Have you ever experienced an intrusive thought where you convinced yourself something bad going to happen? Perhaps you've even had an experience where you assumed the worst or rehearsed the worst case scenario in your mind (although you have no evidence of the said scenario may even occur). If so, you may be questioning if you are being paranoid. It's possible you are.
First things, first, let's examine the root cause of the said behaviors. In other words, "what" could be causing you to assume something bad will occur. Have you experienced this scenario before? If so, assuming the worst may not be paranoia but rather a trauma-induced form of hypervigilance. If you experienced something negative or aversive in the past, your brain is a huge camera or tape recorder (whichever reference rings home to you) and it is constantly taking snapshots or recording information. Negative/aversive experiences are powerful in that they condition us to avoid them.
It was B.F. Skinner who theorized that our behaviors are modulated by rewards and consequences. If we experience something unpleasant, we'll do anything to avoid that unpleasant thing. Whereas, rewards motivate us to engage in a particular behavior more. Hence, your hypervigilance may be motivated by the thought process that if you plan ahead you may avoid that unfavorable stimuli.
Paranoia on the other hand requires zero evidence of a threat. Rather, paranoia is tied to one's delusion. Perhaps you generally have a mistrust of others or you misinterpret a small slight as abandonment or an attack. For example, I once had a friend share with me that she'd questioned the progression of a relationship she was in to signify to her partner that she wanted the relationship to move forward. In response, my friend's partner began raging at her and telling her that they didn't need her and she wasn't all that great of a partner anyway.
Essentially, my friend's partner had a reaction that was disproportionate to the situation because they assumed a position of being a persecuted victim. Driven by their fear of abandonment, my friend's partner said everything in the book to fight back and protect themselves from this perceived threat. Sure, we've assumed that this perceived threat could be coming from a place of abandonment from the past. However, what distinguishes this paranoid response from a hypervigilant response was the assumption of my friend having the worst intentions although her words could have easily been interpreted as something positive because she clearly wanted the relationship to move forward to a more serious commitment.
Whether hypervigilant or paranoid we all utilize anxiety responses fight, flight, freeze or fawn to protect us from danger. An effective question to ask oneself (to better cope with anxiety and/or paranoia) is, "Is this real danger or fake danger?"
Delliah