Title: Why Do I Feel Like I’m Being Watched? This Is The Scientific Reason For Paranoia
Headings: If You Feel Like You’re Always Being Watched, There’s A Scientific Reason Why
If You Feel Like You’re Always Being Watched, There’s A Scientific Reason Why
Normal Paranoia Likely Developed To Help Us Survive

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The word paranoia itself, as you might have guessed, comes from the ancient Greek. But when it shows up in ancient Greek tragedies by the likes of Euripides, it's used as a kind of synonym for "crazy." The modern sense of heightened or excessive awareness of the harmful intentions of others didn't emerge until the 19th century, as German and French doctors refined the concept from a kind of delusion to a specific diagnosis. Paranoia also took on a new dimension in the 20th century as people began to study schizophrenia, which occasionally results in paranoia and hallucinations. But having a sense of paranoia doesn't necessarily mean you should see a mental health care professional, or that you're being haunted: the idea of being wary of others in your environment seems to have developed as a pretty natural part of our survival. Normal Paranoia Likely Developed To Help Us Survive
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Paranoia, it's suggested, likely evolved as an evolutionary strategy. " Wariness of the intentions of others may be adaptive in some situations ," noted the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2013, "and becomes a clinical problem only when it is excessive, exaggerated or distressing, or interferes with functioning." So what's the story behind its development under normal circumstances? The dominant theory is that we experience paranoia because our nervous systems and brains are designed to assess and highlight something called "social threat":