Schizoid Personality disorder

[sky]

Ive been researching guys and there some massive likeness to SPD.....

"Schizoid individuals are also prone to developing pathological reliance on fantasizing activity as concomitant with their withdrawal from the world. Viewed in this fashion, fantasy constitutes a core component of the self-in-exile"

Klein- Disorders of The Self: New Therapeutic Horizons, Brunner and Mazel (1995) p. 64

"fluctuations between sharp contact with external reality and hyperreflectiveness about the self"

"alternately feeling empty, robot-like, and full of omnipotent, vengeful fantasies"

"Fantasy is also relationship with the world and with others by proxy. It is a substitute relationship, but a relationship nonetheless, characterized by idealized, defensive, and compensatory mechanisms. It is an expression of the self-in-exile because it is self-contained and free from the dangers and anxieties associated with emotional connection to real persons and situations. According to Klein it is "an expression of the self struggling to connect to objects, albeit internal objects. Fantasy permits schizoid patients to feel connected, and yet still free from the imprisonment in relationships. In short, in fantasy one can be attached (to internal objects) and still be free."^[30] This aspect of schizoid pathology has been generously elaborated in works by Laing (1960); Winnicott; (1971); and Klein (1995). ^[31]

I Know some of you guys have said you don't fit in completely with this disorder but it would be interesting to know who actually DOES think that they have this?? Because i'm starting to think that I do and that maybe Maladaptive Daydreaming is just one of the symptoms of Schizoid Personality Disorder??

Theres a table of the symptoms on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoid_personality_disorder#cite_note-autogenerated5-29

Does anyone fit in with this? a lot of other forums are saying its Avoidant personality disorder but I dont think it is as Im not afraid of mixing with society I would just prefer to be alone doing this instead.

Clinical Features Of Schizoid Personality Disorder^[12]

Area	Features
	Overt	Covert
Self-Concept	compliant stoic noncompetitive self-sufficient lacking assertiveness feeling inferior and an outsider in life	cynical inauthentic depersonalized alternately feeling empty, robot-like, and full of omnipotent, vengeful fantasies hidden grandiosity
Interpersonal Relations	withdrawn aloof have few close friends impervious to others' emotions afraid of intimacy	exquisitely sensitive deeply curious about others hungry for love envious of others' spontaneity intensely needy of involvement with others capable of excitement with carefully selected intimates
Social Adaptation	prefer solitary occupational and recreational activities marginal or eclectically sociable in groups vulnerable to esoteric movements owing to a strong need to belong tend to be lazy and indolent	lack clarity of goals weak ethnic affiliation usually capable of steady work sometimes quite creative and may make unique and original contributions capable of passionate endurance in certain spheres of interest
Love and Sexuality	asexual, sometimes celibate free of romantic interests averse to sexual gossip and innuendo	secret voyeuristic interests vulnerable to erotomania tendency towards compulsive perversions
Ethics, Standards, and Ideals	idiosyncratic moral and political beliefs tendency towards spiritual, mystical and para-psychological interests	moral unevenness occasionally strikingly amoral and vulnerable to odd crimes, at other times altruistically self sacrificing
Cognitive Style	absent-minded engrossed in fantasy vague and stilted speech alternations between eloquence and inarticulateness	autistic thinking fluctuations between sharp contact with external reality and hyperreflectiveness about the self autocentric use of language.

[Ellen]

Wow, thanks for the great chart- it's way more helpful than the vague list of symptoms I have seen on other sights.  I have suspected before that I had Schizoid, and have been doing some more research the past couple of days.  I strongly identify with 2/3 of the points on the chart. 

I don't think the SPD and MD are the same thing, since there are lots of people who have MD and clearly don't have SPD.  But I would guess that there is probably a high comorbidity rate.

[shelley katherine hutchings]

I find personality disorders a little distressing. I shared a house with a man thought to have schizoid and paranoid disorders. He was not a nice man. He had no empathy for any other human being and showed more respect for woodlice. He could never see himself as any less than perfect, and everything - no matter what - was always someone elses fault.

 

He led a fantasy life, acting out daydreams that he was running local businesses. He once tried to set up in business selling fruitjuice made from fruit taken from the green grocer's bin, which he juiced in a juicer he had not washed for 18 months. I forbade that one.

 

It was quite funny to begin with, but got more and more chilling.

 

I was friendly with a narcissist. She stole money from my purse and gave it back to me as a Christmas present. I knew a borderline. She was a poor, poor thing, but had no empathy either. She died of this disorder.

 

I think that in personality disorders, traits that we all have go to an absolute extreme and consume the whole personality like shark's teeth.

 

Comments such as Cordelia's below come from the healthier end of a spectrum - no I'm not mentally perfect, I have failings and impefections, but I'm working on them.

 

MD and SPD are absolutely different.

Shelley

[Cordellia Amethyste Rose]

*Update: I DO have Autism

I've researched this at length & can say with 100% certainty that MD and SPD are not the same. MD is not a symptom of SPD or any other disorder. This doesn't mean that some people don't have it. I just don't want people to think that they're one in the same. It's common to have multiple conditions at once that are related.
Also, there are a lot of disorders that have daydreaming and disconnection as a symptom. I'm glad you're researching. Just be aware that there is a TON of overlap among disorders & that doesn't mean they're all the same or one is another. There's a reason they're listed separately.
I, for one have almost every one of those symptoms..........yet I don't have it. It's not just a hunch either. I've spoken to multiple doctors about this & they all told me without a doubt that I don't have it. I also have almost all the symptoms of Inattentive ADD, Autism Spectrum, and many others.......yet my docs have told me with 100% confidence that I don't have those either. Just be aware that there's a lot of overlap. If you're curious, ask a doc. They can explain the differences.