Cognitive Factors Related To Paranoia

Misconceptions, whether it’s schizophrenia, brief psychotic disorder, or something else, have different categories: misconceptions about guilt, grandeur, and control, as well as paranoia, are a few examples among many others.

While they are associated with madness and it is believed that delusions cannot be explained, this is not entirely true. Some cognitive factors are known to be related to the individual who develops and maintains delusions.

Misconception is part of a wide range of symptoms that can occur in schizophrenia or brief psychotic disorder. It is the main symptom of paranoia.

Misconceptions do not mean that man is crazy: it cannot be ruled out even by mentally healthy people. In fact, this brings hope: as researchers have found, houre can disappear by altering some cognitive systems. Today’s article introduces and explains the cognitive factors associated with delusions.

What exactly are delusions or paranoia?

Paranoia is a set of erroneous beliefs or misinterpretations of perceptions or experiences. These thoughts still exist in the human mind even though there is conclusive evidence for them. This makes it difficult to address disorders such as schizophrenia when accompanied by delusions.

Some people believe, or see illusions, that events, details, or sentences are personal to them in every way and that they have a special meaning. Others think that their bodies are sick and changing or that their faces are turning square or the leg is growing longer – this is a somatic-type delusion. Then there are those who believe that someone is on their toes: paranoia.

The latter suggests a strong belief that a conspiracy has been developed against a person experiencing delusion. He feels like someone is following him and going through even his stuff and following his calls. He can easily suspect many people, even close friends, into this conspiracy.

For example, someone may have this kind of delusion and he thinks there is a conspiracy against him and people are going to kill him to get his house. He tells his loved ones about this and even “proves” it to them. Then a family member can try to convince him otherwise and even show him the evidence. However, this only strengthens the faith of the “victim” and now he is convinced that this person is also part of the conspiracy. Thus, it promotes social isolation and leads to the deterioration of family relationships.

This can also happen with the therapist when the patient is undergoing psychological treatment. Therapists are now also part of the conspiracy because they claim that worries are just delusions.  As you can imagine, handling paranoia is quite challenging.

Paranoia: common cognitive factors

The researchers found that people who believe in paranoia have several common cognitive factors. They explain to some extent why delusional people still find evidence to support their idea that someone wants to grab them.

Attention and memory errors

There are many possible errors in attention. Those events that reinforce a person’s delusion are especially significant to him or her. This also happens to people with social phobias.

For example, they try to avoid looking into the eyes and mouth (because these are the qualities that recognize the most expressions) to avoid feeling threatened. In addition, as a result of this prejudice, they tend to remember threatening information much more vividly – angry faces rather than happy ones.

All of this ultimately results in them being very sensitive to social punishment. In fact, they see others as a threat. In their daily lives, they find more angry friends or acquaintances than happy ones.

Data compilation processes

Perceived prejudices help to gather information that is different from others, reinforcing the basic idea that someone is following him or her. Some of these cognitive factors are:

• Reasoning about the probability of something. These individuals quickly move on to conclusions. They do so without thinking and use “probability” as an excuse. This means they need less information than average to make a decision. Namely, they are sure that they are right. The problem arises when this probability criterion is also used with emotional things.

• Misconceptions. Similarly, these individuals quickly connect events to each other. Therefore, they form erroneous connections between situations or events that really have nothing to do with each other.
• Misconceptions referring to self-perception. These people consider themselves the protagonists of the film or drama. Everything concerns them (attitudes, comments, discussions, etc. of others). In addition, the defensive or aggressive attitude of a person experiencing delusions means that he or she is usually not treated well. Of course, such treatment is only better proof that everyone opposes him.

What is my fault and what is yours?

There is also another bias in cognitive factors: self-directed and outsourced. A person believes that all negative things are the fault of others. This happens because others are threatening. Therefore, they are responsible for all the evil that comes their way.

This achieves two things. It feeds the delusion because it confirms that they are bad people and do evil. In addition, these people tend to give extra explanations for everything that happens to them, both physical and mental. They blame others for their own difficulties in everyday life and think, for example, that “I am being watched. The government sends me electromagnetic waves that cause me headaches ”.

Finally, they often show somatic symptoms such as anxiety, headaches, or itching, which they often interpret as evidence that others are doing them harm.

Paranoia: Thoughts of justice and goodness as part of the problem

There are certain ideas about the world that are quite specific in the cognitive factors of paranoia. Is the world fair? People with depression think the world is just as fair. The general population thinks it’s a little fairer for them themselves. However, it is the opposite for people with paranoia. This is because they think the world is much more unfair to them.

People with delusions of justice, goodness, and the value of humanity are different. The idea that others are treated better than them not only lowers self-esteem, but it also dictates and filters out all other thoughts and cognitive processes.

Every feeling, thought and action is tainted by the idea that the world is unfair and no one can be trusted. This can feed the individual with a sense of inferiority, which of course damages self-esteem, which in turn can lead to him trying to feel better through adjustment mechanisms: the belief that he is being persecuted and that nothing that is happening is his fault.

The conclusion from this is that many times the focus is on the content of the delusions rather than on the cognitive factors that have led to the delusions. Many simply think that these people are “crazy” when the development of paranoia is actually quite logical. It can be explained and therefore can also be addressed.

Less focus on falsifying the story of a patient experiencing paranoia and more working with prejudices and dysfunctional cognitive scenarios can improve his or her situation without compromising the therapist to become part of the delusion.