me too :-)

H2G2, my goto refuge whenever things got tough. Wish I was as stupefyingly bright and stuffed with morose humour as DA.

Clinically paranoia is a term for a delusional belief that someone has that they are at risk form others, there is a conspiracy against them etc. This is what psychiatrists and other mental health professionals mean when they use the word talking to one another. I do not think this is particularly a symptom associated with autism.

Most regular people seem to use the word to mean an anxiety or a worry about other people that may seem more rational to an outsider. E.g. I used to worry that people didn't really like me and were only being nice to me to be nice. Or if someone is in a bad mood I'd worry that it was because of something I'd done wrong. I think I, and some other people with autism, might be more prone to this because I can be bad at reading people and situations or understanding how friendships work so I'm prone to misinterpreting situations in a way that makes me anxious.

I hope I have made sense here.

Yes, it’s an antipsychotic medication

May I ask what Risperidone is please 

I think you're right about that

Certainly is a fear of the unknown but we are shaped by our experiences and can sometimes put 2 and 2 together and and end up with 64 and paranoia seeps in.

I have lost trust and that is where I think paranoia get mentioned but it is only the logical thinking of us autists follow a logical progression based on experiences and unmet expectations

I've had that on and off at different points when I've had negative experiences or when i was isolated, then emerged after a period of time, i felt it more! i think sometimes its in your head and other times it might not be, its more common amongst autistic people i think. 

Well I used to have paranoia which was definitely affecting my daily life, but I’m on Risperidone now and that’s helped with that quite a lot. Not sure if it’s an autism thing or not though. 

Same here, have trouble being myself due to fears of being judged.

I have that too. You don’t know if people are really thinking bad thoughts about you because there are so many different opinions people have. It’s fear of the unknown.

I suffer from paranoia, every time someone says something nice I always feel that there is something sinister behind it 

same

If you do take the concern to you GP... In the UK the NHS, like any other organisation, is populated by people with different profiles and skill sets.  My personal experience has been mixed in terms of the quality and benefits of encounters that I have had there. So much so that the very place I go to seek help with anxieties can make them worse...  As part of the reasonable adjustments that one should be given is communication that is fit for purpose with you as an individual.  That includes your personal variation of autism - this I admit takes a lot of understanding since it is an area of where there are many things one does not know intuitively and immediately to be best.  If you choose to make your autism and preferred means of communication known (and policy states that you should be asked...) it should be "flagged"  in the notes and booking system about you that is used by the staff .  A national strategy is that people you encounter should "ask, listen, do" with you as an autistic person.  This is part of training they should all have undertaken to give them insight into autism.  However, as is the case with so many things, doing training in something does not ensure understanding, competency and compliance.  I mention this as something to consider.  Equally the strategy of "ask. listen, do" can be used by oneself.  It can give information that can be processed and acted upon to help in areas of social communication where one has difficulties - e.g ask the person what they understand about... (e.g autism anxiety and paranoia) including the implications for your interaction, listen to their answer and then decide what to do next...  hehe looks good on paper or on screen not so easy to do - perhaps gets easier with practice  All the best :-)

Yes me too :- For me this is linked to the social communication difficulties.  As I too appear to have difficulties understanding other peoples intentions unless they are explicitly stated and ratified by their behaviour.  Many experiences of misapprehension, lies (well meaning or otherwise) lead me to very suspicious too.  The extra time and effort that I put into seeking explanation and clear and open communication appears to confuse many people - especially that when explored further many have no self-aware iinsight into why they are behaving the way they are!  

The key, for me, is to understand that sometimes I may be right to have concerns.  However being autistic in a neurotypical world it may be hard for me to know people's intentions in a way that the wider majority of society do.  Though this is persistent it is rational and therefore, as far as I analyse it personally, not paranoia.

Sometimes general or specific anxieties can increase being suspicions and the susceptibility to what is experienced.  Like many other autistic people I am chronically anxious - so this is a major factor for me.  So doing things about the anxiety helps.

A quotes lodged in my mind that perhaps is there for a reason so I would like to share it:

“All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was."
"No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that."
"Everyone?" said Arthur.
"Well, if everyone has that perhaps it means something!
Perhaps somewhere outside the Universe we know..."
"Maybe. Who cares?" said Slartibartfast before Arthur got too excited. "Perhaps I'm old and tired," he continued, "but I always think that the chances of finding what out really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.”

― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

All the best :-)