What is the theory behind this Therapy Worksheet for Paranoia?
Paranoia includes thoughts and feelings of an impending danger to oneself without any evidence. People with paranoia have an irrational and exaggerated fear that something bad is about to happen to them or someone is out to get them. They may believe some secret organisation or people are planning to hurt them in some way. Paranoia is often persistent symptoms of some mental disorders such as anxiety disorder and schizophrenia.
How will the worksheet help?
The worksheet will use techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients target and challenge their paranoid thoughts in hopes of modifying the unhelpful thinking patterns feeding their paranoia. It will help them look for evidence to support and refute their thoughts, a practice that with time can help them realise their paranoia is baseless.
How to use the worksheet?
Instruct the client to use this worksheet for every recurrent paranoid thought they get. Tell them to really look for and gather evidence for and against their thought before deciding on how much they still believe in it. The worksheet can be initially used in sessions before being assigned as homework.
Therapy Worksheet for Paranoia
Write down your paranoid thoughts and gather evidence for and against it. As a reminder you can always refer back to this worksheet to review your evidence whenever you feel that particular thought is bothering you again.
| Thought: On a scale of 1 – 10, how much do you believe in it? | |
| Evidence to support the thought | Evidence that goes against the thought |
| On a scale of 1 – 10, how much do you believe in it now? |
Reference
You can download this worksheet here.