2013-04-19, 10:17 PM
Hi! 
. I have a BA in Psychology (not that that really means much anymore these days) and I think I can offer (some) help. First, if you want to know what to call it, I would wager that's: irrational paranoia feeding into obsessive compulsive tendencies. My first recommendation would be a straight up talk about how I phrased that: "irrational" paranoia. The matter of it all is, if your grandmother were, say, in the Irish mob, then a little paranoia would be a healthy thing but seeing as how I'm sure she's probably not, the first, easiest, and probably least effective thing would be to try to talk her out of it.
If she's receptive, then you just take the approach of letting her explain why she does what she does and gently showing her why that's wrong. (as in, don't tell her she's in the wrong; she'll just get defensive. Instead, simply keep an eye out for logical inconsistencies and when you spot them, innocently question her on them). If she's not as receptive, offer to look up local crime stats (if you think that'd help; depends on the area, personally I live in one of the safest places in the US by FBI standards).
The next thing that I would try would be to wait it out with her. It's sort of like when a parent spends the night with a kid to prove that "monsters" don't exist. You tell her that if that's as big a threat as it is that you want to document it; help her, you know, "catch" the perpetrators. Each night, for, I don't know, a week, help her monitor the things she is afraid of, and if, after a week, nothing has happened, that's when you challenge her paranoia. "Grandma, if this really is a problem, I want to help, but we've tested this for a week and nothing has happened. Do you think that maybe you're being more nervous about this than you should be?"
After that, well, I recently read they made some promising strides with studies on Tylenol. I'd take this advice with a grain of sand, but apparently, taking Tylenol regularly can help people regulate their levels of anxiety about life. Of course, you could always just encourage your grandmother to see a therapist because that's someone infinitely more qualified than you or me to deal with your grandmother's paranoia, but I'm assuming we ruled that out even before you posted this. :<
PS: I would say the thing you LEAST want to do is try to force her into something, be that hiding keys, or anything else. Very rarely, if ever, does confronting a paranoid person with hostility or passive aggressive behavior solve the problem. :< As far as I've ever studied the subject in school, the trick is to lead the paranoid person to the right conclusion such that they think they came to it on their own.
. I have a BA in Psychology (not that that really means much anymore these days) and I think I can offer (some) help. First, if you want to know what to call it, I would wager that's: irrational paranoia feeding into obsessive compulsive tendencies. My first recommendation would be a straight up talk about how I phrased that: "irrational" paranoia. The matter of it all is, if your grandmother were, say, in the Irish mob, then a little paranoia would be a healthy thing but seeing as how I'm sure she's probably not, the first, easiest, and probably least effective thing would be to try to talk her out of it.If she's receptive, then you just take the approach of letting her explain why she does what she does and gently showing her why that's wrong. (as in, don't tell her she's in the wrong; she'll just get defensive. Instead, simply keep an eye out for logical inconsistencies and when you spot them, innocently question her on them). If she's not as receptive, offer to look up local crime stats (if you think that'd help; depends on the area, personally I live in one of the safest places in the US by FBI standards).
The next thing that I would try would be to wait it out with her. It's sort of like when a parent spends the night with a kid to prove that "monsters" don't exist. You tell her that if that's as big a threat as it is that you want to document it; help her, you know, "catch" the perpetrators. Each night, for, I don't know, a week, help her monitor the things she is afraid of, and if, after a week, nothing has happened, that's when you challenge her paranoia. "Grandma, if this really is a problem, I want to help, but we've tested this for a week and nothing has happened. Do you think that maybe you're being more nervous about this than you should be?"
After that, well, I recently read they made some promising strides with studies on Tylenol. I'd take this advice with a grain of sand, but apparently, taking Tylenol regularly can help people regulate their levels of anxiety about life. Of course, you could always just encourage your grandmother to see a therapist because that's someone infinitely more qualified than you or me to deal with your grandmother's paranoia, but I'm assuming we ruled that out even before you posted this. :<
PS: I would say the thing you LEAST want to do is try to force her into something, be that hiding keys, or anything else. Very rarely, if ever, does confronting a paranoid person with hostility or passive aggressive behavior solve the problem. :< As far as I've ever studied the subject in school, the trick is to lead the paranoid person to the right conclusion such that they think they came to it on their own.