Are You Neurotic?

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Neuroticism is a dimension of personality in many systems of personality psychology. Neuroticism's inverse is emotional stability. Common characteristics of neuroticism are the following:

• Stressed out easily
• High emotional reactivity; easily becomes anxious, worried, sad, frustrated, or angry
• Low self-esteem
• Prone to worry, brood, or ruminate
• Hypochondriasis
• Shyness
• Compulsive rituals to alleviate worry
• Sensitive to signs of interpersonal rejection
• Offended easily
  

Emotional stability is probably best defined as a lack of neurotic symptoms:

• Calm in demanding situations
• Comfortable among strangers
• Little anxiety
• Bad moods are infrequent and go away quickly.
  

Both of your threads lack DSM-IV criteria for how many traits in each category qualify for a diagnosis.

Neuroticism is a dimension of personality along with extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to new experiences. It is not in itself a mental or behavioral health disorder in the DSM-IV-TR or Chapter V of the ICD-10. The same goes for psychoticism and schizotypy, where schizotypy is not equivalent to the DSM-IV-TR's schizotypal personality disorder (301.22) or the ICD-10's schizotypal disorder (F21).

The ICD-10 still uses the term neurotic in its taxonomy, but the DSM-IV dropped it entirely. Most personality theorists believe the dimension of neuroticism measures an underlying tendency to develop certain psychological disorders under stress.

Neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (F40-F48)

• Phobic anxiety disorders (F40)
  
  • Agoraphobia (F40.0)
    
    • Without panic disorder (F40.00)
    • With panic disorder (F40.01)
  • Social phobias (F40.1)
  • Specific (isolated) phobias (F40.2)
  • Other phobic anxiety disorders (F40.8)
  • Phobic anxiety disorder, unspecified (F40.9)
• Other anxiety disorders (F41)
  
  • Panic disorder [episodic paroxysmal anxiety] (F41.0)
  • Generalized anxiety disorder (F41.1)
  • Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder (F41.2)
  • Other mixed anxiety disorders (F41.3)
  • Other specified anxiety disorders (F41.8)
  • Anxiety disorder, unspecified (F41.9)
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (F42)
  
  • Predominantly obsessional thoughts or ruminations (F42.0)
  • Predominantly compulsive acts [obsessional rituals] (F42.1)
  • Mixed obsessional thoughts and acts (F42.3)
  • Other obsessive-compulsive disorders (F42.8)
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder, unspecified (F42.9)
• Reaction to severe stress, and adjustment disorders (F43)
  
  • Acute stress reaction (F43.0)
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (F43.1)
  • Adjustment disorders (F43.2)
    
    • Brief depressive reaction (F43.20)
    • Prolonged depressive reaction (F43.21)
    • Mixed anxiety and depressive reaction (F43.22)
    • With predominant disturbance to other emotions (F43.23)
    • With predominant disturbance of conduct (F43.24)
    • With mixed distrurbance of emotions and conduct (F43.25)
    • With other specified predominant symptoms (F43.28)
  • Other reactions to severe stress (F43.8)
  • Reaction to severe stress, unspecified (F43.9)
• Dissociative [conversion] disorders (F44)
  
  • Dissociative amnesia (F44.0)
  • Dissociative fugue (F44.1)
  • Dissociative stupor (F44.2)
  • Trance and possession disorders (F44.3)
  • Dissociative motor disorders (F44.4)
  • Dissociative convulsions (F44.5)
  • Dissociative anaesthesia and sensory loss (F44.6)
  • Mixed dissociative [conversion] disorders (F44.7)
  • Other dissociative [conversion] disorders (F44.8)
    
    • Ganser's syndrome (F44.80)
    • Multiple personality disorder (F44.81)
    • Transient dissociative disorders occurring in childhood and adolescence (F44.82)
    • Other specified dissociative [conversion] disorders (F44.88)
  • Dissociative [conversion] disorder, unspecified (F44.9)
• Somatoform disorders (F45)
  
  • Somatization disorder (F45.0)
  • Undifferentiated somatoform disorder (F45.1)
  • Hypochondriacal disorder (F45.2)
  • Somatoform autonomic dysfunction (F45.3)
    
    • Heart and cardiovascular system (F45.30)
    • Upper gastrointestinal tract (F45.31)
    • Lower gastrointestinal tract (F45.32)
    • Respiratory system (F45.33)
    • Genitourinary system (F45.34)
    • Other organ or system (F45.38)
  • Persistent somatoform pain disorder (F45.4)
  • Other somatoform disorders (F45.8)
  • Somatoform disorder, unspecified (F45.9)
• Other neurotic disorders (F48)
  
  • Neurasthenia (F48.0)
  • Depersonalization-derealization syndrome (F48.1)
  • Other specified neurotic disorders (F48.8)
  • Neurotic disorder, unspecified (F48.9)

I'm whatever the opposite of Neurotic is.

I get stressed out very easily, so yes, I am.

Yes.

I must be neurotic

I'm quite the stable individual. It takes a lot before I start exploding.

On an even less serious note, what's the difference between neurotic and psychotic? A psychotic person thinks 1+1=3. A neurotic knows 1+1=2 but they hate it. ((That one made me laugh the first time I read it))

But 1+1 IS 3!

It's such an easy joke, I couldn't help but using it.

yes, it's an easy joke, but I still hate it.

(Muhahahaha)

There is another way of expressing the divide between 'neurotic' and 'psychotic'.

Neurotics: Build 'Castles in the Air'
Psychotics: Move in to the Castles
Psychiatrists: Collect the Rent (become 'landlords')

^^^^^^^^^^

That sums it up nicely!

I heard that one a little while back but forgot about it.

Neurotic as hell. 'Knows 1+1=2 but hates it' perfectly describes me.