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But, Paranoia, is it really part of our make up, a remenant of past survival skills, could paranoia really be the result of reasoned and processed feelings on a subject and that reasoning based upon a person's education.

Could paranoia actually be useful to us in today's society, or are we to believe wholly what we are told and suspect nothing untoward?

Is it a useful skill to have the ability to be paranoid in some circumstances or is it a mental illness that needs stamping out ?

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I find paranoia useful, for it makes me check things, things I might not have checked, I make sure things are right, by expecting them to be wrong, go wrong etc. The result is, a certain amount of paranoia makes me ready for things that come to pass.

My last job, machine repair, yeah, I was paranoid about the machinery I worked on, all manner of lethal machines, I expected the thing would go wrong, so I checked the parts where my paranoia was directing my interest to. The result was, never in ten years did my machines suffer a breakdown, whereas other machines worked on by others fell apart at the drop of a hat, sometimes lethally so, like steel brushcutter blades detaching and spinning off in some direction, often never to be seen again. I was slow at my job, but the paranoia made me so, bt the machines I guaranteed safe to use and efficient at their use.

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ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I find paranoia useful, for it makes me check things, things I might not have checked, I make sure things are right, by expecting them to be wrong, go wrong etc. The result is, a certain amount of paranoia makes me ready for things that come to pass.

My last job, machine repair, yeah, I was paranoid about the machinery I worked on, all manner of lethal machines, I expected the thing would go wrong, so I checked the parts where my paranoia was directing my interest to. The result was, never in ten years did my machines suffer a breakdown, whereas other machines worked on by others fell apart at the drop of a hat, sometimes lethally so, like steel brushcutter blades detaching and spinning off in some direction, often never to be seen again. I was slow at my job, but the paranoia made me so, bt the machines I guaranteed safe to use and efficient at their use.

But I'm not sure that's really paranoia. It just sounds like extreme caution to me. You knew the machinery was potentially very dangerous, so you were exceptionally careful. Your fear, while perhaps extreme, was not irrational.

And that points out the problem with discussing paranoia - where is the line between an extreme (but rational) sense of caution, and the irrational fear that is paranoia? There really is no line. One man's caution is another man's paranoia. I'm sure a lot of the people you worked with thought you were being paranoid, but you probably thought a lot of them were being reckless.