Paranoia

What it means

The feeling and belief that one is being targeted or is a focus of negative or untoward actions, overt or covert, from others. The affected individual expresses a concern that people are in general against the individual and are engaging in subtle behaviors to make things difficult for them. The origins of such thinking may arise from real events and become amplified over time. Paranoia may also arise in the absence of any action or interaction between the person and their environment.

Paranoia is defined as a non-delusional state characterized by a vague sense that 'everyone and anyone' is unfavorable towards one as in 'the whole world hates me'. A persecutory delusion is, in contrast, typically fixed and focused - as in 'my neighbor is pumping poison into my house'.

Rare diseases that can present with this13

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category