“Dear Rachael, my dad is incredibly paranoid. He thinks we’re trying to poison him, so he won’t even drink the water we give him. What do we do?”
Paranoia in dementia is incredibly common, especially in earlier to middle stages of the disease process. When the person is earlier in their disease process, it’s oftentimes more difficult for their family, because the individual is—as I like to say—“just confused enough to be confused”: they’re really confused, but they’re not confused enough as to why they can’t throw together an argument.
As always, we don’t want to correct this person or start a battle of any kind. Instead, Embrace Their Reality™ as much as you can: acknowledge their fear and concern, but help them solve it. Try something like, “Dad, I understand you’re afraid. I hope you know we love you and we’d never do anything to hurt you. Let me taste the coffee and show you it’s okay to drink.” Drink the beverage or take a bite of the food in front of him to show him it’s safe.
Paranoia comes, in some part, due to a lack of control the individual might be feeling. Are there ways to give this person back some of the control over their life? Can you allow them to make a few more choices here and there? Rest assured, the paranoia will eventually cease, but there is no “timeline” for when that will happen.
2 thoughts on “Help, my dad is paranoid”
I signed up for two reasons: 1) to support your work 2) one never knows when people in need of informed compassion will be in your life space. Thank you.
Thank you! Do you have a question I can answer here?