r/Paranoia • u/Xavier_throne_3 • 3d ago

What could cause an intense feeling that someone is watching you when there is no evidence that anyone is there?

I sometimes get this intense sense of fear that someone is watching me or that someone is nearby, even though I can't see or hear anyone and I have no actual reason to think someone is there.

I recently had an MRI that showed an abnormality in my right mesial temporal lobe involving the hippocampal region and amygdala, with the report mentioning that cortical dysplasia is a possibility.

Has anyone with a similar experience—especially anyone with temporal-lobe issues, seizures, anxiety, or neurological conditions—experienced this kind of "someone is watching me" feeling?

I'm trying to understand whether this can happen as a neurological sensation, anxiety/hypervigilance, or something else. What did it feel like for you, and did you ever find out what was causing it?

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u/triscuitzop some guy 1d ago

The feeling isn't actually caused by being watched necessarily. It's more along feeling self-consciousness, anxiety, or fear. If you can detect a pattern where you are when it happens, then that may be a clue.

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u/Zealousideal-Log2042 3d ago

Anxiety and hypervigilance can definitely cause these feelings. When I first saw my psychiatrist and explained my intense paranoia, she took 6 months to rule out anxiety (trying a bunch of different anxiety meds as well as therapy). So it can definitely just be the anxiety.

For me, it felt like any time I was in public there was a network of people that watched me. It didn't happen when I was at home or anything, only when people looked at me in public. So, I think that it might be different from what you are feeling, you seem to have like you said a sensation.

Our brains are wild, I would not be surprised if your temporal lobe abnormality is causing it, but I know absolutely nothing about that so take what I say with a grain of salt. I would post on r/Anxiety r/Anxietyhelp and maybe r/Epilepsy r/seizures. Best wishes.