Thank you, that sounds very much like my experience. For me it also feels like I can't focus enough to understand and like it's another language. Even if I really try to focus it's like my brain refuses to take it in. I feel the same way when I respond, like I'm faking it. Often it kind of feels like I'm in a dream and I hear my own voice responding on autopilot, but it doesn't really have meaning to me. I've always attributed that to my derealization but maybe there's more to it.

I'm diagnosed as bipolar and not SzA, but on personality tests I tend to have elevated scores on schizoid and (to a lesser extent) schizotypal, which I've heard some people consider as part of a "schizophrenia spectrum," if there is such a thing. I mainly have a significant number of the "negative symptoms" of schizophrenia, like flat affect, avoiding close relationships, being solitary most of the time, unable to really enjoy things, and so on. I tend to live more "in my head" than in the real world. I wonder if this could be related to that.

As to quitting school, I'm really happy that in university the lectures were optional so that I could skip them and learn in my own way. In high school classes were mandatory and it was a disaster. I can't function in any environment where I'm forced to spend large amounts of time in classrooms or interacting with other people.