"How Secret Spying Programs Affect the Clinically Paranoid"

From Scientific American:

So, the government is spying on you.

They’re lingering on your landlines, ogling your Googling, and eavesdropping on your emails. You’re no terrorist, but who knows? Some innocuous correspondence may have tripped the government’s imperfect terrorist-finding algorithm—after all, you’ve been awfully active on Homeland discussion boards lately. Might your unceasing adoration of Mandy Patinkin be mistaken for a violent agenda?

Recent news about the expansive reach of the NSA is enough to make anyone a little paranoid. For those with paranoia in the clinical sense, however, the overwhelming suspicion that “someone is watching” is old news. Individuals with paranoid schizophrenia often report feeling like someone is spying on or following them. Such “persecutory delusions,” which occur in about 50 percent of people with schizophrenia, can be extremely troubling to the sufferer, who often feels threatened by imagined antagonists.
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HT: naked capitalism