I asked my T this question once.

His answer is that something like thinking that your ex is about to poison your food is paranoia. In my case, I feel as if neighbors will laugh at me, or worse see the condition of my house when it is messy and report me to CPS. I will see landscapers outside and think that they are really there to kill/hurt me. I go to stores and think that the security personnel are watching me behind the cameras ad will think that I am stealing and come after me. When I used to work, I would swear I could hear bosses and co workers whispering about me, every time they went into a closed door meeting without me I knew they were discussing when they were going to fire me.

I think what you describe with your relationship with the unknown sounds just like being bipolar to me. Sometimes, you feel grandiose and can do anything, so you do, and other times you are frightened and feeling vulnerable and down. Paranoia can be a big part of bipolar. For me it mostly happens when I am down or mixed.

Hypervigilance, which is not exactly paranoia, often happens for me when I am coming out of a paranoid episode. I feel as if every thing I feel is about to become a symptom and sometimes, I will misinterpret things that people do or say or question if I did the right thing in a situation.

Let me know if this made sense. I feel like it didn't...