Hey Thomas,

Did the paranoid thoughts predate smoking weed, or start sometime later?

"Write down those paranoid thoughts and rank, on a scale of 1-100, how certain you are of them. Write down alternate thoughts or explanations and rate those 1-100. Go back to your paranoid thoughts and re-evaluate your convictions, 1-100. This is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy technique".

Employ the Technique For Reprogramming Negative Thoughts: Negative thoughts often occur before negative emotions. It's important to regularly monitor, and deal with a negative internal monologue (self talk), or mental process, such as disturbing thoughts, images, impulses, etc., by the process of (a): recognising it, and (b): challenging it immediately. Use the "Technique For Re-Programming Negative Thoughts" - When you notice something negative, such as: "I can't do this/ am never going to get over this!" or: "Why am I always so useless/such a loser?" or even an image, emotion, or a memory; recognise that it is being generated from the negative part of your mind. After identifying and labelling it, visualise a large, red, flashing, "STOP!" sign, and/or possibly a stern faced person wagging an index finger at you in a negative manner, then say to yourself as forcefully as you can, even aloud in a big voice, if alone: "I know this tactic: GO AWAY FOR A WHILE !!!" You may want to use either: "ruse", "ploy", "game", or "trick". In the case of an image, visualise a large "STOP" sign, or your preferred version.

Some people go so far as to keep a wide rubber band in their pocket, then put it around their wrist, when they catch themselves backsliding, stretch and release it, as a method of reprogramming their mind sooner, but I don't regard it as being strictly necessary. Remember to remove it, afterwards, if you use this method. Try replacing a negative thought with a positive affirmation of your choice, like: "I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside" - Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Check out: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...noia&x=15&y=19 such as: The Paranoia Switch: How Terror Rewires Our Brains and Reshapes Our Behavior--and How We Can Reclaim Our Courage by Martha Stout, & The Paranoia of Everyday Life: Escaping the Enemy Within by Gerald Alper, &
Overcoming Paranoid and Suspicious Thoughts: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques by Daniel Freeman.

"Even if we have some vague idea that we are not our feelings or our thoughts, when we are experiencing painful feelings or painful thoughts, we believe we have to feel them or think them just because of the fact that they are occurring to us. But painful feelings can be indirectly controlled by physical action, and changing our present thoughts for different thoughts (since feeling occurs as a result of thinking.) Painful thoughts can be directly controlled by choosing replacement thoughts for the ones that are troubling us. Sure, it takes some practice to change a lifetime habit of suffering. But it can be done. Of course it can't be done if we choose to believe that it can't be done. But, since the choice is ours, why not choose to believe it can be done, and do it?"

Use an affirmation such as: "The feeling of paranoia has no basis in reality. I will stop feeling things that aren't real now". Repeat it a few times.

Check out http://www.wikihow.com/Special:GoogS...om%2FMain-Page and
http://www.ehow.com/search.html?s=pa...orporate&t=all such as:
How to Control Paranoia,
How to Treat Paranoia,
How to Deal With Paranoia,
How to Manage Paranoia, &
How to Overcome Paranoia.

Hypnosis is merely a heightened state of suggestibility, in which you are better able to communicate with your subconscious mind; view http://myfavoriteinterests.com/hypnosis/ about what it is, and isn't. 85% of people are suggestible to some degree; 15% - 20% highly so, and 15% - 20% aren't much at all, so you could either preferably seek professional hypnotherapy, or, if not an option, hypnosisdownloads.com has ones about stopping paranoid thoughts, & overcoming fear of death, and instant-hypnosis.com has: Put an End to Paranoia. Professional advice is to use preferably only 1, or a maximum of 2 at any one time.

I can't determine whether your pains are from anxiety, or panic attacks, but I suggest that you view
http://anxietyforum.net/forum/showth...006#post220006
about them and see what your symptoms indicate, as it's likely to be one or the other, in the absence of a medical explanation. There is also a post on insomnia. The following would cause the allowable character limit here to be exceeded, so I'll include it in a later post: