Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD)

Paranoid Schizophrenia is a disease that affects the brain in such a way that is distorts reality of those with the disease. Paranoid Schizophrenia is the most common type of Schizophrenia. The symptoms as listed by the Mayo Clinic are as follows:

Phoenix is a 28 year old woman who is currently a full-time student and unemployed. She is in a domestic partnership and she has a son, which is not legally her partner’s. She stays at home most days and waits for her son to come home from school and her partner to come home from her job. Phoenix constantly ponders thoughts of her partner’s fidelity to their partnership.

In this paper one will give a description of the data established upon a case study. One will outline the major symptoms of the disorder discussed in the case. The disorder discussed in this case is Paranoid Schizophrenia. One will give a description of the client background. One will also describe any factors in the client background that may predispose him or her to the disorder. One will describe symptoms that he or she may have observed that supports the diagnosis of the individual. One will describe the inconsistency of the disorder found in the case and explain any information observed about the

Are people who are afflicted with paranoia, aside from lacking trust, any different from normal people? The answer is a resounding “No”. Biologically, their DNA is almost exactly identical to ‘normal’ humans. From solely the physical features, it is impossible to distinguish whether someone suffers from paranoia or not. So why are such people discriminated against and avoided? This discrimination stems from the misconception that the public have about the paranoid disorder that all of them are prone to violence. Unlike common belief, Paranoia occurs in a spectrum, ranging from extreme cases to relatively mild ones. While those with extreme paranoia do tend to act violent and possess a horrid reputation of harming others, those with mild paranoia are not so. In fact, many such cases of mild paranoia remains unnoticed by those around them and many of the most successful people are afflicted with mild paranoia allowing them to be more cautious. Yet, those whose condition is noticed are caught up in the misconception caused by those with extreme paranoia and unjustly discriminated

Canadian Mental Health Association (2014) defines paranoid psychosis as a serious but treatable medical condition that reflects a disturbance in brain functioning. A person with psychosis experiences some loss of contact with reality, characterized by changes in their way of thinking, believing, perceiving and/or behaving. For the person experiencing psychosis, the condition can be very disorienting and distressing. Without effective treatment, psychosis can overwhelm the lives of individuals and families.

Personality disorders are included as mental disorders on Axis II of the diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association and in the mental and behavioral disorders section of the ICD manual of the World Health Organization Personality disorders are conditions in which an individual differs significantly from an average person, in terms of how they think, perceive, feel or relate to others. Changes in how a person feels and distorted beliefs about other people can lead to odd behavior, which can be distressing and may upset others There are three recognized personality disorder clusters, cluster A odd and eccentric, Paranoid Personality Disorder Schizoid Personality Disorder Schizotypal Personality Disorder dramatic and emotional, Borderline Personality Disorder Histrionic Personality Disorder Narcissistic Personality Disorder and anxious and fearful Avoidant Personality Disorder Dependent Personality Disorder Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder Personality Disorders: Management

Psychotherapy is a treatment option that focuses on helping the individual with ASPD recognize and control his/her behaviors. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been known to incorporate cognitive restructuring, behavior modification, exposure, psychoeducation, and skills training to help the individual understand that they are responsible for creating their problems and how their misshapen thoughts prevent them from having positive self-awareness.

In a journal article written by John Mirowsky and Catherine E. Ross they focus on how social positions cause victimization which in return leads to paranoia. They believe that individuals with paranoia believe they have no control of their lives and are living in fear of being harmed by outside sources.

“Because persons with paranoid personality disorder are hyperalert, they notice any slight and may take offense where none is intended. As a result, they tend to be defensive and antagonistic. When they are at fault, they cannot accept blame, not even mild criticism. Yet they are highly critical of others. Other people may say that these individuals make ‘mountains out of molehills’” (NIMH).

One such disorder is Paranoid Personality disorder (PPD). Treatment, diagnosis, and prognosis can be challenging

In addition to having schizophrenic paranoia, Chief is depressed. A major catalyst for the onset of depression is the suppression of emotions, and Chief has suppressed many emotions throughout his life. When he was a child, he had to watch as people in power took everything from him, and he was one of the few patients who were not in the mental institution voluntarily. The forced loss of freedom is reason enough for anyone to become depressed. “Depression is ubiquitous, usually easily recognized, and in most cases rapidly responsive to modern treatment" (Miller 262). Everyone will experience feelings of depression at some point in their lives, but when unending depression goes untreated, individuals can develop other conditions, or live

People with paranoid personality disorder are generally characterized by having a long-standing pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others. A person with paranoid personality disorder will nearly always believe that other people’s motives are suspect or even malevolent.

He conducts, along with psychiatrists, Wojciech Gruszczynski and Marta Tsirigotis-Maniecka an experiment to test and study group of 200 patients (83 females, 117 males) with ages ranging from 27-58, that are suffering from paranoid schizophrenia a form of self-destructiveness (Tsirigotis, 2015). The patients participating are “clinically stable, had not been hospitalized in the previous 12 months, and had been taking the same medications for at least six months” (Tsirigotis, 157). The patients have common symptoms of indirect self-destructiveness; such as schizophrenia, social/emotional alienation, lack of mastery cognitive/conative/defective inhibition etc.

Sometimes psychotherapy alone may be the best treatment for a person, depending on the illness and its severity. Other times, psychotherapy is combined with medications. Therapists work with an individual or families to devise an appropriate treatment plan. (Psychotherapies, n.d.)

One of the controversial issues of SPD is that many experts in the field still claim that the disorder does not exist. Professionals in the field of phycological disease believe that there are too many missing components to claim that SPD is a real disorder. According to Piper (1998) “Since 1980, Some Psychotherapists Have Claimed That Thousands of Americans Are Afflicted with Multiple Personality Disorder. Believing Such Claims Requires Ignoring Their Many Serious Deficiencies.” This statement shows that despite the numerous reports, SPD is still messing vital information that prevents it from being accepted by some professionals. Other experts believe that the thought of this disorder existing is downright ridicules. Milstone (1997) states that “To those who have an investment in this psychotherapeutic movement, MPD is fascinating and exotic. They are apparently oblivious to the growing intellectual view that MPD is, to put it politely, the UFO of psychiatry and, less politely, an odious and lucrative sham that should be shut down before it destroys the integrity of the entire psychotherapeutic industry.” This