Paranoia/ Intrusive Thoughts

Post Reply New Topic

So, when I'm stressed I'm always worried people are talking about me especially at work. I talked to my therapist today and she said the paranoia are intrusive thoughts that come because I'm in a negative space and my imagination is messing me and I need to tell myself a different story when that happens. My mom says its when i'm stressed i think people are talking about me due to my autism. Does anyone have this issue as well?

I don't know if it's really paranoia. When I feel some negative vibes at work, it turns out right. People do talk about me and even those people in other departments that don't know me at all actually show passive aggression towards me due to having heard false malicious rumors about me.

People do talk about others a lot more than you think. They often even create untrue stories. Many people are craving gossip so that they can feel better about themselves. They are looking for someone that they can bash. People with autism are often the target for that kind of low behavior. This is one area of bullying that is not addressed at all though many companies claim to have "anti-bullying" policies. After all such policies are just formality and propaganda to make the company look good.

So your "paranoia" that people are talking about you because of your autism may actually be justified.

Anxiety can make someone preoccupied with things that one might be predisposed to worrying about, for example, people talking about you negatively if that is something you may worry about every now and again. The heightened anxiety brings that worry out. Extreme enough anxiety can cause transient psychosis which doesn't last long, and that will be "real" paranoia, a delusion. It's somewhat of a plausible thing, and if it's there when stressed, I'd chalk it up to that. Autism can bring on self-doubt over social ability, negative thoughts from social failure, and one might be predisposed to something similar to social anxiety disorder due to such. The fear that people are judging and/or talking about you.

The question you should ask yourself: are you 100% convinced they're talking about you (there's no way you can reasonably know this being the context)? If yes, then paranoia, if no, unlikely to be paranoia and from stress (maybe in part or from Autism, maybe not).

I worry about a lot of things when I'm stressed, so I guess I do experience it (which is more often than not, lol). Not your particular worry though. Well, I might worry that people think negative things about me which is sorta similar to others talking about you, but that's nowhere near 100% convinced (it'd be below heads or tails).

Thanks i think the more stressed i get the more i think people are talking about me. Probably due to my anxiety increasing while i'm stressed. And I think it also has to due with my autism because i also have social anxiety due to the autism.

No worries.

Social anxiety would be a good culprit for that specific worry. Autism won't help either due to its own social anxiety issues, as you said, and it also being a common source of stress due to being overwhelmed from one or more of the multiple reasons that can cause. Finding the source of the stress and then working on it will be how one will go about these things in the hopes of lessening it all. Lots of ways to go about it and everyone responds differently to the various ways. Identification is the most important step though, and it looks like you're mostly there or there.

I've had a lot of experience with anxiety, I guess. It tends to get better on its own as you age, it ebbs and flows as it's want to do, and there'll be something out there you'll find that helps (simple distraction therapy and a limited amount of avoidance works alright for me; total avoidance feels good to begin with, but you tend to find new things to worry about regardless of how much you avoid and it kinda keeps you locked away).

I've got an example of two very similar things, where one is anxiety and another paranoia, but I won't bore everyone with that, but the above holds true. Level of confidence. 100% certainty without proof will be paranoia of some type.

those thoughts happen to me sometimes