How to Treat Paranoid Personality Disorder

Paranoid personality disorder is a psychiatric condition where an individual has feelings of distrust, suspicion and hostility toward others, and cannot develop any interpersonal relationships due to these feelings. Read on to learn how behavioral therapy and psychotherapy can help treat a paranoid personality disorder.

Things You'll Need

• Psychiatrist or psychotherapist

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Instructions

• 1

  Get a proper diagnosis for paranoid personality disorder from a qualified mental health professional such as a psychiatrist or psychologist. Symptoms of paranoid personality disorder include excessive fear of rejection, a severe distrust and suspicion of others and a tendency to distort events to satisfy these delusions. In order to qualify as a paranoid personality disorder, these symptoms must be experienced to a degree that interferes with developing normal interpersonal relationships with others, and living a normal life.

• 2

  Make sure that the symptoms of paranoid personality disorder are not merely part of a more serious psychosis, such as schizophrenia or any manic-depressive disorders. Further evaluation from your mental health care professional should eliminate this possibility.

• 3

  Consider an individualized program of psychotherapy as the first option to treat a paranoid personality disorder. This is generally thought to be the most effective way to treat this type of personality disorder because finding the root causes of these paranoid behaviors is necessary to eliminate them. Unfortunately, this type of treatment may take some time, because an individual who suffers from this type of personality disorder will usually be quite reluctant to seek therapy in the first place, and will not trust the therapist initially.

• 4

  Use group therapy to treat a paranoid personality disorder. This type of therapy directly addresses the solitary behavior, and allows the individual to slowly get used to interacting with others in a constructive way. Note that this may backfire if the individual develop bonds with like-minded individuals, reinforcing the paranoid behaviors.

• 5

  Implement self-help programs, such as support groups to treat a paranoid personality disorder. With proper supervision, an individual with this type of disorder can slowly begin to develop normal relationships with others, and gradually eliminate feelings of isolation and distrust.