Quote:
Originally Posted by fairydustgirl
A long time ago I actually looked this up as to the behaviors of asd/npd/schizoaffective...as I was involved with an sza man for a while...a lot of behaviors he told me about, especially as a child pointed towards asd but his diagnosis as an adult went from bipolar 1 to sza/bipolar type. I just noticed the behaviors of those other 3 disorders are so similar and especially the way they affected me as a partner. He had several other disorders on top of the first and was a complicated man.
I am currently involved with a man I suspect is asd, I don't want to ask but there are a LOT of characteristics I see. I find our friendship to be difficult in ways but still I am trying to stick it out. I can't find it in myself to leave him for something he has no control over any more than I would want him to leave me for my bipolar disorder (which he doesn't know about yet either)
I'm not a professional in psychology or any of that, but have a lot of experience in facilitating support groups with people who have different mental issues and doing personal research on disorders that I was not familiar with so that I had an idea of what I was dealing with in the group members. I wanted to know whether a group member was showing symptoms of illness or was just being a jerk
I think there are a lot of symptom overlap/characteristic overlap with a lot of different mental issues...especially those that affect thought vs mood.
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Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply.
Having experiencing facilitating support groups counts, I have experience chairing 12 step groups so I can relate.
I appreciate the comment about symptoms of an illness or being a jerk. In my case father's case he is definitely showing symptoms of an illness, after listening to me for a couple of sessions a former therapist gave me the diagnostic criteria for NPD in regards to my dad. My current therapist is working with me further on this. My dad is a jerk too, but the harm he does to other people goes beyond that. If an order is identified then it can help you understand why that person is the way they are and what caused it.
You sound like a very compassionate person.
It sounds like your relationship with your friend is rather harmonious and he hasn't hurt you in any way?