Re: Can anxiety turn into paranoia?
The "background fears" as you say are what most of us call Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I have GAD, and as you say, it's always feeling anxious and worrying about everything. The health worries can go with GAD, as health is just another area of life that you can be worried about.
You can be born with GAD, like me, or you can develop it in life as you go along. It usually is present in someone by their 20s.
You can have paranoia with GAD. It can get really out of hand if it's not treated. Some people can become agoraphobic where they become to scared to leave their house.
If your anxiety has gotten to the point where it's interfering with the way you want to live your life, then it's time to do something about it. I've never seen anxiety just "go away" on it's own. Usually people who get anxiety, deal with anxiety until it's treated in someway.
For me, the best treatments have been medication and therapy.
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