If the SHTF and you're not prepared, there will be no need to worry then either. But least you've played a major role in determining your own fate, and by that decision not to make preparations, you might have subtracted even more from your already "short life".
Visit your local fire department and learn first hand that being in a constant state of readiness/preparedness doesn't mean you're "perpetually paranoid". Being prepared means your prepared for many of the little disasters in life that happened from time to time as well, like a big storm or etc.
Doing so, over the last dozen year or so, has made my life and the lives of my neighbors easier, more times than I can remember. Over the years, we've dealt with major storms, no power, folks loosing their jobs, sickness, no food in the stores, and etc.
Americans have always been an independent people. What's changed???
As the Bible says:
Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
God is in control of my life and I will accept whatever fate He has in store for me. If it be short, then I'll be in Heaven all that much sooner.
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
I guess the definitions of being prepared and what is paranoid have different meanings based on where you live and what your lifestyle has always been.
We live in the boonies, the nearest shopping mall and our medical center is 90 miles away. The closest city with 100,000 or more is 300 miles away. We live in the forest by a lake. There in itself is a huge pantry. We heat with wood.
Don’t get me going on what we’ve always had for guns and ammo.
We are used to freezing blizzards and are always prepared accordingly, such as food, gasoline etc stocks. We are big into gardening.
We live within walking distance of beef and grain producing farms, something on the order of the old Jericho TV show.
Even the Soviet Union let those out in the middle of no where pretty much be on their own, they simply were not a threat.
So, I don’t think we will get to worried about disasters or disorder. People in huge metro areas will die like rats by the millions long before we will. Those lucky enough to bug out will never make where we live and if they do it’s highly unlikely they’d survive without the natural adaptability locals have.