I experienced this same paranoia years ago and I'll do my best to give you advice, or at least an insight.

One thing I had to do is prove to myself that the paranoid thought/ paranoia was a false alarm. I say 'had to' because my sleepless nights of waking up in fear because the house was creaking was doing more harm than good. So I would walk through the house towards where I thought the potential sound was and investigate. This meant turning on lights, looking through windows, and checking doors. I was going to prove to myself that nothing was going on. This might be something you can do as well.

Number two is the hard part; understanding that the potential could happen and you can only be ready so much. I like to believe paranoia is a too early alert system that tells us to be prepared for the scenario. When I had the fear that someone was going to break into my home, I got to the point that I had to tell myself that the potential will always be there and I have to accept that fact. All this checking doors and trying to identify sounds in the night was my mind trying to prepare me for the worst, but a lot of things in this life we are not ready for. I also told myself that if it happens that's the time I can be ready is to deal with the aftermath. When it comes to the fear of home break in, that's not the thing you wanna tell yourself but it is a reality that may have to be faced. I try to tell myself in certain times that 'we have to accept the things we cannot change'. Now I know this point is hard to digest. It took me a while after I started telling myself this stuff that the fear and paranoia went away. Also, I want you to understand that from the time my paranoia started to the day I got over it was over two years. I do wish there was more I could have done, but at least I got over it.

If you see a therapist, I would bring it up in therapy. Ask them if there are any methods of getting over the paranoia and fear to try. I wouldn't hurt. Plus, I would not go just relying on what I have to say as I feel that there are probably better coping mechanisms than these, or to add to what I brought up.

I really hope this insight helps. I know it's not much and point two is a lot to absorb, but I really hope that it can help in some way.

i installed a monitoring system for better customer service. our compound is big enough that it is possible for traffic to come and go without notice. so far, it is awkward and the motion detectors go off for chickens as easily as they go off for vehicles. we are far enough from town that there's little pedestrian traffic, so that is not much of a worry.

my own paranoia runs more down the line of drowning in garbage, but whatever the target of paranoia, paranoia, itself, is a sneaky and creative devil. my tools for managing my paranoia are equally creative, starting with countering the sneak factor with open honesty, such as you showed by making this post.

how 'bout it? did it help?

Thank you both. Yes, I’ll talk about it in therapy.