Hi, I have been Diagnosed as a "Schizoidtypol Eccentric".
I have an IQ of 148, and no known history of Schizophrania in my family.
I am confused by what I have read.
I am also not totally "Socially Avoidant"
I do admit to being "Eccentric"
I do admit to having a "Personal Perception of Reality" which does not comply with the "Social Normal Society".
I also believe there is a difference between "Normality" and "Reality". To me "Normality" is what society dictates: education, job, home, marriage, 2.5 children, etc. "Reality" is what nature dictates: Mother Earth, the weather, basic needs of humanities existance, love and compassion for other living beings.
I have found out after 5 nervous breakdowns that I can no longer survive on my own in "Normality" luckly I have a husband to take care of me. But I can survive just fine and am very happy and content living in "Reality".
I also believe that all humans in the world should have rights: The right to have shelter, food, clothing, education and healthcare. If people are happy and healthy, the crime rate would be all most nil. And happy and healthy people are more productive people in society as a whole, which would better the world for all. No one should be a slave, or be mistreated by there fellow human. No one has the right to own the earth, we must all take care of her, or we will have no home and no future.
My questions are:
Why am I concidered so abnormal?
What is so wrong with believing in a higher power (ei: God, etc.)?
Why do 99.9 % of Therapist and Mental Health Professionals avoid people like me?
Why did I have 3 Psychatists, breakdown on me during session?
Don't most people believe in a higher power such as God, or believe in a Million Dollars, without ever having seen either?
Why do some people seem to avoid me like I am contagious with the plague?
Other questions I have:
What does it matter how one dresses in society?
Why do people lie?
Why does greed have to exist in the world?
Why can't they genetically alter the future by removing the greed and lying genes?
Okay here is what I have found for information:
Schizotypal Eccentric
Schizotypal personality disorder, or simply
schizotypal disorder, is a
personality disorder that is characterized by a need for
social isolation, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs.
Causes
Genetic
Although listed in the
DSM-IV-TR on
Axis II, schizotypal personality disorder is widely understood to be a "
schizophrenia spectrum" disorder. Rates of schizotypal PD are much higher in relatives of individuals with schizophrenia than in the relatives of people with other mental illnesses or in people without mentally ill relatives. Technically speaking, schizotypal PD is an "
extended phenotype" that helps geneticists track the familial or genetic transmission of the genes that are implicated in
schizophreniaHYPERLINK \l "cite_note-0"[1] There are dozens of studies showing that individuals with schizotypal PD score similar to individuals with schizophrenia on a very wide range of neuropsychological tests.
Cognitive deficits (
Cognitive deficit is an inclusive term to describe any characteristic that acts as a barrier to
cognitive performance. The term may describe deficits in global intellectual performance, such as
mental retardation, it may describe specific deficits in cognitive abilities (
learning disorders,
dyslexia), or it may describe drug-induced cognitive/memory impairment, such as that seen with
alcohol and the
benzodiazepines. Cognitive deficits may be
congenital or caused by environmental factors such as
brain injuries,
neurological disorders, or
mental illness.
Cognitive deficit is an inclusive term to describe any characteristic that acts as a barrier to
cognitive performance. The term may describe deficits in global intellectual performance, such as
mental retardation, it may describe specific deficits in cognitive abilities (
learning disorders,
dyslexia), or it may describe drug-induced cognitive/memory impairment, such as that seen with
alcohol and the
benzodiazepines. Cognitive deficits may be
congenital or caused by environmental factors such as
brain injuries,
neurological disorders, or
mental illness.
) in patients with schizotypal PD are very similar to, but somewhat milder than, those for patients with schizophrenia.
Social / Environmental
People with schizotypal PD, like patients with schizophrenia, may be quite sensitive to interpersonal criticism and hostility, and there is now evidence to suggest that parenting styles, early separation, and early childhood neglect can lead to the development of schizotypal traits.
Diagnosis
World Health Organization
The
World Health Organization's
ICD-10 lists schizotypal personality disorder as
(FHYPERLINK "http://apps.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online/?gf20.htm+f21"21.) Schizotypal disorder. (
Note that in ICD-10, Schizotypal disorder is classified as a mental disorder associated with schizophrenia rather than a personality disorder as with DSM-IV. The DSM-IV designation of schizotypal as a personality disorder is controversial.)
It is characterized as:
A disorder characterized by eccentric behaviour and anomalies of thinking and affect which resemble those seen in schizophrenia, though no definite and characteristic schizophrenic anomalies have occurred at any stage. There is no dominant or typical disturbance, but any of the following may be present:
Inappropriate or constricted
affect (the individual appears cold and aloof);
Behaviour or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar;
Poor rapport with others and a tendency to social withdrawal;
Odd beliefs or
magical thinking,
Magical thinking is
causal reasoning that looks for
correlation between acts or utterances and certain events. In
religion,
folk religion and
superstition, the correlation posited is between religious
ritual, such as
prayer,
sacrifice or the observance of a
taboo, and an expected benefit or recompense. In
clinical psychology, magical thinking is a condition that causes the patient to experience
irrational fear of performing certain acts or having certain thoughts because they assume a correlation with their acts and threatening calamities.
Magical thinking includes all systems of
magic, as it includes the idea of
mental causation, i.e. the possibility of the mind having an effect on the physical world directly. In
Jungian psychology, magical thinking is described in terms of
synchronicity, an approach that looks not for causality but for
meaning in the co-occurrence of certain events.
"Quasi-magical thinking" describes "cases in which people act as if they erroneously believe that their action influences the outcome, even though they do not really hold that belief".
influencing behaviour and inconsistent with
subcultural norms;
In
sociology,
anthropology and
cultural studies, a
subculture is a group of people with a
culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong, for example, if a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the
dominant culture, it may be described as a
counterculture.
Suspiciousness or paranoid ideas;
Obsessive
ruminations without inner resistance, often with
dysmorphophobic, sexual or aggressive contents;
Unusual perceptual experiences including somatosensory (bodily) or other illusions,
depersonalization or
derealization;
Vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped thinking, manifested by odd speech or in other ways, without gross incoherence;
Occasional transient quasi-psychotic episodes with intense illusions, auditory or other hallucinations, and delusion-like ideas, usually occurring without external provocation.
The disorder runs a chronic course with fluctuations of intensity. Occasionally it evolves into overt schizophrenia. There is no definite onset and its evolution and course are usually those of a personality disorder. It is more common in individuals related to schizophrenics and is believed to be part of the genetic "spectrum" of schizophrenia.
Diagnostic Guidelines
This diagnostic rubric is not recommended for general use because it is not clearly demarcated either from simple schizophrenia or from schizoid or paranoid personality disorders. If the term is used, three or four of the typical features listed above should have been present, continuously or episodically, for at least 2 years. The individual must never have met criteria for schizophrenia itself. A history of schizophrenia in a first-degree relative gives additional weight to the diagnosis but is not a prerequisite.
includes
borderline schizophrenia
latent schizophrenia
latent schizophrenic reaction
prepsychotic schizophrenia
prodromal schizophrenia
pseudoneurotic schizophrenia
pseudopsychopathic schizophrenia
schizotypal personality disorder
Excludes
Asperger's syndrome
schizoid personality disorder
Millon's subtypes
Theodore Millon identified two subtypes of schizotypal. Any individual schizotypal may exhibit none or one of the following:
insipid schizotypal - a structural exaggeration of the passive-detached pattern. They include
schizoid,
depressive,
dependent features.
timorous schizotypal - a structural exaggeration of the active-detached pattern. They include
avoidant, negativistic (
passive-aggressive) features.
Differential diagnosis
There is a high rate of
comorbidity with other personality disorders. McGlashan et al. (2000) stated that this may be due to overlapping criteria with other personality disorders, such as
avoidant personality disorder,
paranoid personality disorder and
borderline personality disorder.
[8]
There are many similarities between the schizotypal and
schizoid personalities. Most notable of the similarities is the inability to initiate or maintain relationships (both friendly and romantic). The difference between the two seems to be that those labeled as schizotypal avoid social interaction because of a deep-seated fear of people. The schizoid individuals simply feel no desire to form relationships, because they simply see no point in sharing their time with others.
Prevalence (epidemiology)
Schizotypal personality disorder occurs in 3% of the general population and occurs slightly more commonly in males.
[9]
History
The specific term schizotype was coined by Sandor Rado in 1956 as an abbreviation of schizophrenic phenotype
[6].
See also
DSM-IV codes (personality disorders)
ICD-10 codes (personality disorders)
Paranoid personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder
Schizophrenia
Schizotypy
References
^ Fogelson, D.L., Nuechterlein, K.H., Asarnow, R.F., et al., (2007). Avoidant personality disorder is a separable schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorder even when controlling for the presence of paranoid and schizotypal personality disorders: The UCLA family study. Schizophrenia Research, 91, 192-199.
^ Matsui, M., Sumiyoshi, T., Kato, K., et al., (2004). Neuropsychological profile in patients with schizotypal personality disorder or schizophrenia. Psychological Reports, 94(2), 387-397.
^ Deidre M. Anglina, Patricia R. Cohenab, Henian Chena (2008) Duration of early maternal separation and prediction of schizotypal symptoms from early adolescence to midlife, Schizophrenia Research Volume 103, Issue 1, Pages 143-150 (August 2008)
^ Howard Berenbaum, Ph.D., Eve M. Valera, Ph.D. and John G. Kerns, Ph.D. (2003) Psychological Trauma and Schizotypal Symptoms, Oxford Journals, Medicine, Schizophrenia Bulletin Volume 29, Number 1 Pp. 143-152
^ Schizotypal personality disorder - International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (
ICD-10)
^
a b Millon, Theodore, Personality Disorders in Modern Life, 2004
^ Millon, Theodore - Personality Subtypes
^ McGlashan, T.H., Grilo, C.M., Skodol, A.E., Gunderson, J.G., Shea, M.T., Morey, L.C., et al. (2000). The collaborative longitudinal personality disorders study: Baseline axis I/II and II/II diagnostic co-occurrence.
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 102, 256-264.
^ Internet Mental Health - schizotypal personality disorder
External links
ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for Schizotypal Disorder.
Link collection for resources on Schizotypal Disorder.
Video lecture by Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky on schizotypal personality and "metamagical thinking".