Schizophrenia and Aspergers?

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Hi everyone,

I haven't posted for a while. A few years in fact. I have had schizophrenia since I was 15, I'm in my late thirties now. The meds stop the psychosis but they don't stop my other problems. I really relate to asperger's symptoms. I took the test and I keep getting 36, which is a diagnosis.

I don't know why I'm different to people I know with schizophrenia. They all love to socialize, want romantic relationships, etc. I love being alone. With my interests. I can't shut out noises, especially if there is more than one going on at a time. I refuse to speak on the phone as I don't know when to speak. But worst of all is that I HATE socializing. If I have to go to an occasion, I fret about it for weeks beforehand. I suffer through it, and then I need 3 days afterwards to recharge. I get totally frazzled for days if I am at a social event for over one hour.

I am scared to talk to my psychologist about it because I don't want to seem like a hypochondriac. Also, symptoms of schizophrenia can overlap with AS, so I might just be a schizo.

I'm so confused, but I feel so different, even when comparing myself to other people I've met with schizophrenia.

I don't know what to think but I know I feel very different and like a weirdo on top of being already a weirdo with a severe mental illness.

You can have both.

You sound like me. Especially about shutting out noises. When there's too many things going on at once, I get burned out. I need my alone time.
I don't see it that way. I don't know much about Schizophrenia, but the Aspie part works for me. I'm comfortable and accept it. If the world doesn't like it, that's their problem.

No, it's not. You can't get a diagnosis from an online test. The online score just suggests that you might want to seek out a professional who specializes in diagnosing autism in adults. Your current psychologist may not know anything about Asperger's (mine didn't).



Like character traits of autistics vary from introvert to extrovert, so character traits of people with schizophrenia will likely vary. This by itself doesn't mean you are on the autism spectrum. Avoidance of social occasions may be an anxiety disorder (which is often co-morbid with autism, but not a symptom of autism itself) and aversion to sounds, noises, etc. may be a sensory processing disorder (equally, often co-morbid, but not necessarily part of autism). Anxiety and sensory issues are separate diagnoses and I'd venture they can be co-morbid with schizophrenia, too.

Thanks for that. Yeah definitely people with Schizophrenia are all different. I just haven't met many that love being alone and don't get lonely and can't shut out social stimuli etc. But I'm sure they are out there.

I don't really have anxiety, just hate the cacophony in my mind when I try to socialize and do regular stuff.

I think the people with schizophrenia who have the so-called deficit syndrome, in which they suffer from such severe issues as flat affect (face is like a mask and voice is flat), avolition (inability to initiate activity), asociality (lack of socializing), and poverty of speech (has very little to say), along with major cognitive issues, would not be out interacting with people very much.

There's also social anhedonia, which as a trait-like, long-term or permanent, factor is associated with the schizophrenia spectrum (while as a state-like, temporary, factor is associated with depressed mood). It's distinguished from social anxiety in that there is a deficit in the ability to achieve pleasure from social stimulation. That could be part of what you're dealing with, and this also seems to be quite common on the autism spectrum, as well, though I haven't seen much written on social anhedonia in autism.

Now one key point about autism/Asperger's is that it has to be present from an early age: it generally needs to be quite evident by the early to middle elementary school period (though it could still be missed in its milder forms with the behaviors dismissed as mere signs of eccentricity, uncooperativeness, or laziness). Now, if autism/Asperger's clearly precedes the schizophrenia, then they may be diagnosed together, but to get a diagnosis you would need to demonstrate that to a mental health professional; otherwise, assuming your diagnosis of schizophrenia is well-established, the professional may just attribute the issues you have to the schizophrenia. Also, schizophrenia (especially schizophrenia with onset at such a young age as in your case) is associated with premorbid social impairments (that are milder and subtler than autism).*

To get a diagnosis, I would work on getting elementary school records and getting parents to make statements about your early childhood behaviors and challenges. Also, I would work on trying to remember the issues you had long before developing schizophrenia. See an autism specialist if you feel you must.

*To have heart, read this study showing high rates of autism spectrum disorders in adult-onset schizophrenia:

https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/2 ... 8249_1.pdf

When speaking with parents and checking school records, try to look for evidence of the issues listed on pages 41-42 in this study.

that's a very difficult combination to diagnose, because the negtive symptoms of schizophrenia are highly overlapping with ASD. If you wanna find out if oyu have both, you have to go to a very very good ASD specialist. Online tests or "normal" psychiatrists propably wouldn't help, because of the difficult issue to sort it out if you have really both.