Agree with DD. On my psych rotation in the state hospital (sickest of the mentally ill patients), I learned it can be triggered by a stressor and many suffered horrendous abuse as children. Not something they're necessarily born with (though there is certainly a genetic component), all sorts of environmental factors come into play. Many of our schizophrenic patients had perfectly normal seeming lives, then some stressor caused a psychotic break. It can come on gradually or happen suddenly.actually, there is no proven fact that "paranoid schizophrenia" is something you are born with. Paranoid Schizophrenia is something that "shows up" in a person when they are around their 20's of age.... sometimes sooner, sometimes later....