Research shows self-compassion can help reduce paranoia

Kindness, Paige Alonso

A new study from Oxford University found that being kind to yourself might help reduce paranoid thoughts and fears. It's important to know that if you struggle with paranoia or being hard on yourself, this isn't your fault. Often, these patterns develop as ways of coping with difficult experiences, trauma, or stress in our lives. The researchers worked with 12 people who had strong paranoid beliefs, teaching them special mental exercises focused on self-compassion over four therapy sessions.

The study participants learned to create a mental image of a "compassionate coach" - someone wise and caring who could help them feel safer and more confident. This approach recognizes that many of us never learned to be kind to ourselves, especially if we grew up in challenging circumstances. They practiced these visualization exercises regularly for two weeks. By the end, most people reported feeling calmer and having fewer paranoid thoughts. One participant said, "I don't feel quite so threatened as I did. I feel a little bit safer."

While this was a very small initial study with only 12 participants, the results were encouraging enough to suggest more research should be done. The researchers measured improvements in both paranoid thoughts and self-criticism, finding that people felt more self-compassionate and less paranoid after the therapy. These positive changes were still present when researchers checked back a month later. The promising results indicate that larger clinical trials investigating self-compassion therapy for paranoia may be worthwhile.

Reference: Forkert, A., Brown, P., Freeman, D., & Waite, F. (2022). A compassionate imagery intervention for patients with persecutory delusions. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 50, 15-27.