# How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger's?



## srhuk (Oct 6, 2006)

I've just searched the forum and can find only one post refering to Schizoid personality and none to Asperger's.

I have to say that came as a surprise to me.

I am pretty sure that I really miss not feeling able to have social interactions and have been told by enough professionals that my problems are about low self-esteem, not a missing ability that I'm Socially Phobic or AvPD but how can you know in yourself what's a normal level of needing other people if you can't make yourself reach out to them? Is my sense that I may have asperger's and am unable to read social cues etc. really a medicalised version of feeling social incompetent?

I think the fact that I haven't been diagnosised with anything other than reactive depression, low self esteem and social anxiety doesn't hope. I have asked a pyschologist if I had Avpd or schizoid personality and she just told me not to worry, which actually if anything made me worry more as i was more concerned about maybe being schizoid and not caring than avoidant and not thinking much of myself. It also increase my worry I may be on the autistic spectrum on really not able to learn how to get on with people.


----------



## ColdFury (Nov 6, 2003)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*



> I've just searched the forum and can find only one post refering to Schizoid personality and none to Asperger's.


The search is broken.


----------



## Daydreambeliever (Apr 14, 2004)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

I've been wondering the same thing, I've always thought I just had SA and AvPD, but I've been thinking that maybe it's something more because even if I wasn't anxious in social situations I still wouldn't want to be social, it just doesn't do anything for me. I was thinking that sounds schizoid, however, I would like to get married someday. I don't know, I guess I'll find out when I go for my Psychiatrist's appointment next month.


----------



## srhuk (Oct 6, 2006)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

I don't think being schizoid stops you from wanting to marry one day, there are plenty of things you can get from being that committed to someone else that appeal to you if you are, and plenty of things you can give to the marriage even if you can't give what you haven't got to give.

I do think it's easier to live with schizoid personality disorder or even asperger's than avoidant personality, if you're avoidant your living with a massive whole in your life and seeing a massive whole in yourself.

I would be grateful if I could have a pointer to previous posts about spd and pdd/asd thanks.


----------



## odd_one_out (Aug 22, 2006)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

I often wonder how they can properly diagnose these things; there are many overlaps. I've found that even when I don't feel much anxiety (e.g. the last couple of months), I'm very content when alone all day, and am satisfied with contact with just one or two people. Even when I'm with them briefly, I get frustrated and can't concentrate on any small-talk and long to get back to my work or interests (unless I can talk about them with someone). I'm sure I have more than SA and introversion as I spend many hours a day doing my work and other interests without leaving my seat or eating etc. Even after a whole day, I wish I didn't have to stop. There are numerous other oddities. However, I can't find any particular condition apart from SA that describes me really well. I've just always felt different to other people in a few fundamental ways, and have a lot of sensitivity and am prone to phobias. I also think I used to enjoy company more in the past. The rest of my family also have very unusual charactersitics, but no one thing I read properly describes any of them.


----------



## march_hare (Jan 18, 2006)

I sometimes wonder if I have Aspergers.
Even if I'm not anxious, I'm always totally confused about simple social interactions.


----------



## itsmemaggi (Sep 26, 2005)

I'm working to become a special education teacher and know a lot about Asperger's and autism. I'm also convinced that my cousin, who I've grown up with (he's only 5 days older than me) has PDD NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified), though he's only been diagnosed with ADD since the age of 7... If anyone has any questions about anything, feel free to ask.

xoxo
Maggi


----------



## ghostgurl (Sep 20, 2004)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

Info on Asperger's, Schizoid, and AVPD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger%27s_syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant_p ... y_disorder

I find it's also best if you read about experiences of people with these disorders, like search for forums on them or something. To start with, here's a forum for people with asperger's http://www.wrongplanet.net


----------



## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

*Re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

If you were schizoid, I doubt you'd be posting here as you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with you. (My best guess is that my late father had schizoid personality disorder.) As far as I can tell, schizoid is much like SA minus the anxiety. It's argued if it even belongs in the DSM as a mental disorder, given that those who "suffer" from it aren't bothered by it at all and feel just fine with being the loners they are. If the patient isn't distressed and their condition doesn't harm society, it's kind of hard to call it a disorder just because they differ from the norm.

AVPD is just a rarely used term for severe SA. There have been a whole bunch of discussions on SAS regarding how they differ (if at all) and despite the extensive discussion I've yet to see any real difference, other than severity.


----------



## Zephyr (Nov 8, 2003)

Knife said:


> I sometimes wonder if I have Aspergers.
> Even if I'm not anxious, I'm always totally confused about simple social interactions.


I've often wondered that as well. I'm scared of and shy away from social interaction, but I also don't "get" how it's supposed to work. My brain is just different from everyone else's. I have lots of mental connections that no one else does, and am also missing connections that it seems everyone else has. The question is, how do you know if you're brain is screwed up in a fundamental way? How do you know if you're autistic?


----------



## crazyg (Jun 18, 2005)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

I have seen other posts on schizoid personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, and aspergers before, so maybe keep searching under different headings for other posts. Anyway, I don't know much about schizoid or avoidant personality disorder, but I do know something about aspergers as I've worked with kids with this form of autism. While there may seem to be similarities between it and social anxiety, it is actually quite different.

In the cases I've seen, the children/or adults displayed difficulty in reading other people's body cues and facial cues but did not display any anxiety in interacting with people. Therefore, they had trouble understanding what was expected in a certain situation and acted inappropriately but, that didn't prevent them from continuing to try. Of course, Aspergers could potentially lead to social anxiety, but the kids I worked with did not have any social anxiety. They had a hard time expressing their emotions and were often unsympathetic towards others emotions.

They were good kids, but they just had a hard time understanding why others would get mad, or upset by things that they would do such as taking control of a game and making up their own rules. They wanted things to be very ordered and would get upset with any changes in routine. And this was the reason it was hard for them to play games with kids because the other kids had their own idea of how the game should be played.

Anyway, the characteristics of Aspergers are not always the same, but there are some marked differences between it and social anxiety. I know that some websites make it sound like the characteristics are very vague and difficult to detect but, when you see a few different people with Aspergers display very specific characteristics, you can see that it isn't that difficult for it to be diagnosed.


----------



## Message (Sep 20, 2006)

Well, Asperger's is a very rare condition, with very specific symptoms. I think It's starting to become the 'popular condition to diagnose' lately, and it defintiely shouldn't be. Similar to the ADHD craze in the late 90's... many people were diagnosed with it that didn't have it. At one point I thought I had asperger's, but I am certain now that I don't, even though I fit 80% of the characteristics.

I am, however, 99% certain I have AvPD, because I fit every single characteristic to the EXTREME. AvPD is also a more rare condition. Apparently only 1% of the population have been diagnosed with it... however, that could be because most avoidants don't seek out treatment because their condition prevents them from doing so.

You should really study these and evaluate your behaivor. Otherwise, you could see someone about it. Schizoid and Asperger's are rare and specific... I would look into SA and AvPD. There is acutally a very helpful chart comparing the two here: ttp://www.anxietyhelp.org/information/avpd_vs_sad.html


----------



## srhuk (Oct 6, 2006)

*re: How do you know if you're schizoid, avpd/gad or asperger*

I don't think that it's that 1% of the population {male and female equally} has been diagnosised as AvPD [or Anxious (Avoidant) PD on the ICD] but that is the predicted frequency in the general population, that does make it the rarest personality disorder in males and about the third rarest in females {women are far less likely to meet the criteria for narcisstic and antisocial pd}

There is a problem with people who have AvPD not seeking the treatment that is available and reasonable effective, so I read, because they (we) think that it's not an important problem [we're very shy!!] and we're not important in ourselves. We're also not much of a problem to other people, other than parents/siblings who worry about us not meeting people, as most of the other personality disorders can be.

I don't think that is the reason for it's apparent rarity.


----------

