Name: Priyanshi Jain Class: SYBA Division: B Roll No: 307 Year: 2023-24 Semester: IV Subject: Psychology of adjustment Mobile Number: 7742409907 Email Id: priaynshijain204@gmail.com Treatment for Paranoid Personality Disorder Emily, a 25-year-old woman believes that her friends and family are plotting something against her and finds it difficult to trust even the people closest to her. She feels exhausted by everyday interactions turning into apparent deceit obstacles. Emily's coworkers see that she is reluctant to cooperate with others, taking casual comments as threats, and consider her as cold, rude, and introverted. Even though she is competent, paranoia gets in the way of professional connections and career progression. Emily withdraws from social situations out of her dread of being betrayed, which damages relationships that may otherwise be joyful. Because distrust permeates Emily's life, she finds it difficult to find comfort in both the personal and professional worlds. When diagnosed with a licensed therapist she came to know that she has Paranoid personality disorder. Paranoid personality disorder is a disorder of cluster A personality or eccentric personality disorder. People with this disorder have a weird and unusual pattern of thinking and behaving. This disorder starts to show its symptoms in the late teens to early adult years and usually affects people with low-income households, black native American or Hispanic people, and widowed, divorced, or never-married people more than others. People with PPD lack trust and are suspicious of others and the reasons for their actions. They believe that others are trying to harm them for no reason. They doubt the loyalty of others and are not willing to trust others. They hesitate to confide in others for fear that others will use that information against them. They often take innocent remarks or situations that are not threatening as personal insults or attacks. And have a habit of holding grudges, and often feel that their partner is often unfaithful. For the treatment of any disorder, we have to diagnose it, just to be sure that the person has it first, and then we move towards its treatment. For paranoid personality disorder, the licensed professional would look up their history, relationships, previous work history, impulse control, and reality testing. PPD is hard to diagnose as the person might use denial as their defence mechanism. But when they do get treated there are many therapies, and one of the most common is Cognitive behavioural therapy. It is a short-term form of psychotherapy. It would help Emily to resolve her challenges and everyday obstacles, like depression, and anxiety that the paranoia may create for her, or anything that negatively affects their mental health. The goal of the treatment is to help Emily identify, challenge, and change her perception of maladaptive patterns of thinking and behaving. CBT concludes that the way people perceive a situation determines their reaction more than what the reality is. For example, when Emily thinks in a distorted way, her view of an experience may not be realistic. Her reactions to situations can be altered by changing the way she sees and thinks about her surroundings. Cognitive distortions, or illogical thinking processes that can have a detrimental impact on behaviour, are frequently the focus of CBT. All-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, and personalization are examples of common cognitive distortions. For example, Emily does personalization very often, she might assume that her friend is not talking to her not because he is busy but because she might have done something to make him angry and hostile towards her. She might also assume that her favourite player always makes a goal when she is watching the game live, making her believe that she is lucky for him. She would take all the responsibility for everything that happens around her as her doing. Using CBT, she might learn to not take it on herself and learn the concept of when to take charge and when not to. CBT is focused on the present, so the professional will ask Emily to identify life situations, thoughts, and feelings that cause acute or chronic distress. The professional will next evaluate if those feelings and thoughts are useful or even valid. Getting her actively involved in their treatment plan is the aim of CBT, which aims to help her see that changing the way she thinks and behaves in daily circumstances is the best way to improve their life. Another therapy technique that would work for her is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT therapy), which is also a psychotherapy that would help Emily stay present in focused on the present moment and accept thoughts and feelings without judgment. It would aim to aid her in overcoming challenging emotions so he may focus on healing rather than lingering on the negative feelings. It focuses on accepting the situations as they come, without trying to change them. It's an ability that comes from exercising mindfulness, which would encourage Emily to form a new, understanding relationship with challenging situations. By doing this action, she may break away from compulsive negative thinking and experience healing and mental calm. Mindfulness would help her to ground herself by paying attention to the moment-to-moment feelings, sensations, and outside surroundings. It would help her to develop non-judgemental thoughts and feelings and would help her to remain in the present instead of dwelling in the past. It can be done anywhere and anytime and she just has to bring her attention to present movement, grounding herself with her breath, and pay attention to the sounds, scents, and activities happening around her plus its benefits are incredible, many people have found peace and happiness after doing it after for a while. Another therapy technique that works for Emily would be Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), which is also a type of psychotherapy, based on CBT but more made for people who experience very intense emotions. ‘Dialectical’ means combining opposite kinds of ideas. It would not only help her to accept her life’s reality but also learn to change her live and its maladaptive behaviours. The professional would try to make a balance between acceptance of who she is, her challenges, and the benefits of the change. Shea would learn to develop the skill to improve emotion regulation. It involves four types of sessions, DBT pre-assessment, individual therapy, skills training in groups, and telephone crisis coaching. The benefit of this therapy is that it results in low self-harm behaviour and anger, low drug and alcohol abuse, improved depressive symptoms, and fewer days of inpatient hospitalization. But DBT also requires a commitment to do assignments to make positive changes. However, the licensed professional would only give this therapy if Emily is ready to focus on the present and future rather than the past. These were some of the main therapies that her licensed professional would use for her. But some other therapies can also be done like interpersonal psychotherapy, which would focus on her problems with her relationships with other people to improve how she relates to others, such as family, friends, and co-workers. Another therapy is Supportive psychotherapy, which would improve her ability to cope with stress and difficult situations. Medications would only be given if her symptoms are extreme or if she has associated psychological conditions as well, like anti-anxiety, antidepressant or antipsychotic drugs In conclusion, Emily might not trust her licensed healthcare professional as PPD is built on distrust therefore she might not follow the plan or treatment, but if she gradually accepts and commits to treatment, then she will learn to be more productive ways of dealing with triggering thoughts and situations and reduce paranoia and limit its impact on daily functioning. And she might be able to function fairly well and would be able to marry and hold jobs. Some of the therapies might not work on some people and might work on others, it all depends on the situation and severity of the disorder. References https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9784-paranoid-personality-disorder https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/psychotherapy/about/pac-20384616 https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-acceptance-and-commitment-therapy https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22838-dialectical-behavior-therapydbt https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/symptomscauses/syc20354463#:~:text=Paranoid%20personality%20disorder&text=Believes%20that%20o thers%20are%20trying,use%20that%20information%20against%20them. https://sk.sagepub.com/books/personality-disorders/n3.xml https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/cognitive-behavioraltherapy#how-it-works https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/paranoid-personality-disorder
