and harassment, are major destructors of the personality also. Dual facades and unnecessary interference in others’ lives are also prevalent social affairs. Societal disruptive attitudes and habits have generated societal trust issues.
Interrelationships of all these elements contribute to the development of the personality, in which every aspect is influential. Trust issues start developing in the personality of a child with the imbalance of these factors. The persistent exposure to years of mistreatment leads to mental ailments such as paranoid personality disorder. By keeping in mind the modern principle of medical health, prevention is better than cure, it is now the need of the hour to put efforts to highlight the parental and social issues so that an effective training method can be devised to combat these matters. Prevention of the development of mental disorders can only be done effectively by nipping them in the bud.
Assistant Professor Physiology
Rashid Latif Medical and Dental College, Lahore.
