LONDON — If you think they’re out to get you, you’re not alone.
Paranoia, once assumed to afflict only schizophrenics, may be a lot more common than previously thought.
According to British psychologist Daniel Freeman, nearly one in four Londoners regularly have paranoid thoughts. Freeman is a paranoia expert at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College and the author of a book on the subject.
Experts say there is a wide spectrum of paranoia, from the dangerous delusions that drive schizophrenics to violence, to the irrational fears many people have daily.
Paranoia is defined as the exaggerated or unfounded fear that others are trying to hurt you. That includes thoughts that other people are trying to upset or annoy you.
Surveys of several thousands of people in Britain, the United States and elsewhere have found that rates of paranoia are slowly rising, although estimates of how many of us have paranoid thoughts vary widely, from 5 percent to 50 percent.
A British survey of more than 8,500 adults found that 21 percent of people thought there had been times when others were acting against them. Another survey of about 1,000 adults in New York found that nearly 11 percent thought other people were following or spying on them.
Freeman said that in big cities, many ambiguous events can lead to paranoid thoughts. Because we constantly make snap judgments based on limited information, such as which street to take, decision-making is prone to error.
The post-Sept. 11 atmosphere and the war on terrorism also have increased levels of paranoia in the West, some experts said.
Still, a little bit of paranoia could be helpful.
“In a world full of threat, it may be kind of beneficial for people to be on guard,” said Dennis Combs, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Tyler, who has been studying paranoia for about a decade. “Not everybody is trying to get you, but some people may be.”
