I am not trying to minimize the life-dominating nature of paranoia. I am trying to normalize the abnormal. Scripture indicates that we are more alike that different. As such, the unusual problems are more-like-us or less-like-us rather than different-than-us.
Take my mini-paranoia, surround it with people I don’t know well, and a mere paper clip could trigger suspicions. It doesn’t take much for all world events to somehow connect to us, and it doesn’t take much to develop an endless suspect list....
...Evidence rarely dislodges a paranoid interpretation.
My guess is that there is a lot more life-dominating paranoia around us than we think. For every public display of paranoia there are hundreds who sit quietly in their fears. Our worlds are never quite right and it is easy to tell a credible story about who is to blame. Conspiracy theories abound, and you can be sure that many conspiracy theorists drift off into other types of paranoia. Fears don’t like to be contained; they spread. And they can be very confident in their interpretations.
...Paranoia is fear run amok that is unaffected by the evidence.
Here's his conclusion:
What is a Christian to do when the possibility of a conspiracy abounds? Rest in the undisputable evidence: Christ has come and has proclaimed no condemnation to those who throw in their lot with him. God is not out to get us. Rest is the natural state of a Christian. Then, whether other people are really after us or not, whether they are friends or enemies, we turn the other check and surprise them with grace. Certainly there is much more we could say, but this is enough to keep a paranoid person busy for a few decades.
Read the rest.
(I'm fairly certain Ed Welch was aiming this post at me...just like I'm posting it with you specifically in mind!)
, and Winston Smith, author of 
. (Particularly interesting is how wrong approaches to mental illness can reduce personhood.) 
