I have noticed that on this forum (and forums with the same general topics in general) it seems that the count of people with Asperger's is abnormally high, probably due to the fact that it is very compatible with Asperger's expectations. Also, Asperger Syndrome have a lot of things in common with Schizoid Personality Disorder, and if I remember correctly SPD tends to be about 3 times as common as AS.

There are some core differences between AS and SPD, the biggest one being that AS is a form of autism while SPD isn't. We could say that AS is a person with a differently wired brain, but that a person with SPD has a "neurotypical" brain that just happened to develop a peculiar personnality of extreme introversion and emotionnal detachment.

People with SPD don't have many of the "autistic" characteristics of AS, like the strong preference for logical patterns in things and people, a natural interest for numbers and other logic related things, the inability to read facial expressions and the lack of innate knowledge that other people aren't rule based and have motivations that might be different than the person with AS.
SPD is more about never-ending introspection, rationnalisation and hyperreflection about pretty much everything. People with SPD have an extremely rich internal world that only rarely surface, and from the outside, people with SPD seem to be completely aloof and detached; but they are in no way autistic. It's just that they rationnalise and internalise everything, but their understanding of the world around them is completely unaffected. They can participate in discussions normally, can get along with people like anybody, but are very unlikely to participate in them by themselves if they don't have to and will almost always prefer to be alone. They do have a strong tendency to be perpetually daydreaming if left idle and are likely to think about fantasy and fictious worlds much more than "normal" people would.


I personally don't like the term "Schizoid" of "Schizoid Personality Disorder" (and a lot of psychiatrists don't either) because it kind of sounds like "schizophrenia" even though they are completely unrelated.
In the case of "schizoid", "schizo" (meaning "split") refers to the split between the inner-world and the outside-world, which is much more pronounced in schizoids than normal people. Their level of introversion rarely let the inner-world surface outside, but they in no way lose touch of the outside world.
In the case of "schizophrenia", "schizo" refers to the split within the self. A schizophrenic person lost the control of his own thoughts in some way, as he is prone to psychosis and is likely to lose touch of reality. What he perceives and what how his brain react to it is completely disjunct.

The way I was acting in my teenage years looked a lot like Asperger's Syndrome. Now that I am older this is completely resorbed. But due to the nature of AS, you cannot be "cured" of it, since it is a life-long condition and it is the brain behavior itself that is "different". I noticed that my acting was in fact more in line of Schizoid Personality Disorder, since because it is actually just an "odd" personality, it is likely to resorb with time if one comes to the realisation of how problematic being this introverted and detached can be. This cannot really happen with AS since it's not just a pattern of thoughts that can be changed with a lot of will power.

I was wondering if a few people that suspect they have AS might in fact have something more similar to SPD. SPD, despite the frightening name, is in some way less of a deal, since it can be changed with immense will power if the person wants to. However, pretty much every person with SPD I met prefered to change their environment to fit their extreme introversion instead of trying to become more extravert, since in their opinion it wasn't so big of a deal and that conforming to the ideals of society wasn't their own ideal.

I live in my own head a lot. But I have always had empathy

According to my psychology textbook, schizoid personality disorder includes not just "few friendships" but also "suspiciousness" and "strange ideas, such as belief that his or her mind can be read by others and that he or she is receiving messages in strange ways". In other words, it's called "schizoid" because it's "similar to" (the meaning of "oid") schizophrenia, with those latter symptoms being comparable to the hallucinations and delusions that characterize schizophrenia.

That's not very similar to Asperger's Syndrome except for the shortage of social ability, and even that appears to work in different ways between the two: lack of motivation/desire in schizoid personality disorder, lack of ability/skill in Aperger's Syndrome.

Just because I think they're out to get me doesn't mean they really aren't.

But no, I've had extensive testing and am sure. I think you mean to those who only suspect, and not have been clinically diagnosed, etc...?

In that case, although there are a couple of surface similarities, there are more differences, and they aren't that difficult to detect, although there is a movement that would rather have Asperger's classified as a personality disorder (think milder form of psychopath) than as a form of Autism.

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This seems quite a reasonable proposition the chart of symptoms while not all complimentary is not a bad list of things to aspire to actually provided you are aware of the influences and keep them under control. Being extroverted is no problem as it is just something you have to do from time to time

From what you are saying would it be that unreasonable not to want to change, if for instance you were much happier in your own private space than having to deal with the demands that other people put on you.

I don't want to be rude to anyone but people are just hard work. Just saying no is such a crushing burden it is just better to walk away. That is not fair to anyone else but it is a survival thing that in the end is better than all the suffering.

The saying is fish and house guests are both the same after three days; they are really on the nose. In small controllable doses they are fine but it is easy if you just want to exist under the radar.

You would just have to feel so sorry for anyone with SPD that couldn't hide. Think what an awful risk it would be to them to be public property like those poor celebrities. I listen to a calm and beautiful inner self but I don't know it that is a good way to describe it. It is like being able to bounce ideas off the universe and know that you can have any of your thoughts heard, then act on them or leave them, simple as that.

It isn't a separate personality as such, just a sense of calm and order so I don't call that SPD but it makes a lot of sense.

I didn't notice that people actually answered. I was browsing my own posts for some reasons...

Is your textbook old? What you are talking about is Schizotypal Personality Disorder, NOT Schizoid. Schizoids tend to be very rational people, and in fact if they are irrational this is often used as "proof" that they are in fact schizotypal. Schizoid just mean "cut from outside/from others", but does imply that the person has no delusion/paranoia/psychosis; schizoids have a normal contact with reality, but have a greater interest to the inner-world than the outer-world.

The wikipedia articles are actually good about schizoid, but a little lacking about schizotypal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoi...ality_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizot...ality_disorder

From the descriptions, it sounds like my life would be easier if I had SPD instead of (or in addition to) Asperger's, because then, being unable to socialize wouldn't bother me much.

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Hmmh...it seems there are enough possible symptoms to cover 99% of the population.

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According to Peptron's definition (and an evaluation from a psychologist), I do have Schizoid tendencies, although probably not SPD as such.

Note: My self-description goes by Peptron's definition of SPD, just to prevent any confusion.

What I have in common with Schizoids:

*Few close friends and social interactions outside family
*Fairly low interest in sexual relationships, though I can occassionally get turned on (call me a borderline asexual, especially for the past 10 or so years)
*Prefers solitary activities most of the time (but don't have any meaningful dislike of social ones)
*Has a pretty rich inner life that only rarely surfaces (though it does surface occasionally)
*Loves "serious" activities more than superficial fun

How I differ from Schizoids

*No aversion to social interaction (In fact, I find social interactions fairly pleasant, but at the same time, I'm certainly not upset by my rather large lack of them)
*Can be even be fairly extroverted in certain crowds (though I'm rather introvered for the most part -- or is it "easily bored with most people"?)
*Able to engage in common everyday pleasantries
*Can engage in small talk when the need or desire arises (I do better in formal and semi-formal, structured discussions though)
*Actually a fairly emotional person, though I usually don't show negative feelings toward others very well.

Given the second list, I doubt if I'm a true Schizoid despite my rather Schizoid-like lifestyle. Still, I actually find books and the Internet more interesting than I find most people to be; mainly because I bore easily with ordinary everyday types of conversations you find at parties. Even so, I can certainly relate to Schizoid personality types fairly well (if we'd ever meet [haha]).

I think it's two-way, one part is that the general topic set and the mode of communicating seems very compatible with Asperger's, which would tend to attract more, the other part is that it's a place where Asperger's is generally accepted, and Asperger's is acceptable as a reason for some communication problems (eg. misinterpretation of intent) so they can be handled with less awkwardness than in the "real" world, which would tend to make it easier to tell about it.

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I think it's that way with geographic locales too. Certain cities / communities tend to attract and/or retain people with a certain kind of mentality. San Francisco vs. Sioux City: picture the cultural and lifestyle interest gap of those places.

I see a similar thing even within different sections of medium sized and large metropolitan areas (at least in the USA: I don't know about other nations). Certain areas of the metro area are at least somewhat more accepting of difference than other parts (mostly the older urban middle class neighborhoods closest to downtown, the parts that survived the late 20th century "white flight" / "middle class flight" phenomenon).

I could well be wrong, but, for the reason I listed above, I think AS people would probably have an easier time in an older but less impoverished part of the city than in a typical suburb. Suburbs tend to be rather monolithic and conformist. It's very difficult to be exposed to anything different unless you consciously and deliberately seek out that difference.

But the topic here is Aspergers vs Schizoid, not neighborhood livability. I only went off on that tangent because Henrik brought it the matter of social environmental acceptance.

Am I strange, then, because I don't have it?

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For those who think there's a post missing, there is, Fraunkensteen's rant has been removed and he has been banned.

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