- Hi everyone today, I'm going to be answering
a question submitted by one of our viewers around paranoia.
(upbeat music)
Hi, and welcome back
to the "Living Well Schizophrenia Channel".
If you're new here, my name is Lauren and I make videos
about what it's like to live
with Schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia.
And if you would like to see more videos like this one,
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So this video is the first in a new series that
we're trying out, we asked you our audience
to submit scenarios or situations from your life that
you wanted advice on in regards to living
with schizophrenia, or psychosis related illness.
So before we dive in, I just wanna give a little disclaimer
that, I do have a background of education in social work.
I've worked as a social worker in mental health,
in the mental health field, as well as other fields.
And I also live with Schizoaffective disorder.
So where I'm coming at in terms of giving
these advice segments is just kind of trying
to bring together these two perspectives.
But again, it is all from my perspective
and my lived experience, and I am not a medical practitioner
or a medical professional, so this is not by
any means medical advice.
All right, so getting right into it,
I'm going to read one of our viewers submitted.
So they asked, "do you have any recommendations on
how to deal with paranoia?
I cannot shake the notion that my partner
and my psychiatrist are spying on me
and are secretly seething mad at me.
I am terrified at what they might do.
What can I do to make this better?"
So I just want to commiserate for a little bit,
like I have completely experienced this as well.
I wouldn't say often, but especially when I'm going
through more difficult periods, I have paranoia
around my doctors and my psychiatrist, particularly.
And sometimes that bleeds into my relationship with Rob too,
where I feel like they are
in collaboration against me or they're colluding
behind my back for whatever reason.
And so this can be really, really hard to deal with
because you're supposed to be able to trust
your medical providers in order to give you proper care,
and have a good working relationship with them.
And obviously you also want to trust your partner
who is probably one of the most important people
in your life that you should feel safe with.
And so when this paranoia creeps up, it can be kind
of debilitating and really harmful for your relationships.
So I understand how difficult that can be.
So what to do when this creeps up.
For me, it's taken a really long time to figure out
what is actually effective, but I think communication
is probably the biggest component here.
So communicating what you are feeling and thinking
to your partner, as well as to your doctor
or your psychiatrist,
I think their first reaction and it's gonna be, oh, no,
I'm not mad at you or, oh, no, I'm just trying to help you.
Because that's the truth probably.
That not always super helpful 'cause that kind of
just feeds the delusion cause it's like, well, yeah,
that's what you would tell me if you hated me,
or that's what you would tell me if you were colluding
behind my back.
And so that's kind of a tricky obstacle to overcome too,
but I think what has been helpful for me especially
when dealing with my partner Rob, has been acknowledging
like that must feel really hard, or that must feel
really not good, thinking that he's mad at me,
or thinking that he doesn't like me, or thinking that
he's colluding with my psychiatrist,
and kind of addressing the delusion or the paranoia
in terms of how it's making the person feel,
rather than trying to counter the paranoia
or the delusion straightforwardly.
And so I think that that's kind of a good work around
because it's validating the way the person is feeling.
And it's also kind of proving that they care about you,
and that they have your best interests at heart
and that they probably don't hate you.
And they probably are not colluding with your psychiatrist
behind your back.
Another kind of anecdote that I'd like to share that
was kind of an example of building trust with
my care provider, and having an understanding
of when I'm struggling and cues that I might be struggling,
and how to accommodate it.
It was like the week before I was last hospitalized
and I was not doing okay, Rob and I were
in my therapist's office.
She had called her supervisor in for additional advice
or instruction or whatever in terms of how to deal
with our situation.
So he came in and it was kinda set up where
my therapist's desk was next to the door.
And then there was a window facing across from there,
across from the door of the desk where Rob
and I had our backs too.
And I was in the far corner of the office and the door
was over here.
And so her supervisor came in and he sat down
in the available corner, which was in front of the door.
And my therapist immediately picked up on the fact that
I became very, very visibly uncomfortable.
And she knew because of previous interactions that we had
had that I probably was feeling very paranoid about
her supervisor's positioning within the room because
he was blocking the door.
So that made me very about being entrapped in the room,
and that they were going to trap me there
and take me to the hospital and that kind of thing.
And she just kind of picked up on the fact that
I was very uneasy about that and said, Lauren,
would you be more comfortable if my supervisor moved.
And I was kind of in a non-verbal state at this point,
but I was just able to nod yes, and that helped
just kind of dissipate the situation a little bit.
So what I'm getting at with this is just the importance
of building a relationship with your care providers,
your doctor, your psychiatrist, as well as
with your partner, so that hopefully they can kind of pick
up on when you're struggling with paranoia as it pertains
to them, and maybe work toward accommodating
that being the case.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
And thank you so, so much to the viewer who submitted
this question or scenario that they wanted advice for.
I hope my answer was somewhat helpful.
If you would like to see more videos like this one,
make sure to subscribe to our channel and just
a reminder again, to check out the link
to our Patreon page, if you'd like to support the creation
of these videos.
If you have your own question or scenario that
you'd like advice for, feel free to submit that.
We have instructions on where to send that
in the description below.
Thank you so much again for watching and as always wishing
you and your loved ones, good health.
We'll see you in the next video, bye.