Whats the difference between Schizotypal and Aspergers?

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I have an official diagnosis of ASD, with strong traits of OCD and ADHD as well as a Mensa level IQ.

My best friend has an official diagnosis of Schizotypal disorder and is both one of the smartest and one of the most well-read people I ever met.

We are very similar in many ways, yet differ strongly in one area. For him, psychosis and psychosis-like states of mind are a normal part of life. For me, psychosis is so alien I can only comprehend the concept on a very abstract way.

So in my experience, the main difference is familiarity with psychosis.

Where do you get that? Schizotypal personality has a strong genetic component. It's unusually common among family members of people with schizophrenia (another strongly genetic condition) and is therefore considered to be on the schizophrenia spectrum.

Anyway, on to how to distinguish it from AS:



Bolded items are features of AS as well, and italics are traits commonly resulting from bullying. So I would suggest in someone who meets criteria for autism, SZPD should only be diagnosed if they have ideas of reference or odd beliefs/magical thinking.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18554872

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl= ... _sdt=1%2C5

Interesting. Way back when I was first in therapy as a teenager, the psychologist gave a possible diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder in addition to my more obvious diagnoses (mainly, OCD, ADD, social anxiety/AvPD, and depression; at various points in time, generalized anxiety disorder and OCPD were also suggested), but she never mentioned this to me; I only found out years later when going back into therapy with another psychologist and gaining access to my old files to apply for SSI.

Needless to say, I was surprised--why had she never mentioned it? For a while I toyed with the idea of having schizotypal PD, though the thought of it really being an issue of mine never really struck me as much as did the other disorders with which I was diagnosed (mainly, SA/AvPD). To this day I don't even know if it was considered an "official" diagnosis or if she'd just been suggesting it in addition to the others.

The therapist I had as an adult suggested Asperger's to me, but I was ignorant on the subject and the conversation never went anywhere after that and I was never diagnosed with it. Since then what I've learned has me just about convinced that while I obviously have social anxiety disorder, and perhaps OCD, I do not believe I have ADD at all (it never responded to medication), and some of the symptoms of my OCD and most or all of my symptoms of ADD could be due to Asperger's. (I've never believed I suffer from actual clinical depression...I fully believe the depression is secondary to my anxiety and comes from just feeling lonely and rejected all the time. It never responded to any medication, either.)

Anyway. I realized that most of the symptoms of schizotypal PD I was exhibiting could be explained away by Asperger's as well. So instead of the cornucopia of diagnoses I had before, it might simply be moderate OCD, Asperger's, and social anxiety--the last of which I was not born with, but which is largely due to the difficulties I've had socializing, possibly due to Asperger's--in short, another secondary disorder.

Sure sounds a lot simpler than OCD/ADD/SAD/MDD/AvPD/GAD/OCPD/STPD/what-have-you!

I feel like I'm blithering now, so...

My official current dx is paranoid personality disorder but I also definitely have traits of schizotypal and avoidant.
At prep school I was mildly teased and it was once suggested I was the 'missing link' . At public school it was much worse and the most mortifying event was having monkey chants aimed at me by practically a whole classroom .
I found this research interesting http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22686230 as I have the paranoia,social anxiety and lack of close friends.
I am almost certain that negative peer reactions due to my physical and social awkwardness were the catalysts for chronic paranoia and chronic severe SA.
40 plus years on and my wariness of people due to those teenage experiences has not improved much. I also have ideas of reference(?)- It is usual for me to think that people can pick up signs that I am odd ie body movements etc.
This is not helped by comments I have had over my walking - tendency to veer from side to side as though slightly intoxicated and some say less than masculine walking style.

I have magical thinking and bizarre fantasies since childhood. Now some of my thoughts may look as ideas of reference (but I think that many of them appear to be connected with spirituality). I am conspicious since being about 16 years old.

Now I have both diagnoses - Asperger's (F84.5) and schizotypal disorder (F21). I suppose that in Northern America it could be named in "euphemistic" way - as "nonverbal learning disorder with emotional problems (especially anxiety)". I have not many symptoms of ASD. I have rather flexible thinking, rather good sensory integration (but I dislike some tactile stimuli).

One person from Polish AS forum wrote that I was misdiagnosed with AS(D) and have psychotic spectrum disorder instead of it. I would say that I have some sort of autism and PDD and that I am some sort of a "schizo", learning is my strength (but I think that I have a mild form of "NLD" also).

For me schizotypal disorder is a mental illness (F21 in ICD-10), not (just) a personality disorder (as it is written in DSM). People with just schizotypal disorder should not be "odd", "bizarre" in childhood. If a child has serious social problems and obsessions, strange customs, rituals in childhood, then it looks to have a sort of PDD/autism, not just personality problem.

I think that magical thinking is a critical part of the human learning process, though I can see how it could get out of hand if the proper filters are not being applied.

I was assessed using the entire SCID II (for personality disorders). I don't meet criteria for any but have many criterion clustering around social difficulties and rigidity. One thing that may not be clear from the symptoms alone is that the reason behind each of the diagnostic criteria differs even if they look superficially similar.

(For example, people with both avoidant and schizoid personality disorder are likely to have few, if any, friends but avoidant personality disorder is driven by anxiety and schiziod by disinterested and restricted affect.)

Personality disorders typically focus on behaviours and thoughts that are normal in the typical population which occur in combination to an extreme extent.

"unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions" differs from differences sensory integration. It is referring to believing that objects or shadow are really people or hearing noises and thinking that they are human voices.

Although there are some symptoms by observation such as effect and peculiar behaviour (which are not driven by social communication difficulties as found in autism), the vast majority of the diagnostic criteria and assessment is about the symptoms at the top of the list Ettina provided - that is, ideas and beliefs which are not shared with others but not quite so detached from reality/lacking insight as schizophrenia.

The reason that there is little literature about distinguishing autism from schizotypal personality disorder (which will likely be moved to the schizophrenia spectrum instead of the personality dimension) is because, unless they are comorbid, they are unlikely to be confused.

If you're still confused by the differences, you'd do well to look up the differences between schizophrenia and autism instead.

On Polish AS forum someone appears to think that in my case AS was confused with schizotypal personality. I have AS diagnosis since being about 17 years old. Schizotypy (although I had unusual sensory experiences only sporadically) or schizoidia (although I am definately not asexual, even in childhood I was sexual in peculiar way) may appear to fit me more than ASD. I have not marked sensory disorders, I suppose that I have good central coherence and I have not deficits of abstract thinking, I also suppose that I have good theory of mnd since childhood. But I have marked problems since childhood. I may look as having "NVLD" (but I have rather good handwriting, learned how to ride a bicycle early, can read maps and clocks easily, have not dyscalculia, can recognise things with closed eyes) with schizotypal/schizoid disorder, not something related to Kanner's autism. But I received a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder (Asperger syndrome).

I believe I might be schizotypal and also have Asperger's. In my most delusional states I believed that the TV was talking to me and sending me subliminal messages. I always feel like someone's watching me but it could be because of the satellites. My dreams almost sent me into madness because I believed they predicted my future and my fate was set in stone. Sometimes I think people can read my mind so I try to build a mental wall. Luckily I'm not so bad that I'm going to wear a tinfoil hat. Tinfoil hats would cramp my style.

Nobody understands why I'm so afraid of the TV. If I'm away from it for a while the madness stops.It could be because it was constantly blaring all day when I was in jail.

I can have "delusion-like" thoughts, but I do not think that I was delusional in my life (although I did not think about my magical compulsions and obsessions when I was younger). I did not confuse fiction and reality as a child. I am "spacey", slow, sluggish, lethargic (I do not remembr from when exactly), but I do not think that I am depressed. I have no friends (and it is not so painful for me). My need of being loved is limited. Last months I sometimes stim qute wildly or loudly. I had "pecularities" even before school age, but they were not so apparent as bizarrities which came later. I had not speech delay (first word might be spoken when I was 7 months old, first steps wen I was 13 months old (as my mother said). My verbal skills are good. I suppose that I would be diagnosed as having NLD in Northern America (paradoxically, school learning is my appreciable strength, I had 100% at elementary level in mathematics in general certificate of secondary education and now I have BSc degree (in Polsh it is named "inżynier" (literally: engineer)). I suppose that I have a mild form of NLD (which might be named as "subclinical", I suppose). I have fixated interest which are strong and often not so typical. I rather like rivalisation, I had troubles with accepting loss in school.

I think many psychiatrists would probably say that those are features of schizotypal. While you might takes some thoughts too far, or to allow them to become unhealthy, I think that your thoughts may have started out based on fact, which is reasonable.
*TV programming is designed to talk to its viewers, even if the message is as simply as "this show is cool and you should keep watching it".
*If it were not for effective brainwashing techniques like subliminal messaging, then we may not have much in the way of advertising and marketing industries.
*Our subconscious is sometimes capable of precognition, to include predictive dreams.
*Carl Jung studied this with great interest along with occurrences of synchronicity.
*Actual surveillance, especially electronic, has been increasing.
...and so on.

These things are part of reality, and sometimes sensitive types can develop anxiety that may cross over into the "unreasonable", especially after having bad experiences with certain types of predatory people who try to take advantage of sensitive types. Certain types like psychopaths use every one of these factors and more in order to manipulate others.

These bad experiences can easily result in mental trauma, and PTSD, which pushes the sensitivity levels up.
If you get away from the TV, predatory/aggressive people, and surround yourself with nature, then the sensitivity levels should go back down. Meditation helps many people.

There is at least one person here who I sometimes wonder whether he is actually Schizophrenic rather than Autistic.

However, not being psychiatrist by any stretch of the imagination, my opinion on the possibility is of no scientific merit at all and doesn't matter.

Maybe I? Many traits of ASD do not fit me. I have not "pathological" need of sameness, I can think in concepts, know that other think other than me...

So do you think that you don't have Asperger's?