Well... I honestly don't know the answer to your question. However I experience a lot of generalized anxiety & also some paranoia. I'm an older person & I don't recall ever feeling particularly paranoid when I was younger even though I struggled with a lot of anxiety back then too. Nowadays, though, paranoia is something that does come upon me particularly later at night.

Perhaps the paranoia I experience is simply a sign that, over time, the constant anxiety I have dealt with has "worn away" whatever layers of resistance I had when I was younger? Or perhaps it's a matter of my generalized anxiety just worsening? I don't really know. Actually, nowadays, I no longer even have anything in particular to be anxious about. But I think after so many years of running on my nerves, so to speak, my body just no longer knows how to function any other way.