psychotic symptoms

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I am surprised that psychiatrists want to count schizotypical symptoms in with ASCs because I see Asperger's more as a social deficit and lack of understanding rather than a mental illness or condition.

I have been assessed and found to be well-balanced despite my concerns that I might have been unwell, but maybe everyone is scared that they may find something wrong. I know that an ASC was suspected but no-one would tell me, they only told me a few clues on how to deal with it and that is the only reason I came to understand that they suspected it. I didn't even realise that until years later either.

I think that because they knew I was fragile at the time, it wouldn't have been a good idea to tell me, actually, they were right, I hardly dealt with it when I got my official diagnosis and I still lack a fair amount of self esteem since diagnosis. One cannot undo the finding out.

schizotypal personality disorder's main symptom is strong social phobia/avoidance but unlike avoidant personality disorder they often have mild perceptual differences and odd apearance and odd language and manarisms. If you meet someone with schizotypal PD you would probably not tell the difference between them and some of the odder aspies youve met. Schizotypal PD has a much increased risk of developing full schizophrenia so that most psychiatrists now view it as mild or pre-schizophrenia rather than as a regular PD.
here are some wiki's with interesting info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypa ... y_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoid_p ... y_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant_p ... y_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

I will write a list, that is a good idea, thank you.

I didnt try the schizotypal questionaire as i believe i'd score quite high as i have some very strange beliefs and due to how some of the questions are also Asperger's things.

i have a father who has schizophrenia and some of your symptoms are kind of worrying and very common psychotic ones (delusional).

My father is schizophrenic as he thinks hit men are out to kill him or the government... he also "sees' obviously psychotic things.. eg telepathic lenses coming out of peoples eyes.

i myself believe in psychic stuff and to me and my experiences.. that doesnt make one psychotic (I was in the energy healing fields for a time and actually had paying clients i used to heal).

Ones actual spiritual beliefs may cause "delusions of control" eg if you believe we are all part of a whole, eg part of God and hence thoughts can affect things.. To me.. that isnt psychotic (i know many who have this new agey kind of belief! It's more of like a religiion). If your delusion of control is based around something like "You are the prime minister or king controling the lands" that would be delusional.

If you thought everyone was consciously putting their thoughts into your brain (thought broadcasting) that would be delusion.. but if you have a spiritual belief in which peoples thoughts project out and can affect others by subconscious means... that isnt psychotic.

If you thought you were bugged by secret agents, that is PROBABLY delusional (unless you are under a police investigation for some reason eg if they thought you had commited a serious crime and wanted to prove it).

Nearly all those questions are open to different interuptations. i personally dont know how one could tell if another was psychotic without an indepth assessment to separate beliefs and ones life from psychosis.

i got up enough courage to do that questionare, total score 48.. , my scores as follows. I like how its divided into different areas as by doing that it does show more. (my father who's schizophrenic would score very high in the suspiciousness area... us being Aspie.. we would probably expect to score higher than normal population in the friends area).

i scored 7 out of 7 for odd beliefs and magical thinking lol.. that is just to my religious/spiritual views. i studied under a witch for a while. Wow i really thought i would score much higher on that so im surprised.

"Ideas of reference: 2.5 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Excessive social anxiety: 7 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Odd beliefs or magical thinking: 7 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
Unusual perceptual experiences: 4 out of 9 (unsure: 1)
Odd or eccentric behavior: 4.5 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
No close friends: 5 out of 9 (unsure: 2)
Odd speech : 7.5 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Constricted affect: 5.5 out of 8 (unsure: 1)
Suspiciousness: 5 out of 8 (unsure: 1)
Total SPQ-A: 48 out of 74"

Ideas of reference: 0 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Excessive social anxiety: 6.5 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Odd beliefs or magical thinking: 0 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
Unusual perceptual experiences: 1 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Odd or eccentric behavior: 3.5 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
No close friends: 5 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Odd speech : 6.5 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Constricted affect: 5.5 out of 8 (unsure: 1)
Suspiciousness: 0.5 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Total SPQ-A: 28.5 out of 74
I'm totally naive I don't think I could possibly be paranoid..

Thanks for those links.

I will take a good look at those because I have notice a change in me over the last few months; it may be because of a neurological disorder which is under investigation. If it is because of lesions on my brain, then it should show under my MRI scans and that will be the answer, if not, then I will keep looking because I definitely am a little bit different.

If you have noticed a change in yourself over the last few months then it would not be any sort of personality disorder, as these are present from teenagerhood and are constant. For example I do not qualify as schizotypal as my psychotic symptoms disapear for years at a time.

Your problems could be a vitamin deficency, B12 causes lots of neurological symptoms and has been shown to be helpful to depression, autism and schizophrenia, try taking a B-complex vitamin.

Also make sure you are taking time to meditate and/or do yoga as stress can cause all sorts of physical and neurological problems.

I have been checked for vitamin deficiency and I take supplements so that is all ok.

I do a few yoga stretches daily and meditate too.

Today I was thinking quite a lot about my changes and four things have come out of that.

a) my eye contact has improved considerably over the last year due to someone called Theresa and it has changed my relationship with people.

b) I recognised my step father as a true father, someone who has been constant and reliable in my adult life.

c) I noticed some things about myself where I was in denial and for some reason (this is where my lesion theory comes in) I simply don't care about quite a few things these days and I cannot work out if not caring is due to personal growth or a problem, because in reality, it could be either.

d) I have changed my eating habits dramatically due to intolerances and allergies found by the hospital.

All I know is that I am different enough to notice it myself.

Last edited by Kaleido on 13 Jul 2010, 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ideas of reference: 0 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Excessive social anxiety: 6 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Odd beliefs or magical thinking: 0 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
Unusual perceptual experiences: 0 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Odd or eccentric behavior: 6 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
No close friends: 8 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Odd speech : 6.5 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Constricted affect: 7.5 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Suspiciousness: 1 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Total SPQ-A: 35 out of 74

well it sounds like your doing all the right things, I hope it turns out ok and is not a lesion,
good luck

Thank you, I hope you manage to get something sorted out for yourself and the symptoms you are worried about too.

oh yes, Im fine, my symptoms went a few days ago, I cant post when Im in that state as my thoughts are too over the place and muddled. I think just looking after myself carefully is enough to keep them at bay.

Taking the test . . .

3. Have you had experiences with the supernatural?

Yes. Would you like to take into account the other witnesses before you decide that's a symptom of psychosis?

5. Other people see me as slightly eccentric (odd).

Hello, Aspie.

6. I have little interest in getting to know other people.

Ditto.

8. People sometimes find me aloof and distant.

Ditto again.

11. I get very nervous when I have to make polite conversation.

I really wonder if the test maker realizes how many of these questions apply directly to ASD and other non-psychotic disorders.

12. Do you believe in telepathy (mind-reading) ?

Lots of non-psychotic people believe in ESP and other para-normal phenomena. If I believed that the government was reading my mind then we'd have to worry.

14. People sometimes comment on my unusual mannerisms and habits.

I'm starting to think this test would read ANY Aspie as a scizotypal personality.

16,15,17 . . . more Aspie traits.

20. Do you ever get nervous when someone is walking behind you?

In the neighborhood I live in that's called not wanting to be mugged.

23,24, and to some extent 26 are also common with ASD.

29 as well.

30 is again not a symptom of psychosis. It wasn't that long ago the government was experimenting with paranormal abilities.

32-35 more ASD symptoms. I'm going to come off nuttier than a squirrels winter stash.

38 I think I need to stop commenting about all the ASD symptoms they bring up, I've already pointed out that there's a lot of them.

I don't know what 39 means.

47 another question about beliefs commonly held by many normal people. Also, protip, UFO means unidentified flying object. If you see something in the sky and you don't know what it is it remains a UFO until it's identified (I guess that would be an IFO). UFO does not mean "ship full of aliens that cut up cows and abduct farmer Bob".

49 Well, yeah, I have a phone and a computer. Local calls are free and e-mail doesn't need a stamp and gets to them a lot faster than a letter.

51 I said I wasn't going to bring these up again, but damn, can you get more stereotypically ASD?

54 That's not even ASD! That's just normal!

Ideas of reference: 0 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Excessive social anxiety: 8 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Odd beliefs or magical thinking: 4 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
Unusual perceptual experiences: 2 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Odd or eccentric behavior: 6 out of 7 (unsure: 0)
No close friends: 8 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Odd speech : 4.5 out of 9 (unsure: 0)
Constricted affect: 8 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Suspiciousness: 0 out of 8 (unsure: 0)
Total SPQ-A: 40.5 out of 74

Due to traits that are consistent with ASD and beliefs that are nearly mainstream I wound up testing well outside of normal. Bad test is bad.

Reminds me of a story I heard in a psychology class, don't remember if it was high school or psych 101 in college. There was this low level government employee who was hospitalized as schizophrenic because he thought the KGB was after him.

Guess who turned out to be NOT schizophrenic but very dead when the KGB caught up to him?

Hilarious

Quite right too.