Need advice about how to deal wtih a friend who has been diagnosed as having paranoia.

[Denninmi]

3. I think it depends on her attitude, too.

If she is seeing a doctor, and wants to confront her problems and deal with them, it might be ok to gently tell her not to let the paranoia take her places she shouldn't go. I would test the waters extremely gently, though. I was pretty paranoid last year about what could happen to me -- things that were only remote hypotheticals seemed not inevitable but certainly possible, even if only remotely possible. And, it was rough because people kept telling me, in essence, that I was being irrational. Which irritated me, because I knew my fears were irrational, but that was irrelevant because they were still nearly debilitating. What I really wanted was for someone to just say "everything will be OK" -- ironic, several here on DU did that for me, for which I was very grateful. In real life, good luck with that from the people who should have been there for me. So, if all you can do is listen, do that.