paranoid thinking

Thank you for your concern and offering to help.

No one should have to live in fear. It makes me feel so alone. I like to know that there are other people out there like me.

In response to Alfredo Zotti,  what you wrote was interesting and had a positive note.  That there is a way to curb the outlandish feelings we have about ourselves and others have about us. You could be on to something!  My severe paranoia subsided, but I get over sensitive and some of it returns.  When I think everyone hates me, and if they say they don't, then I am suspicious.  I would like to one day be free from that thinking, and return to the normal world.

Dear Rose,

 

rather than wait for any aspect of mental disability to go away as for example your paranoia, it is best that we learn to control paranoia in the first instance just in case because at times mental disability can persevere. What I do I say to myself: it is absolutely not good for me to be paranoid regardless as to whether people hate me or not. I will send  out love and not focus on the hate/not hate voice in my mind. I will not listen to this. This is because, in this way, you have a better life for yourself. Who cares if people hate you or not? We try to love everyone regardless of how they feel. This way we are likely to have a better life. If we send out love we are likely to get love in return. This is a philosophycal way of life such as Buddhism... Alfredo 

I think BP's have an over active limbic(fight or flight) system to stimuli which has overcharged anger and fear ares on the amydgala that recognizes even innocent cues as hostile, like the look in someone's eyes who is ambiguous will be interpreted as threatening to a bp.  There is some research on bp's seeing threats in others that others would see as neutral.  The over active limbic system can skip cortical filters, and its also possible there is an underactive cortex so it doesn't dampen the rapid firing of the amydala with soothing information on analyzing threat levels in the environment.  There is a high degree of ADHD with bipolar(25-40%) which responds well to amphetamine like agents that help the cortex fire more rapidly to increase alertness in those areas of the brain and it calms people.  The newer antipsychotics have serotonin actions in the cortex and limbic system that inhibit overfiring and in effect do what an underactive cortex does.  They help with anxiety a lot and help prevent it from overwhelming cortical input at the lower doses where their dopamine blocking activity is quite low due to the dose.  So in conclusion, bp's are wired differently regarding inhibitory networks.  It might well be that in the manic phase activating neurons are firing like mad till they deplete rather quickly and then genetically fail to rebuild the neurotransmitters in normal quick fashion, thus giving to short periods of mania followed by much longer periods of depression.  Bp's are a mix of genes interacting and that is why there is such a variation in how the disease manifests itself in an individual.  I think add to this a natural behavioral response called the "paranoid stance" in which an already off balanced neurosystem is more likelly to interpret external cues as threats based on bad memorys in which people in general were toxic to them and didn't understand or try and help them.  What is interesting is how some have paranoia spikes in both manic kindling and depression.  I think this goes back to the limbic system programs overtaking cortical interpretations of the world.  It also would mix up internally generated feelings of mood disequilibrium and new external input coming in and in some cause frank illusions, delusions, and even hallucinations.  Some bp minds are resistance to this extreme manifestation, some are not.  You are right about this kind of paranoia being a type of anxiety, but in its more extreme forms it crosses over into clinical paranoia.  So a combination of medications for mood stabilization, ameilioration of depression and anxiety, and frank low dose serotoninergic neuroleptics and talking therapy including cognitive behavior therapy seem to help the most and finally a nurturing social environment and gainful employment of school to give purpose all seem to work synergistically.  Also important is to choose a careful drug regieme to prevent manic kindling wherre antidepressants are overused.   Some feel that ideal medication is simply to moderate moods and not use antidepressants except in life threatening situations, but this is variable as bp's nervous systems are variable even if they as a whole have similar manifestations of the disease.  In fact its useful to think of bp as a combination of different malfunctioning genes that interact with the person, their personality, their environment,, thier childhood, and coping skills.  By early identification and prevention of major episodes of mania and drepression and all the personality destabilization and social dysfunction they can bring to the table the long term quality of life is greatly improved for the individual and those around them.