Hello Breezy!

This is kind of an older post, but hopefully this will be helpful to you or someone else who stumbles across it.

I can also relate to almost all of what you wrote (more on that later) and am diagnosed with Schizotypal. To start with, I agree with you that self diagnosis is not a good idea. No sensible person would self diagnose themselves with breast cancer or diabetes. Mental health diseases are no different. However, doing research is definitely a good idea - especially in regard to selecting the right person to do your diagnostic assessment. While it is true that specialists are prone to see what they are trained in, the flip side is that they are in fact specialists. To use another medical analogy, you wouldn't go to a podiatrist if you thought you had cancer - you would go to an oncologist because they have more knowledge in that area. If you think you might have a personality disorder, you should find someone trained in personality disorders to do your DA.

This will very likely require you to do some self advocating when seeking help as the Mental Health field is sadly behind the times in most areas. If you go to a mental health center and request a DA you will most likely be set up with an appointment with whichever provider has the next available appointment instead of being paired with someone who has experience and expertise in the specific area you are seeking help in. Before I went in for my DA I researched all of the local providers and found a Psychologist who specialized in personality disorders and also had extended experience in psychological testing. When I did go in to request the DA, as expected, they tried to set me up with an appointment with "the next available provider". I refused and insisted that I be seen by the Psychologist that I had pre-selected, even though it meant an additional wait time as he was booked out. It was worth the wait. He did an hour and a half interview and 4 hours of testing with me. He then consulted with a Psychiatrist to confirm my diagnosis - which makes me extremely confident that my diagnosis of Schizotypal is accurate.

Back to the topic of you. There is a great amount of overlap in symptoms between Schizotypal, Schizoid, other personality disorders, and Asperger. So it's no surprise that you find connections to all of these. Regarding your symptoms, they are definitely in line with Schizotypal and I can personally relate to most of what you listed - including the feeling of being generally "different" than others, being paranoid and suspicious of others, rarely feeling the emotion of anger - even when it is justified, being overly formal in speech and writing, dressing/appearing oddly, being gullible, lack of close friends and isolation throughout life, magical thinking, etc, etc, etc. Also of specific note is auditory hallucinations, which I have had since childhood - and, oddly, exactly as you have described in that I sometimes hear a voice saying my name - usually, but not always, while trying to fall asleep.

So, in answer to your final question, I am very confident in my diagnosis of Schizotypal and can very much relate to the list of traits and symptoms that you have provided.

I would suggesting finding a qualified professional to do a proper diagnostic assessment and then go from there. I have found medication and therapy to be very helpful, although it did take me quite a while to find a therapist who I could work with (I went through 4 therapists before I found a good match).