On Paranoia...

“You’re just being paranoid.”

It’s a phrase that intimidates, shames, and scares. Too often, it sentences real victims of electronic surveillance to silent suffering. 

It’s also a phrase that can reveal unflattering things about the speaker, who may simply be ignorant, shallow, or mean, and who sometimes shows a strong tendency to avoid reality. The fact is, other people cannot make your problems go away by telling you that they do not exist—and neither can you.
Life has taught all of us some valuable lessons: An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. Trust your instincts. And that noise you heard coming from your car’s engine yesterday will not go away tomorrow; it will get worse. Ignoring these lessons has a name: The Ostrich Effect.

Granted, some people really do have paranoia problems. But these people usually do not confess to having a specific fear about specific events. They express their concerns in more general terms, such as “They know everything about me” or “It’s been going on for years.” Regardless, these people need kindness and medical help, not name calling.

If thoughts of eavesdropping or business espionage are new to you, and you have a suspect or a motive in mind, pay attention. Your intuition is telling you that something is wrong. Too many “coincidences” have tipped your inner warning scale. Your subconscious alert is sounding a real alarm, just as surely as the smell of smoke reminds you of the food left burning on the stove.

Trust your judgment. Something is wrong. 

Talk to an independent TSCM security consultant. This will be a person who specializes in electronic surveillance detection and business counterespionage. If TSCM is just another menu item and not the specialty of their house, you haven't found the right person. Keep looking. (Try here for business-related issues, or here for strictly personal issues.)

By the way, there is also hope on the horizon for people with real paranoia problems....
"Results of a preliminary trial, announced today at the Wellcome Trust in London, demonstrated how people with schizophrenia could overcome their auditory hallucinations by conversing with an avatar representation of the voice in their head.

At the start of the trial, 16 people with schizophrenia created an on-screen avatar that best matched what they imagined the voice in their head to look like – much like a police photo-fit. They then chose a male or female voice closely resembling the one they hear.

By conversing with a therapist via the avatar, the volunteers reported reduced levels of distress and higher self-esteem. Three people stopped hearing the hallucinatory voice altogether – including one who had lived with it for 16 years." (more)