There are things that people do not choose: a psyche is one of such things. A lot of people around the world have personality disorders. A personality disorder (PD) caused by a specific nervous system dysfunction is a stable mental challenge that forces a patient to think or behave in an unhealthy and often not understandable way. In several cases, patients do not even realize that they have mental issues and cannot understand what is wrong with them: they can consider that someone other is guilty of their abnormality. One of the most well-known and widespread PDs is paranoid personality disorder (PPD). People with such a disease face problems in everyday life: the disorder complicates their social relations and often makes them anxious. Thus, since paranoid personality disorders are a severe burden for many people, they need to be thoroughly explored to find ways to defeat them.
Paranoid thoughts are pretty common in psychiatric practice: in most cases, PPD becomes at first apparent in adolescence. The researchers show that “subclinical paranoia is estimated to occur in around 10% of the general population” (Amirpour et al., 2018, p. 1). According to the DSM-5, all personality disorders are divided into three groups under their primary features (Amirpour et al., 2018, p. 1). While group B includes issues leading to erratic behavior and cluster C involves disorders that cause anxiety, PPD belongs to group A, which unites diseases that cause odd or eccentric behavior. PPD’s main symptoms are constant paranoia, fear, suspicion of others, and endless doubts (Lewis & Ridenour, 2020, p. 1). Therefore, this mental problem takes a pretty significant place among disorders.
Although this disorder can significantly complicate a person’s life, psychologists and psychiatrists have developed several approaches to help people with this disease feel normal and free in social relationships. The most effective ways to defeat PPD are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and the therapeutic relationship that can also be a part of CBT. CBT is a type of psychological treatment that is successfully utilized in a case of PPD since it “reduces paranoid ideations, persecutory delusions, and anxiety associated with them” (Amirpour et al., 2018, p. 2). It aims to impact and alter both the thinking and behavior patterns of a patient. This approach contributes to patients’ recognizing the distortion of the reality in their thinking and fighting against them. Therefore, it is a quite popular and effective method that has already helped thousands of people.
The therapeutic relationship is a way of treatment that involves the participation and a kind of collaboration between a patient and their doctor. This approach based on joint effort “is the context within which interventions occur and is itself a critical aspect of treatment” (Okamoto et al., 2019, p. 112). This form of treatment helps patients to realize that they are not alone and have the power to fight against their disease.
A paranoid personality disorder is a widespread mental ailment that makes thousands of people suffer. This disease that belongs to cluster A of disorders and is accompanied by suspicion, fear, and anxiety exhausts the individual and does not allow them to lead a full life. Cognitive behavior therapy that often involves the therapeutic relationship is considered one the most effective treatment methods of PPD. Therefore, people with PPD can also be a part of society and get rid of their fear.
References
Amirpour, L., Dadfar, M., Charvadeh, M. H., & Birashk, B. (2018). Reliability, validity, and factorial structure of the Farsi version of the paranoia checklist with Iranian students.SAGE Open, 8(4), 1-7. Web.
Lewis K. C., & Ridenour J.M. (2020). Paranoid personality disorder. In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences (pp. 1-19). Springer, Cham. Web.
Okamoto, A., Dattilio, F. M., Dobson, K. S., & Kazantzis, N. (2019). The therapeutic relationship in cognitive–behavioral therapy: Essential features and common challenges. Practice Innovations, 4(2), 112–123. Web.