Paranoia vs anxiety?

What exactly are the behavioral differences between being paranoid and being anxious? Do they have to coincide? What are some examples?

Well speaking from personal experience alone, I would say that the two generally coincide with each other as paranoia does tend to cause stress.

Example: "Holy shit that just doesnt make any sense! oh wait maybe it does if you look at it from this angle.... no wait that condradicts what i believe to be true..."

imo confused thoughts equal stress and anxiety. Last night for me being a perfect example, I'm just glad that my memerory is so bad I tend to forget about these thoughts fairly quickly, like i cant remember what I was thinking of kinda thing...

behaviourly, both can be outwardly projected, but I see paranoia to be more of a mental process ( while it can cause behavioural changes) while anxiety is more along the lines of a feeling of frustration and irratiblity like some terrible feeling thats just clinging to you.

Any way does that answer your question some what Kantuskid? sorry if it makes no sense

Paranoia is more mental?

Yeah, I mean its more of a problem with thought proccessing.

Like for instance thinking some one is out to get you is a problem with your thought process, where as I feel anxiety is more of a feeling.

But paranoia could cause anxiety. There not nessecarily hand in hand but often co-occuere I belive.

Hello Kantuskid

I think in many cases it is difficult to correctly distinguish paranoia from anxiety.
The both share some things in common, but I think when you are really paranoid you have some obscure and totally unrealistic delusions and you fixely believe in them,while in anxiety you are anxious and worried about something.
But anxiety is also a part of paranoia because of the intent of delusions a person is afraid of,like being persecuted etc...

I know both things paranoid flashes and anxiety and I am always at some border between them...

Nice greetz

from pyrrogirl

Paranoia is an unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions. Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain individuals, or people in general, are "out to get them."

Anxiety is a multisystem response to a perceived threat or danger. It reflects a combination of biochemical changes in the body, the patient's personal history and memory, and the social situation. As far as we know, anxiety is a uniquely human experience. Other animals clearly know fear, but human anxiety involves an ability, to use memory and imagination to move backward and forward in time, that animals do not appear to have. The anxiety that occurs in post-traumatic syndromes indicates that human memory is a much more complicated mental function than animal memory. Moreover, a large portion of human anxiety is produced by anticipation of future events. Without a sense of personal continuity over time, people would not have the "raw materials" of anxiety.

It is important to distinguish between anxiety as a feeling or experience, and an anxiety disorder as a psychiatric diagnosis. A person may feel anxious without having an anxiety disorder. Also a person facing a clear and present danger or a realistic fear is not usually considered to be in a state of anxiety. In addition, anxiety frequently occurs as a symptom in other categories of psychiatric disturbance

This is from answers.com . They are very different. Millions of people have anxiety without paranoia. And paranoia can make you very anxious. Why do you ask? Are you having a problem?

Just trying to figure out if I'm just anxious, or paranoid and anxious. I'm definitely paranoid first.