My Pops also deals with paranoia, especially at night, that someone can get into our home and hurt or rob us to the point that he checks all doors inside and outside at least 8/10 times to make sure they are locked. He claims all blinds and curtains once the sun goes down, and heaven forbid my 18 year old daughter (his granddaughter) be out after dark. He cannot sleep or relax until she's home so I sometimes have to tell him she's staying with a friend so he can go to bed. We now recently installed a security camera and him being able to see what's happening outside from inside has eased his paranoia some.

This is all part of this Disease. It goes hand in hand even being scared to be left alone.

Sounds like my mother. The only thing that is helping to calm her is increased dosage of Sertraline and adding Lorazapam. I give Mom half dose with morning meds; another half 4 hours later. A full dose mid to late afternoon or at the first sign of increased paranoia, delusions, agitation (Sundowning). Mom still believes terrible things are happening, but we are both calmer.

My 77-year old husband has paranoia and delusions as well. When he is stressed he’s angry, too. His paranoia usually centers on “people” trying to get into our house to steal things, or to take over our house and kick us out. He works himself into a lather talking about his “stuff” being stolen. He says there were people around our house. I used to just say “no one stole your stuff,” or “there’s no one here but us,” but he would just get worked up insisting there were people here and his stuff is missing, etc. I’m always trying new tacks to take to de-escalate his ire. He’s on seroquel and is having fewer episodes of angry paranoia and delusions, but I’m also trying to limit stressful situations (yard work on our 5 acres) so I’m not sure whether it’s the seroquel or my efforts that are at work...probably a combination. Now I just say “gee I didn’t see any people” instead of insisting there were none, and I ask what they looked like (sometimes he describes ME!); I ask what stuff is missing, he can’t say but seems to feel I’m at least paying attention to his complaint; and I try diversion, which really works to change gears in a lot of situations. Yesterday we trimmed crape myrtles and he started to get angry and paranoid about the people, saying he was going to call 911. Because he was a cop and knows what Baker Act is, I took a chance and said calmly, “Oh dear, if you call 911 and the police come I’m going to have to tell them you have Alzheimer’s and if they think you’re out of control with anger they might Baker Act you.” Wow, that worked! We were able to move on after he spent some time in the house making sure “his stuff” was still there, and spent the afternoon sitting around our fire ring burning our yard debris.