{"id":31024,"date":"2016-04-08T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=31024"},"modified":"2016-05-23T02:34:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T09:34:46","slug":"why-am-i-so-paranoid-and-skeptical-about-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/dear-gt\/why-am-i-so-paranoid-skeptical-about-everything","title":{"rendered":"Why Am I So Paranoid and Skeptical About Everything?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you very much for writing to me specifically, even though you don\u2019t trust me. I think it takes great courage<\/a> to reach out and describe one\u2019s uncomfortable life situation to someone who is a stranger. You may be skeptical, but you have come forward and made contact. That means something. I hope you go one step further.<\/p>\n

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Given that I did respond, you seem to conclude I just want you to come see me and pay me\u2014that I\u2019m in it for the money. It\u2019s true I need to make money and pay the bills, just as everyone does, but the unvarnished truth is I\u2019m answering your letter because it\u2019s my job. What you do next is entirely up to you.<\/p>\n

Without spending time with you and getting to the root of your feelings, I can\u2019t offer a guess as to why you think the way you do, but I can readily see you\u2019re unhappy with your life and worried<\/a> that just about everyone you know is out to get you, in one way or another. You say the only people you can trust are your parents, and that you have no friends. You have a girlfriend, but you\u2019re afraid she will leave you for someone else. It makes sense that you\u2019d be unhappy.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to live this way. These thoughts, accurate or not, are harmful in and of themselves because the stresses and discomfort they cause affect you both physically and emotionally. <\/span><\/p>\n

You describe that you are living in constant fear that someone will take advantage of you and cause you harm. You don\u2019t have to live this way. These thoughts, accurate or not, are harmful in and of themselves because the stresses and discomfort they cause affect you both physically and emotionally. You may know that stress<\/a> can cause a multitude of physical and emotional reactions that may be detrimental to your health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It always helps to discuss and bounce around your ideas with another person. Psychotherapy<\/a> might be very useful to you. You\u2019ve written a clear account of an aching life ruled by skepticism, mistrust, and suspicion. You name your feelings and define your life situation with great clarity. Clear self-expression goes with clear thinking. You might find a therapist<\/a> who includes journal work<\/a> as part of a treatment plan. Or you might prefer talk therapy. Sometimes you have to try a few different things, or even therapists, to find the right fit. But if you believe nothing else, please believe help is out there. Perhaps the hardest part for you will be trusting in that, and making the initial call.<\/p>\n

While you and a therapist identify ways to alleviate your painful feelings, the therapist can help evaluate their accuracy. Especially if you don\u2019t have many people you\u2019re close to, or that you trust, a fresh and objective perspective from someone who knows what to look for can be useful. Fear responses<\/a> and trust issues<\/a> are often based on things that happened in the past, and uncovering what those things might be is an important part of finding healing solutions in the present.<\/p>\n

The kind of therapy or treatment you seek and find helpful may depend to some extent on your tastes, but I strongly advise you to make the effort. With some work, guidance, and reflection, you may find that your life (and perhaps your blood pressure) is better for it.<\/p>\n

Take care,
\nLynn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynn Somerstein, PhD, E-RYT, responds to our latest reader-submitted Dear GoodTherapy.org question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[625],"tags":[522,440,25,388],"class_list":["post-31024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-goodtherapy","tag-dear-gt","tag-paranoia","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-trust-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}