Paranoia, a term misunderstood by and scary to many, is, for someone like me living with paranoid schizophrenia, a lot of hard work. What is it? The explanation takes more than a blog post, so let’s give only some examples. People with paranoia may erroneously believe other people are trying to harm them or are passing harsh judgment on them. They may think they are being persecuted by a body of people with much power, like the government. It can be a very isolating and distressing experience. People with paranoia are often afraid but are rarely dangerous, despite the prejudice to the contrary in many TV police thrillers. The distress paranoia can invoke in the afflicted may result in behavior an onlooker doesn’t understand, which may scare them. For me, paranoia doesn’t start with delusions but with my senses perceiving the world around me in a way that doesn’t make sense. My brain begins to try to order often contradictory inputs. Each such information may look perfectly valid, but the inability to filter out the correct one can lead me to false conclusions, which include paranoid thoughts. Sometimes this paranoia is overwhelming. However, I have never harmed anybody and never felt the temptation to do so. I rely on my psychologist, psychiatrist, and anti-psychotic medication to treat my paranoid episodes. I find that keeping a daily diary also helps. Merely writing things down can help order the confusion I feel due to paranoia.