Control: Ten Examples of Paranoia

I, Dalton Lewis, have paranoid schizophrenia. It might be interesting, I decided, to go over a list of my primary paranoias and how they are realistic or not.

1. I worry about someone misquoting my fan fiction reads. Someone might get it wrong about how many sales I have. This is important, folks! We can’t have people thinking I have fewer reads than I actually have. I rate this one: five of five.
2. I worry about a guy framing me for raping his wife or girlfriend, especially if I slept with her consensually. This is a common one for men, and usually not likely to happen. Also there are so many sexual assaults in this era that I don’t want to make it look like there are a lot of false accusations. They are rare. Raping is out of control in America today. The rating: three of five.
3. I worry about accidentally missing years of time traveling from one star system to another over and over because I hate myself and want to miss time. Seeing as space travel is limited to very few people this one doesn’t rate as possible or difficult to stop. Rating: zero of five.
4. The next one is groovy: I worry that people will steal my credit for some heroic deed or work of writing and make a lot of money or date beautiful women. This is another very common one with unpopular young men because it could possibly happen. Rating: five of five.
5. Someone might place traps around the house because of paranoia and then get a family member seriously hurt or killed. This does happen, but I’ve never set a trap in my life — nor do I think I would ever. Three of five rating.
6. People are talking in our heads. This is another common paranoia — the notion that the voices in a schizophrenic’s head are actually other people talking to us, communicating with us, such as God or a bully or someone who wants to help us, a secret helper. This is a common misconception. The voices are just voices. Four of five rating.
7. The authority figures are out to get us. This one rates as the highest probability of importance because cops are such suspects nowadays. They might actually be out to get you…they were out to get Rylan Hooke, who died, and Aaron Furness, and any number of Black Americans. This one was thought to be ridiculous and unimportant but now seems likely. Rating: five of five.
8. People just want my money. This one is extremely unrealistic because I don’t have much money. Nobody wants to steal from an unemployed, mentally ill person. Three of five.
9. Someone wants to kill me because that someone is a creepy, nasty, mean serial killer. This happens, but most people thinking it is ridiculous. You are liable to have bad things happen to you, but the probability of getting murdered by a serial killer is low. Three of five rating.
10. I am already dead/in the afterlife/not real/in some other dimension, or reality isn’t real, or the aliens are here, or some sort of delusion about what’s real and what’s not real. This is the most common paranoia. Five of five.

That’s a summary of many of the false assumptions of a paranoid mind. They are all very unlikely to be justified. I just wanted you to know what a mentally ill man might be worried about. I want you to understand us instead of fearing and hating us.

Thanks, and take care, friends.