I looked into the same thing myself a month or so ago when I was feeling paranoid but it wasn’t interfering with my functioning. Dr google said that since it WASN’T interfering with functioning it was just intense anxiety. One article suggested that someone with anxiety might worry about being in a car accident but someone with paranoia might worry that someone would intentionally cause and accident.

That being said, where is the line? I started out by worrying about being pulled over, which then morphed into worrying about the police pulling me over and then falsely claiming I was high or drunk and arresting me. Did I go from anxiety to paranoia? I’m still not sure. All I know is an increase and eventual change in my AP completely eliminated the police paranoia, along with the food poisoning thoughts and the general sense of unease that someone was going to hurt me.

If it’s nit bothering you anymore then I think it may have been intense anxiety. But if it continues to happen it could be paranoia.

I’m sorry if this wasn’t much help :-/