Schizotypal? Please help, people.

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I've always been a little doubtful about my self DX of Aspergers, and I know schizotypal personality disorder can resemble it. I've always had a really, really hard time expressing myself, and I heard that can be a symptom of Schizotypal disorder. I also have an odd preference to spend too much time alone, and I can't keep an intimate relationship because I don't feel comfortable with it (In a way, I passively push women away.) I just took this inventory bubble check list I found online, but there's no "submit" button, so I didn't get graded. Um, is there an online resource that you know of? Please help!

Google "Venn diagram"

Do you mean a certain kind of Venn diagram? I might as well have just googled jello.

Put "Asperger's" in the circle on the left and "Schizotypal" in the circle on the right.

Try this test, It gives you a score:
http://themachine1.110mb.com/

aspergers and schizotypals can both have social skill difficultys. There are several differences though. here are some things to think about to help you determine.

signs that its aspergers- Do you have poor motor skills? Do you have difficulty reading facial expressions? Do you have obsessive intrests? Have you had these symptoms all your life?
signs that its schizotypal- Do you have unusual perceptions such as hallucinations, illusions, or dissociative symptoms such as feeling as if the world isn't real? Do you have beliefs that other people dont have?
Do you have episodes of altered states of conciousness?

Most everything else is the same. Other things not on the autism or schizophernia spectrum can have similar symptoms as well such as ptsd and organic disorders.

If you have both the aspergers and schizotypal signs you might have both. Aspergers and Schizotypy are both linked to creativity as well.

Read this too. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the ... ake-genius

I looked at that thing but it has a Maybe & an Unsure option. Shouldn't it only have one or the other & not both options I don't understand the difference I'd rather have an I Don't Know option instead

I've been told I had the symptoms of Schizotypal myself but I think I was suffering from a psychotic depression at the time. From what I understand Schizotypal symptoms can be caused by problems of AS. Like a person could spend a lot of time alone because he/she has problems with social relations due to AS & the person may start over-analyzing trying to make sense of things. I think that could of been what happened with me

Ideas of reference 4 out of 9 Unsure 0
Excessive social anxiety 0 out of 8 Unsure 0
Odd beliefs or magical thinking 7 out of 7 Unsure 0
Unusual perceptual experiences 7 out of 9 Unsure 0
Odd or eccentric behavior 6 out of 7 Unsure 0
No close friends 6.5 out of 9 Unsure 0
Odd speech 8.5 out of 9 Unsure 0
Constricted affect 5.5 out of 8 Unsure 0
Suspiciousness 2 out of 8 Unsure 0
Total SPQ-A 46.5 out of 74

seems about right except for the "no close friends". I actually have lots of friends. I just dont connect with people much.

Also look up indigo children. There is a huge overlap with the symptoms of indigo children vs. aspies/schizotypes/adhd. I think their basically the same thing looked at in a more positive way rather than a "disorder".

Those unusual perceptions can be part of some forms of migraine, epilepsy, and other neurological disorders. Dissociation can come with any sufficiently extreme anxiety, and can also happen because of severe untreated pain (which if a person has always had it may be impossible for them to tell until it's gone or decreased).

Epilepsy has been ruled out. I rarely have had migraines, I dont have anything that causes me pain, and Im so alexithymic Im immune to feeling anxious or just about anything for that matter. Im also constantly dissociated and dont really know what its like to not feel that im not living in a dream. Ive never expierance anything traumatic either and Ive never had a blackout except for one time when I took an ambien.

I just took it and got an overall 54 out of 74. i don't know what that means, but I know I most definetely have some magical thinking and have ever since I was a child. I've always been obsessed with magic and thought it was a special interest. The problem is, I think I have had problems with the line between reality and make believe. I posted something similar to this a while ago, and found out that many of these disorders (AS, OCPD, SPD, ect) affect the frontal lobe of the brain. It's no wonder they all seem a little similar. I suspect many personality disorders overlap each other and don't really feel the need to get re diagnosed. I am what I am.

My therapist referred me to a psychiatrist and within 1 hour that Doctor concluded that I was Schizotypal. To me it came across as being because I'm religious. Her questions focused on things like "Do you feel like God has a calling on your life?" "does God communicate his instructions to you?" "do you talk to God?" She said that she didn't feel qualified to diagnose Apsperger's in adults. (So making the schizotypal diagnosis was an easy option for her.)

With questions like that, they would conclude that all Orthodox Jews and most Christians are schizotypal. My therapist is religious and he agreed with me that the DSM on schizotypal can be misapplied to include ordinary religious people. I said that if this test was run on the population of 100 years ago, virtually everyone would be schizotypal by today's standards.

Anyway, my therapist is trying to get another referral to some outside specialists to do a differential diagnosis for schizotypal versus Asperger's.

From what I've read, a pretty good indicator to separate the two is hallucinations and magical thinking. Have you ever experienced auditory or visual hallucinations that weren't caused by anything else? (head trauma, fever, etc.) If so, that's a pretty schizo thing. I'm fairly certain ASD doesn't come with hallucinations unless there's more than one dx going on.
I'm still not certain what "magical thinking" means, I wish I knew a schizotypical person who could explain it...

"Magical thinking" is defined by the person making the diagnosis and they will take their personal baggage into the observation. Thus, if they are looking at a Charismatic Christian who believes in "Word of Knowledge", or "Word of Wisdom" event and the doctor only believes in the physical realm, then such things will be considered as "magical thinking". Likewise, the Chassidic rabbi who is a bit of a kabbalist and hears a "bat kol" (voice from heaven) is likely to be diagnosed as having an auditory hallucination.

Yes, we get into weird areas when we get into spiritual matters versus "mental issues". I was commenting to my therapist that since the diagnosis of "magical thinking" was dependent upon "societal norms" that it seemed that it would depend upon the population sample as to what is the "norm". If the society being checked were Tzfat in Israel (a very kabbalistic population) then such "thinking" would not be out of the "norm" for that population. But, if you pick someone from there and drop them in the middle of a bunch of atheists, then yes, they will be out of the norm.

Magical thinking is basically the belief that you can make something happen by performing some unrelated action. For instance wearing your "lucky jersey" and thinking it will help your team win the game.

Well that sucks because what if my magic jersey really works? What if I really can predict the future or read minds?