High-functioning

I don't like her already. Mine is all like "You have spreadsheets you did while manic?! Good send 'em over!"

I am currently going through the VA so I am not sure about the quality. I originally started with a trait matrix in excel but figured I'd start simple and just copy and paste into Word. Glad I didn't spend much time on it.

So what's the rapid cycling like? Is that still somewhat long term moods or can it shift hourly, daily, weekly, etc.?

About weekly. That's how my dad's is too. It can shift faster, but as long as I get enough sleep and don't eat poorly, I'm good.

I believe schizoids are all highly functional individuals on most levels (if not coupled with other disorders). Where we suffer (or are deficient) the most is interpersonal emotional experience and forming close intimate relations with others. What inevitably causes stress as a result of social isolation and loneliness. It's funny since most of us I guess shun such relation to minimize stress in the first place.

GuyVinces wrote:Does anyone here consider themselves "highly functional"? I mean, despite being diagnosed, you believe you're better at dealing with a symptom or feature of the disorder.

If anything I'm better at being covert socially, but I think that's pointless since there's always a limit. I can be out amongst people and carry on conversations but it takes energy. At some point I start to feel like I've had enough. I don't consider that high functioning.

I haven't yet reached a functionality that theoretically would be above the standards described in diagnostic manuals besides sexual development, in the rest I think I continue in the same thing, having "worsened" in the isolation matter.

iabsurdlyexist wrote:I'd say not entirely limited by my traits but bad enough where I've been through medication and therapy. I attribute a lot to being in the right place at the right time and some amount of intelligence. If I were to never have met my wife or went into isolation, I'm sure i'd go downhill faster. I am getting worse as I age.

I didn't start to live by myself until I was almost 30. That's when I really became isolated. Self-imposed isolation. It's getting worse as I age as well and I think that's because I'm allowing it. When you live alone, it's very easy to become isolated. My problem is that I have to work too much and I consider the social contact at work to be just that: social contact. This leaves me little time and incentive to try to be social with friends, and that's a bad thing.

Yet my main incentive for being social is to keep from drifting deeper into solitude. It's not for the rewards of being social.

Holodeck wrote:Do you have much issue with abandonment and or critique?

I have issues with abandonment. Big time. I've been wanting to start a thread on it.

N1ghty wrote:I believe schizoids are all highly functional individuals on most levels (if not coupled with other disorders). Where we suffer (or are deficient) the most is interpersonal emotional experience and forming close intimate relations with others. What inevitably causes stress as a result of social isolation and loneliness. It's funny since most of us I guess shun such relation to minimize stress in the first place.

It's a fine line. I think a certain amount of socialization would be good for someone with SPD. But not so much that it causes undue stress.

Maybe something like exposure therapy? Social exposure. I wonder if that would work.

Loneliness? Really? I wish I was able to be normally social, and I have some fond memories of being social in the past, but I don't equate that with loneliness. Also, I wonder if those memories are reliable, as we tend to rewrite memories to suit out needs.

@naps Perhaps a bad choice of words. Not loneliness, solitude, social disconnection. Even though I don't experience direct emotional pain (or better distress) from being by myself it has it's objective downsides. Perhaps just a wishful thinking of being able to connect with somebody more closely and fearing it simultaneously is what causes internal conflict.

Anyway wtf am I doing awake at 5am watching some weird-ass but likeable russian movie on national tv?

Name of the movie?

They say that being socially isolated is bad for one's physical health.

But what about introverts and schizoids etc. who prefer to be alone?

Are they talking about the negative affects of feeling lonely?

If so, would it follow that being forced to socialize would be bad for the health of a recluse?

I know it was harmful for me. It was okay in earlier ages, but around grade 2 I lost interest in having friends but my mom always pushed me to socialize. She didn't care who I socialized with as long as I socialized.

Come to think of it, my mother never did that. In fact she was often highly critical of who I associated with and more than once sabotaged the few friendships I was interested in.

I'm trying to remember if my father had any friends. I can't think of any. Even during the time when they were separated it always seemed like he was alone.