paranoia

September 11, 2000

I'd really appreciate some good advice ....

I'm a bodyworker, not a therapist, and have little experience of people

with serious paranoia. A woman (not a friend, exactly, but someone I

know) called me this morning and said she was in the local psych.

hospital, and would I come and see her and bring a mobile phone.

I went (minus phone) and saw her. She's been sectioned for 6 months by

her husband; from her own account of the behaviour which prompted this,

it sounds quite reasonable ... I've not spoken to her doctor or her

husband, but I'd take a guess at paranoia - big time - and some form of

psychosis. Everyone's been conspiring to get her for 20 years, and the

hospital has been set up to murder her. Husband, mother and everyone she

thought was a friend was in fact a conspirator. Friends tried to give

her children AIDS. I'm sure you know the sort of thing.

This afternoon that letting her talk about her fears/fantasies just dug

her deep into her dark world, but talking about ordinary stuff in

ordinary ways (chat about mutual acquaintances, places in Cornwall, my

holiday in France etc etc) pulled her back to something like normality,

when she would recognise that she was ill rather than a victim of a

global conspiracy.

She wants me to spring her from the hospital - I've said I won't. I

won't attempt to rescue her, but she's having a shit time and I'll go to

see her, and would like to be helpful/constructive.

Any thoughts/ideas/tips about the best way to approach this?

big thanks ....

Arabella

September 12, 2000

I know a little about paranoia from my own experience not so extream as the case

you talk about but nevertheless I believe its basically all the same.....in that

paranoia comes from ones own anger that turns on oneself....and I have found I

have become susceptible to it when doing something I think I want to do but is

really against my own will.

I think the best way to deal with it is to let go of the anger and just turn

oneself in the direction of a unified goal. Since she is there which is not a

place anyone would like to be talking about reality is the best dose and somehow

she will have to learn to take responsibility for her own actions and learn

cause and effect without burdening hersekf with guilt and 2) to open her mind to

love and decide to chose only that which means respecting her own feelings and

ideas.

Being that she will be forced to do things there she does not like her goal is

to get out so cooperation would also be a goal and that means trying to see the

good in all.

Which means seeing past the innanity to the humaness of all and getting out of

herself and doing what needs to be done.

I suppose you could try following her converssations about why someone would

want to give her whatever aids but I think you would have to turn it to find out

why she would give them aids and then caution her on how that brings on fear of

retaliation and so is a useless defense. Anger management takes a cool mind to

be effective. She needs that kind of instruction.

But doing what you are doing is just fine.

As far as energy balance goes sometimes we just go in the wrong direction

against ourselves thinking we are right or have to and its like the holy spirit

or some force comes out and stands in front of us and it covers our mind and

will stay that way till corrected and it makes anyone think the world is agaist

them when in fact it is us who are against our own world.

Medication for such problems is ridiculus when the mind can easily correct

itself or the person be taught to allow it to.

I think such people develop such attitudes incl myself because we see others

doing it and think it has some power or reason when we are just being little

monkeys afraid tostand appart from the crowd. Im sure that if you talked to her

you would find out that it is a learned behavior pattern and a wretched

incorporated philosophy that can have no outcome. Again it takes a certain

humility to accept one can be wrong and to let go and go back to being inside

oneself.

Being off balance that way makes one even more fearful and vulnerable.

If she has a portable CD player I would recommend the vulcanschild vibrationals

which I just bought and are so very effective in tuning the entire aura and

meridian system . It really puts everything back in place.

Other than that deep breathing would help and your presense is of help in that

it is non threatening and non judgemental. The fact that she wants you to do

all these things for her is a sign that she has been under a grest deal of

stress and is tired and worn out and way above herself having been pushed fora

long time to do and besr things she cannot tolerate. It will take a while for

that to subside and then a long process of learning how to chose her own self

and find new ways from inside herself and with proper information she will have

to seek out to learn to solve problems.

Id just lean her towards the idea of spirit and meditiation and chosing a life

she she wants little by little.

Its very nice what you are doing. And standing your ground is correct.

Mary Anne

-

Arabella McIntyre-Brown

Sunday, September 10, 2000 6:22 PM

paranoia

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