My phD was in Communication and my thesis was on the panopticon. I was paranoid in my 20s and now in my 40s, I see a lot of those nightmare/dystopian things have come to fruition...

In my immediate family, the ones who became paranoid later in life had autistic tendencies as adults - they were always ready to over-analyze/obsess and be anxious about things, so they became prime material for delusions and paranoia.

Yes. Seriously there is so much embezzlement in the world, when I was younger I had no clue. In my later years I had a close friend who was caught in a six figure embezzlement and it really shook my confidence in judging character and trusting people. The longer you live, the more experiences you will have both good and bad.

I think one reason people develop paranoia in old age is that people start treating you like a child, withholding info, talking about you with others without you present, making decisions for you, etc. It's about loss of power.

Basically, that paranoia is actually somewhat justified because other people are talking about you and making decisions on your behalf (adult children, spouse, doctors, etc.) and only telling you the stuff they think you can handle or won't react poorly to.

Even when their behavior is justified because of the older person's dementia, personality disorder, resistance to change, etc., when you feel like you are being managed and told partial truths or straight up lies in order to keep you compliant, paranoia isn't that irrational.

Also, I once worked at a place with a rampant gossip culture and I became super paranoid to an almost pathological degree (literally speculating constantly to my DH about what coworkers might be saying and doing behind my back, super suspicious of everyone) and then I left that job and, poof, no paranoia problem because people were straightforward and drama free at my next gig.

I mean, yeah, also all the stuff about politics and not being able to trust institutions and the fact that media is terrible and just trumps up everything for ratings without considering how it's going to impact people. But I think with older people, often it's just this growing distrust that the people around you are telling you the truth or communicating everything to you that they could be. These factors probably feed into each other.

If you experience severe trauma as a young person, you go through life understanding that most people are fundamentally untrustworthy. It’s surprising and I guess heartening that it takes some people a long time to figure this out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't worry so much about getting paranoid, but I do worry about getting jaded and cynical -- not just in relation to politics, but in relation to other issues as well. I feel like I have seen too many people who seemed made for each other get divorced and mistreat each other and their kids in the process, and I've seen too many incompetent people get promoted, etc.

I work for a university and one of my colleagues retired and his incompetent successor dismantled the program my colleague literally spent decades building -- mostly out of spite. This man is literally watching his life's work disappear in front of his eyes. (Yeah, he's retired but he still pays attention and knows these things.)

I am watching my greedy relatives fight over an inheritance and the person to whom the funds belong isn't even dead yet!
I've seen bright, capable students do stupid things and die in random things like car accidents before their lives have even begun. I'm almost sixty and sometimes it seems like the sadness in life outweighs the joy, and it also feels like a lot of people's success and happiness in life feels pretty randomly distributed. good people get nothing and jerks get rewarded.

I don't expect to be ranting about Fox news, but I do worry that I will be jaded and cynical in my old age.

OP here, yup, that too. I have seen such crazy in the workplace. We have insanity going on over money in our family too, but I always thought the players would be trouble. Were you surprised? I knew who I couldn't trust since I was a teenager, maybe younger. Yup, I've seen jerks rewarded and good people screwed over. I try to be grateful for little things and not get jaded, but it is a nutty world out there.

Oh, yeah, we have a situation in our family where an executor has been found to be stealing from the estate in a number of relatively small, sneaky ways. There weren’t huge amounts of money involved, so we couldn’t help but wonder, what was the point of doing that? Did she hate her sibling so much that she just wanted to pull something over on her? Is she a little mentally ill, or is her brain aging to the point that her sense of ethics has disappeared?

This was someone that I never would have suspected of stealing or lying in this way. The only thing that makes sense is some kind of effects of aging, although the executor is only in her mid sixties, so not all that old.

Anonymous wrote:I don't worry so much about getting paranoid, but I do worry about getting jaded and cynical -- not just in relation to politics, but in relation to other issues as well. I feel like I have seen too many people who seemed made for each other get divorced and mistreat each other and their kids in the process, and I've seen too many incompetent people get promoted, etc.

I work for a university and one of my colleagues retired and his incompetent successor dismantled the program my colleague literally spent decades building -- mostly out of spite. This man is literally watching his life's work disappear in front of his eyes. (Yeah, he's retired but he still pays attention and knows these things.)

I am watching my greedy relatives fight over an inheritance and the person to whom the funds belong isn't even dead yet!
I've seen bright, capable students do stupid things and die in random things like car accidents before their lives have even begun. I'm almost sixty and sometimes it seems like the sadness in life outweighs the joy, and it also feels like a lot of people's success and happiness in life feels pretty randomly distributed. good people get nothing and jerks get rewarded.

I don't expect to be ranting about Fox news, but I do worry that I will be jaded and cynical in my old age.

OP here, yup, that too. I have seen such crazy in the workplace. We have insanity going on over money in our family too, but I always thought the players would be trouble. Were you surprised? I knew who I couldn't trust since I was a teenager, maybe younger. Yup, I've seen jerks rewarded and good people screwed over. I try to be grateful for little things and not get jaded, but it is a nutty world out there.

It’s about poor media literacy.

Anonymous wrote:I'm old enough to remember when everyone thought margarine was good for you. I just don't really believe things anymore.

Remember when eggs were BAD, especially the yolk? Now they are good-a health food-eat plenty. Remember when red wine was good for your health? Now, no alcohol is good. Renowned researchers are starting to admit they fudged data. I trust nothing. That said, I don't want to be the crazy old curmudgeon lady so I spend time in nature, get exercise and do lots of pleasant things to keep a smile on my face as the world falls part-burning, flooding and terrible chemicals are allowed in our foods and the politicians commit crimes.

It's aging brain (and low cognitive level in general). Smart brains can navigate the BS to find enough of the truth. Weak brains can't, so they have to put up defensive mental walls against everything.

Anonymous wrote: maybe it's not the aging brain, but maybe it's life experience. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum I hope we all can admit there have been so much lies and deception on both sides. No matter where you fall with the vaccine debates I think there have been a lot of mis-truths and coverups. I remember when the lab leak theory was consider tinfoil hat stuff that only the Dailymail would cover. Having a parent fading with dementia I see you can't trust anyone. Contractors will make up issues and you have to get 3 or 4 opinions. Family members will crawl out of the woodwork and do all sorts of deceptive things. You find out the pillars of the community are secretly stealing money or doing other nefarious things. I told my husband nothing can happen to him because he restores my faith in humanity.

After all I have experienced in my 50s, I'm afraid by my 70s and 80s I will be running around muttering "Don't trust the government!" "Fauci, Trump, Biden and son....all crooks and liars!!!!!" "Cloth masks work, no they don't, yes they do, no they don't , yes they do, no masks, wear masks" "The government lies....republicans, democrats...you can't trust them. They just want to profit from the presidency." I'll be in a corner rocking and muttering these things and a nice young lady will approach me and say "mam, I know, I know, the government lies and you can't trust anyone....it's time for your pureed lunch and then after that we will have a nice game of BINGO. I promise it isn't rigged and the government has nothing to do with it!"

There's a lot of truth in this. And your last paragraph made me LOL

It's been humbling to realize that a lot of things I used to think were absolutes or were objective truths are a lot more complex, and in some cases politically spun. And that I've fallen for some serious BS. And worse, probably will again. We all have. We all will.

I'm old enough to remember when everyone thought margarine was good for you. I just don't really believe things anymore.

The lab leak theory is still for lunatics.

I don't worry so much about getting paranoid, but I do worry about getting jaded and cynical -- not just in relation to politics, but in relation to other issues as well. I feel like I have seen too many people who seemed made for each other get divorced and mistreat each other and their kids in the process, and I've seen too many incompetent people get promoted, etc.

I work for a university and one of my colleagues retired and his incompetent successor dismantled the program my colleague literally spent decades building -- mostly out of spite. This man is literally watching his life's work disappear in front of his eyes. (Yeah, he's retired but he still pays attention and knows these things.)

I am watching my greedy relatives fight over an inheritance and the person to whom the funds belong isn't even dead yet!
I've seen bright, capable students do stupid things and die in random things like car accidents before their lives have even begun. I'm almost sixty and sometimes it seems like the sadness in life outweighs the joy, and it also feels like a lot of people's success and happiness in life feels pretty randomly distributed. good people get nothing and jerks get rewarded.

I don't expect to be ranting about Fox news, but I do worry that I will be jaded and cynical in my old age.

maybe it's not the aging brain, but maybe it's life experience. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum I hope we all can admit there have been so much lies and deception on both sides. No matter where you fall with the vaccine debates I think there have been a lot of mis-truths and coverups. I remember when the lab leak theory was consider tinfoil hat stuff that only the Dailymail would cover. Having a parent fading with dementia I see you can't trust anyone. Contractors will make up issues and you have to get 3 or 4 opinions. Family members will crawl out of the woodwork and do all sorts of deceptive things. You find out the pillars of the community are secretly stealing money or doing other nefarious things. I told my husband nothing can happen to him because he restores my faith in humanity.

After all I have experienced in my 50s, I'm afraid by my 70s and 80s I will be running around muttering "Don't trust the government!" "Fauci, Trump, Biden and son....all crooks and liars!!!!!" "Cloth masks work, no they don't, yes they do, no they don't , yes they do, no masks, wear masks" "The government lies....republicans, democrats...you can't trust them. They just want to profit from the presidency." I'll be in a corner rocking and muttering these things and a nice young lady will approach me and say "mam, I know, I know, the government lies and you can't trust anyone....it's time for your pureed lunch and then after that we will have a nice game of BINGO. I promise it isn't rigged and the government has nothing to do with it!"