First of all, you cannot think your way out of paranoia. That is not my implication. Secondly, in an acute psychosis, antipsychotics are absolutely necessary, and even in moderate paranoia, they can be very helpful.
But for those who have partial insight into their paranoia (you may know you have a tendency to paranoid thoughts, but you can't distinguish your rational thoughts from your irrational thoughts), here is something that has helped me (this probably works best in a manic psychosis, but it may work in other kinds, depending on your energy and level of insight):
When I get a painful thought, instead of trying to figure out if it is real or not, I use my imagination to create a completely different less painful delusion. To give you an example:
I once had the delusion that my dad was abusing my mom. Obviously, this is an extremely painful thought. But the feeling was so strong I had no choice but to believe it. Instead of trying to convince myself that it wasn't true by using reason (anyone who tries to reason with a paranoid person is ignorant).... what I did was I turned myself into the "hero" who had to save the family. This was partly subconscious and partly conscious... you can train your mind to redirect paranoid thoughts if you have a partial degree of insight, and if you practice at it Anyway, in a split second, my mood had changed from overwhelming despair to overwhelming optimism, just with one simple thought. It was very powerful.
Mind you, my belief later got challenged and I had to create a new delusion. But I just kept changing from one delusion to another, and it actually kind of worked, as crazy as it sounds.
I know it sounds really insane, but I think I might be on to something here. I am probably just manic but sometimes I get the best thoughts when I am manic.
But for those who have partial insight into their paranoia (you may know you have a tendency to paranoid thoughts, but you can't distinguish your rational thoughts from your irrational thoughts), here is something that has helped me (this probably works best in a manic psychosis, but it may work in other kinds, depending on your energy and level of insight):
When I get a painful thought, instead of trying to figure out if it is real or not, I use my imagination to create a completely different less painful delusion. To give you an example:
I once had the delusion that my dad was abusing my mom. Obviously, this is an extremely painful thought. But the feeling was so strong I had no choice but to believe it. Instead of trying to convince myself that it wasn't true by using reason (anyone who tries to reason with a paranoid person is ignorant).... what I did was I turned myself into the "hero" who had to save the family. This was partly subconscious and partly conscious... you can train your mind to redirect paranoid thoughts if you have a partial degree of insight, and if you practice at it Anyway, in a split second, my mood had changed from overwhelming despair to overwhelming optimism, just with one simple thought. It was very powerful.
Mind you, my belief later got challenged and I had to create a new delusion. But I just kept changing from one delusion to another, and it actually kind of worked, as crazy as it sounds.
I know it sounds really insane, but I think I might be on to something here. I am probably just manic but sometimes I get the best thoughts when I am manic.
