Can anxiety turn into paranoia?

[GlassPinata]

Can anxiety disorder actually lead to a more generalized, all-encompassing paranoia, or are the two conditions separate and distinct?
I ask because all my life I've been plagued by anxiety, but it usually has a very specific focus, such as an enlarged lymph node.
The focus frequently changes. I get over one fear, and another pops up (for example, my lymph node obsession ended abruptly, only to be immediately replaced with a fear that I'd consumed undercooked hamburger meat and would get e coli).
My fears are often health related, but not always. I also have anxiety surrounding work, finances, my children, and social situations. Feeling like my friends and coworkers don't actually like me and that they talk about me behind my back. Fears that my boss doesn't actually like me, and is just biding her time until she can replace me. That sort of thing. These fears do not cause the sharp panic that the health-related anxieties do, but they do create a constant background tension so that I feel like I can never really relax or enjoy myself, even when nothing specific seems to be wrong.

Anyway, lately these "background" fears seem to be getting worse, and I am beginning to feel that the world is a hostile place and just about everyone is out to get me somehow.
I've never felt quite like this before; I've always felt that bad things will happen, but now I feel that other people actively dislike me and will be glad if bad things happen to me.

I don't know, is this paranoia? It is different from my usual anxiety pattern.
Is it just my anxiety taking another form, or have I driven myself into a whole new disorder?
Any thoughts welcome.

[Jacqueline7]

In my opinion every thought when anxious is loaded with fear and exaggeration. Blown out of all proportion.

I could be wrong but I'd say this is just the same old ruthless anxiety making every thing u feel think worry about seem so much more important and critical than it really is

I don't think u r paranoid I think your anxious and as a result of the tired soul u r the thoughts u think stick as opposed to flow and move on

This is my experience of the horribleness that is the anxiety state

Your are not alone.

Jacqueline

[AntsyVee]

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.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Paranoia and anxiety can often be seen together. Both are experienced without there being a disorder anyway by any human being so it's always possible we can too.

I went through it and it was really when my anxiety was at it's worst. As my anxiety reduced overall, the paranoia receded.

Paranoia fits into various disorders but remember they will also have other symptoms that allow for a diagnosis. I think your HA thinking might be trying to get you to worry about these as they are more serious & complex disorders. If it, there are others on here who have had those same worries due to their HA or specific OCD themes.

[SLA]

You can be born with GAD

Is there evidence to support this?

As someone whos lived with it and understands it a great deal, I am certain it is mainly a product of the environment and of upbringing.

How do you know you were "born with it"?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Is there evidence to support this?

As someone whos lived with it and understands it a great deal, I am certain it is mainly a product of the environment and of upbringing.

How do you know you were "born with it"?

There is some interesting stuff about our inherited genes if you read about epigenetics. From what I recall, there was a period where a parent suffering could pass a gene but the gene was not activated. Something had to switch it on, therefore the reverse is also true. It was about the methylation process.

Epigenetics is something heavily researched in cancer circles. Again, a transferred gene gets switched on. So, they have been manufacturing drugs to exploit the methylation process to switch it back off again.