Is a suspicious person a disease or a character?

A suspicious person is a person who constantly and usually for no reason experiences a feeling of anxiety about any future events. Such people often have obsessive thoughts that cause feelings such as panic and excessive suspicion. Often they have hypochondria - excessive worry about their health. A suspicious person is usually a very suggestible person, obsessed with constant doubts and a feeling of fear. You can and should get rid of this condition; to do this, you must first understand its causes.

Suspiciousness - what is it?

Psychologist Alexander Brodsky identifies 3 options for the manifestation of suspiciousness:

This is a situation where a person thinks too highly of himself. He considers himself much more significant than those around him. In this case, synonyms for suspiciousness are “pride”, “arrogance”.
Manifestations of suspiciousness are a person’s inability to make his choice. A suspicious person cannot come to a final decision for a long time, fearing that it will be wrong. Such people often shift responsibility for making decisions to others.
Suspiciousness is a huge number of experiences that constantly swarm in a person’s head. This is increased anxiety about future events, about health, excessive worry about the opinions of others about oneself, anxiety about prospects for professional growth, imaginary fear about everything, a pathological feeling of persecution and many other worries.

Interesting to know! Most often, a hypochondriac state is causeless, and this has been scientifically proven.

Close “relatives” of suspiciousness are timidity, indecisiveness, distrust and other conditions that do not allow one to get rid of fears. Suspicious people are usually not confident in themselves and think that they are constantly doing something wrong - this is the root of the problem. This definition of suspiciousness is considered basic by most people.

All options have something in common - a person’s suspiciousness is seen as the inability to normally concentrate on objective reality. But why does the suspicious person himself not realize his suspiciousness?

According to Alexander Brodsky, there are 2 main reasons for this, which he conventionally divides into male and female, and both of them lie in the socialization of a person.

The first reason – male – is the fear of making a mistake. When a child is taught to be independent, he is unconsciously instilled with a constant feeling of punishment for making a mistake. The child is afraid of doing something wrong and in adulthood becomes a suspicious person.

The second reason, which is called female, is the habit of shifting responsibility to others. If a child often consults with adults on how to solve a particular problem, many people like it, because it’s easier to manage. But because of this, the child begins to think that it is easier to ask someone for help than to solve the problem himself. If he has to solve a problem himself, it drives him into a stupor, and this feeling carries over into adulthood.

The division into male and female causes is conditional. Alexander Brodsky called them that because he encountered them more often in men or women. In fact, these causes can occur in both sexes.

Characteristics of a suspicious person

Such people are easy to recognize by three signs:

Inadequate self-esteem – in this case, overestimated. Why is that? Because a suspicious person does not trust anyone so much that he has to rely only on himself. Therefore, she is right always, everywhere and in everything. And if you doubt her rightness, then you simply confirm the version that “all people are radishes.”
In fact, the basis of inflated self-esteem is precisely a total lack of self-confidence - in one’s worth as a person. Considering yourself to be the best is a defense mechanism of the psyche from pain that others can cause.
The problem is in the area of decision-making - anxious people have no right to make mistakes, so making choices and making decisions is very difficult for them.
A mistake for them is a universal catastrophe. “I made a mistake, which means I’m wrong, bad, a failure, a nonentity, a laughing stock,” etc. The desire to be perfect in psychology is called perfectionism (what is it?).
Permanent anxiety accompanies a suspicious individual (who is this?) always and everywhere. How can you not worry if there is danger all around and you have to keep your ears open, calculate your every word, thought, movement?

Is suspiciousness a disease or not?

Suspiciousness - a disease or not - this is the question that arises among people who are familiar with these conditions. An overly suspicious person can go very far in his experiences, and such people require professional treatment. Constantly increased anxiety is not yet a disease, but it can lead to mental disorder. The deeper it is, the faster you can develop a mental disorder, and the stronger it will be. In addition, excessive suspiciousness can be one of the symptoms of a hidden mental disorder, for example, psychasthenia. Therefore, if you notice it in yourself or your loved ones, this is an alarming sign, do not hesitate to contact a psychotherapist or psychologist.

Here are the main signs of a suspicious person:

excessive anxiety;
manic concern for one's health;
too painful reaction to the opinions of others;
feeling of constant persecution;
obsession with constant self-doubt;
feeling of suspicion.

Contrary to popular belief, suspiciousness is not only a women's problem. Man or girl - anyone can be a suspicious person, regardless of gender and age.

It is quite difficult to overcome this condition on your own. But, if you make enough efforts and contact a specialist in time, you can quite get rid of suspiciousness.

Definition of the concept

Suspiciousness is an incorrect attitude, which is supported by self-hypnosis. A suspicious person sees a problem on a global scale in everything and considers himself a failure.

There are two main fears that affect such people.

Get sick. These individuals are obsessed with their health, can study medicine, and are constantly looking for a fatal disease.
To be deceived.

Excessive suspiciousness is a condition, the main manifestations of which are anxiety and constant worries. In most cases, negative thoughts have no confirmation in reality.

It is necessary to distinguish between suspiciousness and anxiety.

Anxiety is a fear that is caused by real reasons and specific circumstances.
Suspiciousness is a character trait (pathological) that has no basis.

What are the reasons for excessive suspiciousness?

Experts say that the causes of suspiciousness come from childhood. Parents’ too strong desire to make their children more beautiful, smarter and more successful by constantly pointing out their shortcomings bears fruit in the form of complexes. If a child constantly feels guilty, unsure of himself, thinks that he is doing something wrong, suspiciousness arises in him. Instilling imaginary feelings of shame, fear and uncertainty is a sure way to raise a suspicious person, so this should not be done under any circumstances.

Reasons that arise in adulthood may be associated with past fears, failures in various areas and negative experiences with people. Suspiciousness is firmly “absorbed” into the character and becomes part of the personality. Imaginary fear causes obsessive thoughts, which are sometimes very difficult to convince a person.

A separate type of suspiciousness is hypochondria . Such a person is very suspicious of his health. Such a person constantly finds symptoms of a non-existent disease and tries to treat it. He reads her symptoms on the Internet, in most cases finds them in himself and begins self-medication or starts going to doctors. Such a person is dominated by self-hypnosis, turning into suspiciousness. Wikipedia will tell you more about this condition; we will not delve into it very deeply.

Interesting fact: the personality type with excessive suspiciousness is anxious about the opinions of other people, but, interestingly, expects help from them.

Signs of suspiciousness in women

A couple of times a year you may feel strange anxiety due to some unpleasant event. It's not scary. But if this happens much more often, this is a reason to think about it. Let's consider the types of suspiciousness and how it is expressed.

Maternal suspiciousness. Young mothers may worry that the child will fall out of the window, get very sick, etc. The mother may even have disturbing dreams. Usually this condition goes away by the age of two years.

Novice physician syndrome. Often affects medical students. They begin to see symptoms of the diseases they are studying. But it also happens that a woman with some symptoms searches for a disease on the Internet. And he receives information about very terrible diseases.
A variant of such suspiciousness is hypochondria , when a healthy person can bring himself to the hospital with constant neurosis due to imaginary diseases. “Munchausen syndrome” is also known: this happens when people believe in an illness so much that they actually start to get sick. The next stage of such neurosis is paranoia .

Is it worth fighting suspiciousness?

Psychology is a science that studies in detail what suspiciousness is, how it differs from other conditions, what it means to be suspicious, who is a suspicious person, how to get rid of it or cure a concomitant mental disorder in time. Experts put forward many opinions on this matter, but agree on one thing - a person can drive everyone around him crazy with his suspiciousness. Therefore, it is worth thinking about ways to stop being suspicious.

But it’s not just the people around you – suspiciousness can cause mental disorders. Even if it doesn’t come to this, a suspicious person cannot enjoy life, because strong anxiety about everything prevents him from doing this. “I very much doubt”, “I’m afraid”, “I’m not sure that I will succeed” - a person often repeats these words, which only reinforces his suspiciousness, and in the eyes of others he becomes a grouch.

You need to overcome suspiciousness as quickly as possible. There is one problem here - a suspicious person tries to fight it on his own. This is a big mistake, because it is almost impossible to cope on your own, because you cannot look at yourself from the outside. As a result, even more feelings of fear and anxiety appear.

Characteristic symptoms

Suspicion does not allow one to exist normally. A person is in constant tension, he is tormented by doubts and anxiety

Anxiety is the main symptom. Suspicious people experience timidity and fear. Their anxiety is pronounced. A person does not share his thoughts and is afraid to trust others.
Focus on health. Such people, at the slightest ailment, see a fatal disease. There are often cases when thoughts alone provoked the development of psychosomatic conditions that manifested themselves as symptoms of serious illnesses.
Uncertainty. This character trait does not allow you to achieve career growth and interferes with your personal life.
Fearfulness. Individuals experience a constant feeling of fear. It does not allow you to develop, move forward, or make changes. A suspicious person is afraid of encountering a new type of activity because of possible negative consequences.
Depression and psychological disorders.
Preoccupation with some problem. A person concentrates on his own person, he is concerned about fears, personal experiences, he experiences apathy towards everything that happens.
Melancholy.
Exaggerating the significance of a particular situation.
Excessive sensitivity, increased mental sensitivity.
Fatigue, both mental and physical.
Rigidity of thinking.

If such traits predominate in your character, then it is advisable to go for a consultation with a psychologist so as not to trigger this condition, because it can destroy your life.

A suspicious person is aware of her condition and treats it critically. The person understands that:

often exaggerates problems;
stresses himself out in vain;
constantly doubts;
reacts sharply to the slightest failures;
he is careful in everything, afraid to make a mistake;
he is afraid of getting sick, he is frightened by illnesses;
tries not to think about bad things, but he fails, bad thoughts constantly creep into his head;
takes everything too personally.

Health effects

A suspicious person can harm not only mental but also physical health. The consequence of chronic suspiciousness is a decrease in the production of serotonin - the hormone of happiness, which is necessary for the normal functioning of the body. There is a lack of necessary substances, which leads to poor health. It’s not for nothing that they say that “stress is the cause of all diseases,” because in the future, a stressful state leads to a decrease in immunity, which can lead to exacerbation of chronic diseases. It has been scientifically proven that suspicious people are more susceptible to illness. However, they do not understand that they need to get out of this state in order to cope with problems.

When is it time to see a psychologist?

A person must understand that if he can’t cope on his own, it’s time to go to a psychologist

A person must understand that suspiciousness can harm his psychological health. The development of a mental illness that will make life unbearable cannot be ruled out. Psychologists make this diagnosis when the patient experiences nervous instability and provocation of psychosomatic diseases. If the condition is advanced, then complete remission cannot be achieved. The person will be forced to constantly visit a psychologist and take tranquilizers, antidepressants or sedatives throughout his life.

Let's look at what manifestations may indicate that individuals are no longer able to independently fight their suspicious state:

severe irritability;
insomnia, sleep disorders caused by excessive anxiety;
the appearance of breathing problems;
depressive state.

Are successful people suspicious?

A successful and strong person cannot be a suspicious person. Such a person is confident in himself, thinks positively and is open to everything new. If he has any fear, he immediately drives it away. He doesn't care much about what others say about him, but he takes criticism constructively. Such a person does not engage in self-criticism - self-criticism should be in moderation. If something bothers him, he tries to find out why such a problem occurs, looks for what can be changed in this situation, and tries to fight it. Ultimately, he is more likely to cope with difficulties than a suspicious person.

Do successful people have fears? There definitely is, because fear is necessary for a sense of self-preservation. But a successful person is not obsessed with it - he is not driven into panic by the first disturbing thought, he tries to think constructively and overcome fears, and not be subjected to them.

What is a suspicious person afraid of?

So, a suspicious person is a person who lacks a sense of basic security or, simply, trust in life. It is not formed, it simply does not exist.

And since the world is so terrible and scary, we need to save ourselves: the individual unconsciously begins to invent ways in which he can survive.

The entire cohort of such a person’s fears can be divided into two large groups:

«I'll be deceived“- the fears of this group are manifested in the fact that a person is not able to be open, trust others, rely on the environment, or ask for anything.
In his worldview he is surrounded by enemies, envious people and spiteful critics. Everyone wishes him harm, wants to use him for personal gain, etc.
In psychology there is the concept of projection. This is when a person assigns to the world (people) what he denies in himself. In this case, the suspicious person himself is hostile towards people, but projects these feelings into the outside world.
«I'll get sick and die“- the fear of becoming sick, weak, unable to take care of oneself is familiar to all suspicious people. Why? Because getting sick is dangerous! Everyone around is evil and calculating, no one needs me, so no one will save me!
The extreme form of this fear is this is hypochondria.
It manifests itself in the fact that an individual constantly takes care of his health - goes to doctors, drinks various dietary supplements, vitamins, makes lotions, compresses, cleanses the chakras, blows on water during the full moon, when Mercury is in Scorpio, etc.
He is afraid of getting sick and therefore avoids any realities that might contribute to this.
A hypochondriac purposefully looks out for any symptoms of illness and rushes to the hospital after the first sneeze or harmless pimple, so that God forbid he misses something serious. Although for him any deviation in physiological parameters is a serious illness leading to death.

How to deal with the disease

To cope with suspiciousness, you need to take concrete steps. Ahead of you are some tips on how to stop being a suspicious person.

They are based on expert advice; for convenience, we present them in the form of a table.

Advice	What do we have to do
Train your success	Develop the best qualities in yourself. Find hidden talents. Think about what has helped you cope with challenges in the past and use those skills.
Start valuing yourself	Stop focusing on negative qualities - praise yourself more often and emphasize the positive aspects in yourself.
Don't talk bad about yourself	Stop blaming yourself for the slightest failures! A suspicious person does this all the time and only drives himself deeper into his own unrest. It’s better to look at them philosophically and start looking for ways to solve the problems that have arisen.
Trust your friends	Friends are people with whom you can safely share your fears, doubts and experiences. You'll see - their support will make things easier. And remember - if the problem is verbalized, the process of solving it has begun.
Keep a diary	Write down all your fears, anxieties and experiences during the day - what problem worried you and how you solved it. Maybe in a similar situation you will feel confident. It is quite possible that the diary will make you think about the imaginary nature of many of your fears.
Change your habits	It is not at all necessary to change yourself completely, start with little things - walk along a new route, wear clothes of an unusual color, try new food. Small adjustments to your habits can push you towards more global changes.
Stay positive	Your sense of self largely depends on how you set yourself up. Smile at yourself, tell yourself good things, encourage yourself. Just program yourself for success, but don’t worry that something won’t work out, because this is a completely normal situation for every person.
Massage your earlobes	There are two sensitive points at the top of the ear and in the middle of the earlobe that help cope with anxiety.
Laugh off your fears	Laughter works wonders - write your worries honestly on several pieces of paper and place them in different places at home - when you come across them, you will feel very funny about what a suspicious person you really are.
Try aromatherapy	Certain essential oils can partially relieve anxiety, the main thing is not to overdo it so that you don’t get a headache.
Replace fear with pity	Imagine your fears as pitiful creatures, and you will begin to relate to them differently. For greater clarity, you can draw them. Scare your fear - drive it away, you can imagine a dialogue with it in your head.
Find a hobby	A hobby helps anyone, even the most suspicious person, to escape from anxious thoughts.
Try auto-training	Self-hypnosis is one of the techniques of autogenic training that has proven itself to be quite effective.
Think rationally	To stop being a suspicious person, you don’t need to be subjected to unreasonable states of anxiety; always think critically, then it will be easier to assess the situation.

Remember that you are able to help yourself get rid of suspiciousness and stop being a suspicious person, the main thing is willpower. These tips can help you cope with constant worry. If you feel that you are unable to get rid of this problem on your own, contact a specialist.

How to get rid of negative thoughts

Suspiciousness turns human life into a gray, dull existence. When there is no peace from negative thoughts, the personality is destroyed. It is impossible to develop harmoniously and comprehensively on a personal level if a person is haunted by obsessive thoughts that interfere with sane thinking.

There are certain psychological techniques that help get rid of bad thoughts. We present 5 recommendations from a psychologist to a suspicious person.

Technique "Cutting"
“Label” technique
Technique "Multiplication"
Technique "Confrontation"
Meditation technique

Technique "Cutting"

When negativity begins to creep into a person’s thoughts, you need to sharply cut off the incoming thought, “cut it off with scissors.” Immediately replace the cut off thought with another, positive one. Or a good memory. Instantly switching thoughts, replacing them with positive ones - this is the essence of the technique.

“Label” technique

The essence of the technique is not switching to another thought, but accepting a negative one in the form of observation from the outside. A person notices a bad thought and says: “What is happening to me? Why is this thought here? A person does not get lost in negativity, but simply observes the reaction that occurs to him at that moment.

Technique "Multiplication"

A negative thought that comes to you at the same moment must be magnified to the point of absurdity, to the point of laughter.

For example, fear of a job interview: “They will kick me out of the office when I go for an interview; the employer will decide that I am good for nothing, will ridicule me in front of the team, that I am untalented and no one will hire me, not even as a plumber. On the way home, a pack of stray dogs will attack me and tear my trousers. With a hole in my butt, I will walk through the city and everyone will look at me. At home on TV they will show a video shot by a passer-by with my participation with the caption “loser in holey pants.” Because of this, I will lose my mind and will throw water balloons at passers-by and throw potato peelings at them from the window ... "

Inflate disturbing small trifles to the size of an elephant, catch the thought by the tail and turn it into a joke, then the disturbing situation will be resolved, thereby causing positive thoughts in the person. The person understands that a negative thought is simply ridiculous. You shouldn't focus on it.

Technique "Confrontation"

It consists of completely replacing a negative attitude with a positive one. For example: “I’m not lucky at all, I don’t mean anything in life” replace with “I’m the luckiest person, I mean a lot to myself and people.” Positive thinking decides a lot in life. It is impossible to think negatively and positively at the same time. Therefore, feel free to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, thus depriving negativity of its power to dominate the human mind.

Meditation technique

Distracting the mind from the bad and the good, relaxing the body, focusing the ear on the sounds of the ocean or the singing of birds is a good neutralizer of the flow of negativity that strives to sneak into the human mind.

Not everything is subject to reason. But everything is subject to perseverance. And nothing is impossible for you as long as you live and are free.

Commandment of the 104-year-old sage Andrei Voron

In addition, you can learn about different ways to deal with negative thoughts in this video: