Persons with an anxiety disorder, for example, believe that the world is a threatening place, even if those around them don't particularly think so.
Paranoid individuals look at life pretty much the same way.
Both kinds of people suffer from a chronic feeling of being controlled. The anxious person may deal with her perceived threats by sweating or trembling or blinking. The paranoid person, on the other hand, may complain to the post office that his letter carrier is trying to electrocute him. Addicts, we have seen, also suffer from this chronic feeling of being controlled. Then again, so do criminals.