Paranoia or "Who's Watching Me?"

I corresponded with a woman who recently ordered a book and was reminded that I have not blogged about a topic about which- although my dear Pop didn't have it- I am intimately aquainted.
Virginia and I often remarked about how lucky we were for Pop to be one of those cheerful types- in his worst phases of Alzheimer's he smiled at us vacantly instead of snarling at us vacantly.
Unlike Gramma:
Gramma (his mother) also had Alzheimer's, but in those days the scientific name was "crazy as a loon". But her disease had a scary sidekick: Paranoia.
She covered her paintings with newspaper and when I inquired she explained "Honey, people come in and take my pretty things- so I hide my paintings so they won't know how pretty they are. See this tablecloth? (producing one that was probably more than 100 years old) People came in and took my lovely white tablecloth and left me with this old yellow thing." Even at the tender age of 9 I remember thinking "I think Gramma's 'crazy as a loon' disease is acting up today."
She hid food- we found moldy oranges under her Victorian loveseat, but the BEST story is this one:
My mom and my aunt were going to bake pies for Thanksgiving but could not find sugar. They sent Virginia and me to the neighborhood grocer (remember these? owners lived above the store- they were basically open 24/7) We returned to the house to a HORRIBLE odor. But my aunt and mom were almost collapsed on the floor in laughter. Guess where Gramma had hidden the sugar? She hid it in her oven converted to gas from it's one-time wood-burning status. So when it was preheating, the paper caught fire, dumping 5 lbs of sugar which was rapidly turning to foul smelling burned sugar, but the absurdity had thankfully given my mom and aunt a reason to laugh while cleaning the chaos- it became a Gramma "crazy as a loon" story.
When I interact with caretakers, some of the most heart-breaking stories I hear are how their loved one is accusing them of stealing, or- the most prevalent one!- "my daughter never visits me!" (the most poignant one came from my cousin in law who is the sweetest person on this Earth- she visited and cared for her mother in law up to 5 times per day- and overheard a phone conversation where it was said "oh no- I haven't seen her in weeks")
Sally's advice? See if you can get your sense of humor in gear- there is a book "You Are Not The Target" that helped me in my 20s realize that most human behavior was just simply not about me. But mostly, if your loved one is in a home, go to the support group meetings- seek out other paranoia victims. It is possibly the cruelest symptom out there. See if their doc knows about it- they may have some meds. Then get a cheerful CD like "Rockin to the Oldies" and play it all the way home after a visit. And look for advice from those who are also going through this one! I am a fortunate ignoramous for the most part.