Paranoia: Can Childhood Trauma Cause Someone To Be Paranoid?

Thanks to how someone typically experiences life, they can have what could be seen as a fairly troubled existence. Then again, it could be even worse than this as their life could be extremely difficult.

The reason for this is that they could find it hard to trust others and accept that not everyone wants to harm them in some way. In general, then, they could believe that the world is out to get them and to make their life a misery.

Self-Protection

Due to this, they could spend most of their time by themselves or spend large periods of time away from others. By isolating themselves, they might be able to feel safer and not as though their survival is under threat.

So, although they can end up feeling lonely and cut off from others, it may give them a break from all the pain and stress that they experience when they are around others. This may mean that they don’t have any close friends.

A Natural Outcome

This will cause them to be deprived of the human contact that they need but they might simply not trust others enough to let anyone in. Over the years, they may have pushed a number of people away.

Therefore, people who actually cared and could be trusted may then have been perceived wrongly and accused of things that were not true. If they do have any friends, they might only have people around who are more like associates.  

Public Spaces

When they are around others, they could believe that so many people are staring and saying bad things about them. They may believe that so many people want to humiliate and show them up.

Along with this, they could believe that, after receiving a certain look that someone wants to attack and even end their life. With all this going on, no wonder they won’t want to spend much time around others.

A Heavy Experience

Most likely, they will feel like a victim and just about everyone they come into contact with will be seen as a potential perpetrator. It won’t be a case of if another person will harm them; it will be a case of when they will harm them.

Feeling anxious, fearful and even terrified is likely to be a normal part of their life; that is unless they are away from others but even then they could still be on edge. Ultimately, they won’t need to go anywhere else to experience hell; they will be or often will be, living in hell.

Reality Testing

Now, if they were to arrive at the point where they were able to open up to someone about their experience, they could end up being told that it’s all in their head. It is then not that the world is out to get them, that people want to humiliate and harm them, for instance, this is just what they believe.

They are then projecting their inner experience onto the world and even if there are moments when they are humiliated or harmed, it still doesn’t mean that everyone is the same. Consequently, it will be necessary for them to change their irrational thoughts and beliefs.

Going Deeper

However, what if there is far more to it than this? What if although their inner experience and how they experience life is irrational now, there was a time when it was completely rational?

To shed light on what might actually be going on, it might be necessary to take a closer look at what took place during their formative years. This may have been a stage of their life that was brutal, to say the least.

Back In Time

When they were a child, they may have had at least one parent who was anything but loving. For example, this parent may have often verbally abused them, so humiliated them in one or a number of ways, and, physically harmed them, so hit them using their hands and other things.

This would have stopped them from being able to develop a felt sense of trust, self-worth and self-love and to believe that they were not wanted and didn’t belong. Right from the beginning, it would have felt like it was them against the world.

Replaying The Past

Without realising it, as their brain will have blocked out what took place originally to protect them, how they experience life as an adult will be a continuation of what it was like for them as a child. Their conscious mind, by not having access to the deeper level pain that is fuelling what is going on and pain that is trying to enter their conscious awareness, will come up with rationalisations to make sense of what they are unconsciously projecting onto the world and to allow them to keep it together.

What took place will be over but the pain that they experienced all those years ago will still be held inside their brain and body and it will prevent them from truly being able to move on from what happened and to be present. This means that they are not ‘crazy’; they have simply been doing their best to handle life and not fall apart.

Awareness

If someone can relate to this and they are ready to change their life, they may need to reach out for external support. This is something that can be provided with the assistance of a therapist or healer.

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Oliver JR Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk