Asperger's Syndrome versus Personality Disorder?

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This will cover all forms of a Personality Disorder at once, and this is partially to clear up the confusion between to two things since they somewhat different from each other. I picked Asperger's Syndrome instead of Autism since the two disorders are the same, despite the fact that Asperger's Syndrome doesn't have a cognitive or a verbal delay. I listed Asperger's Syndrome also because it would be a bit easier to compare.

Similarities:
1. Both parties are known to have issues with making friends and to struggle socially.
2. Issues with reading non-verbal social cues are present in Schizoid Personality Disorder as much as they are present in Asperger's Syndrome.
3. Depression is often a co-morbid with both disorders.
4. Obsessions are common in Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder as they are in Asperger's Syndrome.
5. People with Narcissist Personality Disorder are often unaware of what people are feeling, and it can be the same with Asperger's Syndrome.
6. People with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder need repetitive routines and will have issues adjust to change, and it's the same in Asperger's Syndrome.
7. Social Isolation is a key feature of both Personality Disorder as it is in Asperger's Syndrome.
8. Both parties will display limited emotions and will display inappropriate emotions at the wrong time (I'm comparing Schizoid Personality Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome with this one).
9. Both parties can sound emotionless with their tone quite often when it's inappropriate.
10. People with either disorder have limited dress patterns, a long with eating patterns.
11. Anxiety is a common highlight of both disorders.
12. Tantrums are common in both disorders.
13. People with either disorder may say inappropriate things at the wrong time.
14. People with Dependent Personality Disorder are often submissive to others and will tolerate being abused from others, and it's the same in Asperger's Syndrome.
15. Mood swings are present in both disorders, but not from everybody.
16. Hyperactive behavioral problems are common features in both parties here.
17. In Antisocial Personality Disorder and in Asperger's Syndrome, people will often abuse friendships without knowing the position of others.
18. Inappropriate attachment objects are common in Asperger's Syndrome and in Personality Disorder (mainly Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder).
19. People with both disorders might seem to be unaware of the safety of others.
20. People with both disorders are often highly intelligent and can end up with normal jobs.
21. People with both disorders can appear to lack in empathy, while people with Asperger's Syndrome don't lack in empathy.

Differences:
1. Violence is more common in Personality Disorder, while Asperger's Syndrome (or Autism) is said to reduce the chances of violence according to recent studies.
2. Motor coordination issues are present in Asperger's Syndrome, while they're not present in Personality Disorder.
3. People with Personality Disorder have issues with making friends due to the fact that they are constantly lying to others in Anti-Social Personality, may have issues with controlling their temper, might try to avoid others or might struggle with social cues as well. People with Asperger's often try to be social, but they come off as awkward while they may not know how to approach folks.
4. People with Asperger's Syndrome might struggle with understanding jokes, idioms or sarcasm, while there is no delay in Personality Disorder. However, people in Narcissism Disorder often do take criticism literally and seriously.
5. People with Personality Disorder can generally make decent eye contact, while folks with Asperger's Syndrome may struggle with it.
6. People with Antisocial Personality Disorder are known to be manipulative and to have friendships with people so they can take advantage of. While people with Asperger's Syndrome have issues in social situations, a lot of them wouldn't have hidden intentions to make friends (not all, but a fair number of them).
7. People with Paranoid Personality Disorder would often be more aware of others taking advantage of them, while folks with Asperger's Syndrome often wouldn't notice (not always).
8. People with Histrionic Personality Disorder are known to care about their appearance, while folks with Asperger's Syndrome usually wouldn't care.
9. People with Borderline Personality Disorder often prefer company and can't stand being alone, while a lot of people with Asperger's Syndrome prefer being alone a lot.
10. People with Personality Disorder often appear to be heartless and may not care about what other people are feeling (or they might), while folks with Asperger's Syndrome (or any form of Autism) would only struggle with figuring out how somebody feels through their tone or through non-verbal cues. If you tell somebody with Asperger's Syndrome how you feel, then they would understand quite clearly and could relate to you (it's the same with any other form of Autism).
11. There is no 'magical thinking' in Asperger's Syndrome like there is in Schizoid Personality Disorder.
12. Stormy relationships are more common in Personality Disorder than they are in Asperger's Syndrome.

There are vast overlaps in traits for psych "disorders" and many are little more than a sham. You can go to different doctors and be diagnosed in completely different ways. Always think for yourself!

G

I don't think it's very sensible to group all personality disorders together as if they're more or less the same thing like that. Many of them differ quite substantially from each other, and there's some debate as to whether some of them even belong in the same category as others.

DSM only lists Schizoid PD as a differential diagnosis out of the PDs (meaning that that's the only one that's close); it says:

I agree.

"11. There is no 'magical thinking' in Asperger's Syndrome like there is in Schizoid Personality Disorder. "

Schizotypal PD, not schizoid PD.

7. Social isolation isn't part of every personality disorder.
10. Dress patterns vary depending on the personality disorder.
11. Anxiety isn't part of every personality disorder.
12. Proneness to tantrums varies depending on the personality disorder.
16. Behavioral problems vary depending on the personality disorder.
17. People with Antisocial Personality Disorder often know when they're abusing a friendship, but they don't care. They're goal is to personally benefit from their "friends" as much as possible, without doing anything in return.
19. Awareness of the safety of others varies depending on the personality disorder.
21. Level of empathy varies depending on the personality disorder.


1. People with Avoidant Personality Disorder aren't anymore likely to be violent than the average person without a personality disorder, they're probably even less likely to be violent. People with Schizoid Personality Disorder are probably even less likely to be violent than the average person without a personality disorder as well.
3. Ability to make friends varies depending on the personality disorder. Tendency to lie also varies depending on the personality disorder.
10. Level of sympathy for other people varies depending on the personality disorder.
11. You're thinking of Schizotypal Personality Disorder, not Schizoid.

Depends on the condition. Schizoid, Schizotypal and Avoidant tend to cause difficulty making friends. Narcissistic, Borderline, Paranoid and Antisocial can make it hard to keep friends. But Obsessive Compulsive, Dependent and Histrionic personality could have no impact on your ability to make friends.



True.



Depends on the condition. Antisocial personality can either have elevated or reduced risk of depression depending on whether they're a psychopath or not. (Under DSM-IV, psychopaths are only a subset of ASPD, though DSM-V ASPD has tighter criteria so only psychopaths will qualify.)



Different kinds of obsessions, though. OCPD causes insistence on routines and/or rituals. This is part of the criteria for AS, but not necessary, because the person can qualify on the basis of intense interests and/or stimming instead. Intense interests are often referred to as obsessions, too, but are quite distinct from insistence on routines/rituals.



Nacrissistic Personality Disorder doesn't cause widespread, generalized difficulty reading nonverbal cues, as is seen in AS. In some cases they can have difficulty recognizing fear and/or sadness, due to the overlap between narcissism and psychopathy, but other emotions are recognized just fine.

Their 'lack of empathy' is psychopathic-style, not autistic-style. Which means they know how others feel, but they don't care as much as they should.



Yes, that is an area of overlap.



Not all personality disorders. Schizoid, Schizotypal, Paranoid and Avoidant often cause social isolation, and Dependent often have only one person they regularly interact with (the person they're dependent on). But Antisocial, Borderline and Histrionic often are quite extroverted, and Narcissistic or Obsessive Compulsive can be as sociable as anyone else.



Schizoid usually have a flat affect, yes. So do Schizotypal. Histrionic often express emotions in a 'fake-seeming' way, and Borderline express them too strongly. But the others don't affect emotional expression (except psychopathic ASPD, where they feign emotions they don't feel).



Again, this varies by condition in the same way as #8.



Only in Obsessive Compulsive, they could have an obsession in either of those areas.

Schizotypal often dress oddly, but not usually a restricted wardrobe, and the condition usually doesn't affect eating patterns.

Borderline have a high rate of anorexia or bulimia, so they may have restricted eating patterns due to those comorbids.



This depends on the condition. Schizoid, Narcissistic and Histrionic have no relationship with anxiety. Schizotypal can have social anxiety or paranoia, but it's not required. Antisocial will either have higher or lower anxiety depending on whether they are psychopathic (psychopaths tend to be fearless). Borderline are usually highly anxious, though it's not absolutely required for diagnosis. Dependent can be anxious or depressed or both, but probably can't have neither. Avoidant, Obsessive Compulsive, Paranoid must be anxious to meet diagnostic criteria.



Only Borderline, Antisocial and Narcissistic are associated with tantrums. Obsessive Compulsive may have tantrums from disruption to routine, or they could have a panic attack or something instead. The other conditions are not associated with tantrums.



This really depends on the condition. Many will say inappropriate things related to their specific issue, such as saying conceited things if Narcissistic, or paranoid things if Paranoid or Schizotypal. But most don't tend to say inappropriate things in general.



No, AS are not usually submissive to abusers. They can be, because of learnt helplessness from bullying, but it's not part of AS. And some AS are actually significantly less compliant than normal.



Only some personality disorders have a link to mood swings. Borderline generally have mood swings for any mood. The others are mood specific - anger for Narcissistic and Antisocial, panic for Paranoid, Obsessive Compulsive and Avoidant, and panic or depression for Dependent. Histrionic often fake mood swings, but don't seem to feel emotions as strongly as they let on.



Activity level is usually lowered in Schizoid, Dependent and Avoidant. It's generally normal in Paranoid, Narcissistic, Histrionic and Obsessive Compulsive (unless the OCPD person has an obsession with exercise). It's only elevated in Antisocial (who often have ADHD) and in Borderline (whose mood swings drive them to activity).



No. ASPD exploit others while knowing that's what they're doing. Unintentionally upsetting others is not a characteristic of Antisocial, because they have no major difficulty with social skills. (Psychopathy can cause difficulty recognizing fear and sadness, but other than that it has no impact on social skills.)

AS people usually don't abuse friendships. If they do, it's pretty much always unintentional. It's completely different from the exploitation common in ASPD.



Not very common in OCPD, but it can occur. Borderline can also have attachment to objects, for the same reason that small children do - because it serves as a surrogate for a person.



Not really.

AS don't tend to be oblivious to other people's safety, unless it's a social danger (eg mugging). ASPD often don't think about the safety of others or themselves. Dependent, Avoidant Obsessive Compulsive, Paranoid and Borderline all have a tendency to be hyperaware of danger. The other personality disorders have no impact on your concern for safety.



Personality disorders have no relationship to intelligence (except for needing a certain minimum IQ to show the symptoms). Their impact on employment varies both by condition and severity.



Antisocial and Narcissistic lack empathy, and Borderlines feel too much empathy (just like they feel too much of everything) but often act unempathetic because of their own desperate emotional needs. The other personality disorder, like AS, have no impact on empathy.

Differences:


Violence is increased in Borderline, Antisocial, Narcissistic and Paranoid personality, decreased in Dependent, Avoidant and Schizoid, and no different in the other conditions.



True. Clumsiness not any more common in PDs, as far as I know.



Social difficulties result from different things in different PDs. In Schizoid and Schizotypal, they can have exactly the same kind of social impairment as AS. Avoidant typically have severe social anxiety, and Dependent can as well. In Antisocial and Narcissistic, social difficulties tend to result from them abusing others. Borderlines can have trouble due to abusive behavior as well as clinginess, and they can also start hating others for very little reason.



Narcissistic have no trouble with figurative language. They do overreact to criticism, not because they misinterpret the intent, but because they have a high opinion of themselves and don't tolerate you joking about them.

Schizoid and sometimes Schizotypal can misinterpret figurative language. Paranoid tend to overinterpret it.



Schizoid often avoid eye contact.



True.



Paranoid can actually have difficulty reading intentions. They see danger everywhere, so if someone really was out to get them they probably would make the correct assumption, but it's a response bias rather than accurate perception.



True



True.



This, again, differs greatly by personality disorder. Antisocial and Narcissistic really do tend to be heartless and uncaring. Borderline often seem heartless because their own needs overwhelm them so much they don't have the energy to care for others, but in reality they tend to care more deeply. Dependent also tend to care too much about other people. The rest of the conditions have no impact on caring, though some people misinterpret the more socially withdrawn PDs as being uncaring just as they do with AS.



Schizoid doesn't have magical thinking. Schizotypal and Paranoid can have magical thinking, but it's not required for diagnosis.

Schizoid doesn't have any characteristics that can't also be seen in AS.



Only present in Borderline, Antisocial and Narcissistic, and sometimes Paranoid. The other conditions don't tend to make relationships any 'stormier' than usual.

Anyone who was diagnosed with Aspergers but actually has a personality disorder? Altough there are many differences listed here it doesn't seam simple to do a correct diagnose

i am ppd and asd diagnosed

I had diagnoses of schizotypal disorder (F21 in ICD-10 classification), Asperger syndrome (F84.5) and mixed obsessive-compulsive disorder (F42.2) at the same time many times during last years.

I am "pretty neurotypical" despite obvious mental handicap. I might think that I am not autistic, but antisocial and/or narcissistic for example. I do not feel the need of "be better", for example morally or occupationally. My nature looks to be "extremely hedonistic" for me. I do not want to deprave anyone due to this text!

I have never had "typical" meltdown, any shutdown or sensory overload. These problems are clearly "alien" to me. I am "aplatonic", markedly "asocial" in some ways but (unfortunately!) not asexual and aromantic. I have something like "expansive mood" and I like social interactions "on my rules" (I was so since childhood). So I am not profounly introverted, maybe even ambiverted than introverted

I was diagnosed with AS when I was 13.

I have also been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which is commonly
mistaken for Bipolar Disorder.

One thing which I learned from all the information I sought when I first suspect I was on the spectrum was the way some observed features of the spectrum could overlap with those of some of the personality disorders.

Steve Silberman has observed that childhood schizophrenia may have been a diagnosis given to people who were in fact autistic, and noted that the rise in autism diagnoses was matched by a fall in childhood schizophrenia diagnoses.

There is testimony from autistic women about having been mistakenly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The Sheffield Autism Research Lab has a televised presentation on its YouTube channel by a woman who had this history.