Paranoid
If you have known someone who is always very suspicious and never trusts others, then he or she might have a greater probability of developing a paranoid personality disorder. This disorder’s main feature is an extreme mistrust of others. Individuals with the said disorder always have the thinking that other people around them are only deceiving or fooling them. They always doubt people’s intentions and feel that people have hidden intentions on their actions. They are cynical about others’ trustworthiness and loyalty towards them. And it leads these people diagnosed with this disorder to be hard to get along with. People around them may also feel that they are not trusted, so they may only be discouraged and feel upset. So people only avoid these types of people generally because they hate to be doubted.
We can know if a paranoid personality disorder has already developed if it has already become the nature of an individual. He or she keeps distance from others, even the closest people, and cautious about their presence and motives. He or she shows rejection, hesitation or resistance to building new relationships or making existing relationships deeper. They always carry grudges, doubts, and suspicions on people surrounding them. They are overly sensitive to people’s criticisms. They easily create wrong or exaggerated interpretations of others’ words and actions. Others are even arrogant and aggressive to the point that they may bring handguns and weapons as they are always suspicious of others and expect that people will do something not good.
Like the antisocial personality disorder, the paranoid personality disorder is also more common in males than in females. Facts show that “between 0.5 and 5.6 percent of people in the general population can be diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder.” The ratio is three males to one female of prevalence rate.
Individuals with paranoid personality disorder are at a greater risk of developing serious problems like depression, substance abuse, and others.