Why is a schizoid personality called a disorder?

There is nothing wrong with preferring my own company over that of others is there? What am I missing here?

It becomes a disorder, rather than just a trait, when it impacts your quality of life, or causes significant distress to you or people around you.

pol wrote:There is nothing wrong with preferring my own company over that of others is there? What am I missing here?

You are missing the distress from objecting strong forces within you that make you suffer in any given situation from unresolved inner conflicts

And also inability to function as easily as other people

d3xx wrote:It becomes a disorder, rather than just a trait, when it impacts your quality of life, or causes significant distress to you or people around you.

Often the distress is caused because others expect you to socialise and like what they like regarding ...well.. pretty much everything.
If others accepted the personality of the schizoid, there would be less distress on both parties. One could say the SP should not worry about others expectations of them. But it is hard to accept oneself when others do not.

pol wrote:There is nothing wrong with preferring my own company over that of others is there? What am I missing here?

Just like people who think they are Jesus while being in the mental ward or people in a manic episode might not realize they're disordered (nor necessarily suffer from it), the capacity to realize the disorder part in pwSPD is often split off. Its a recurring subject here, where people - eventhough being on a forum for people with mental illness and specifically for schizoid personality disorder - sometimes go into quite lengthy arguments why they are perfectly normal (and everyone else is disordered or should behave differently so they can live more peacefully).

There are a lot of aspects of life that are unavoidably social.

I'm Canadian, so this weekend is our Thanksgiving weekend, and I have no desire to see anyone for the next three days, but it's not socially acceptable to spend the holidays alone. That's causing me stress right now.

There are other things that have to do with professional success, networking, dinner-dances, things that I find very stressful that other people find relaxing.

I don't think I'll ever have a social life that I feel comfortable with, or a support system that I can trust.

It may not seem like much of an impairment, and I'm probably lucky compared to other people, but you can't always lock yourself away from the world, even if that's where you're happiest.

smirks wrote:It may not seem like much of an impairment, and I'm probably lucky compared to other people, but you can't always lock yourself away from the world, even if that's where you're happiest.

True. but I imagine it would be worse to be needy but lonely. 10,000 love songs can't be wrong.

Out of all mental illnesses and personality disorders, SPD would be one of the least impactful on others. We try to become invisible. Perhaps thats why so few mental health professionals know how to deal with the issue and how few people are diagnosed.

Oblivion wrote:

smirks wrote:It may not seem like much of an impairment, and I'm probably lucky compared to other people, but you can't always lock yourself away from the world, even if that's where you're happiest.

True. but I imagine it would be worse to be needy but lonely. 10,000 love songs can't be wrong.

5,000 are probably about God. They are more interesting when interpreted this way

I see all the comments talk about one aspect- prefering to be alone, for me there is alot more to it, i do prefer to br alone but it doesnt mean i like it, im very lonely and i'm afraid to be indepenedent with nobody around to save me when im feeling bad, my development stopped at early childhood and im stuck in that dependent phase, also the lack of connection to the world makes me not want to do any activities, every acticity is considered torture for me, now i know that not every schizoid gets to that extreme, but every schizoid does have it to some degree, every schizoid did not mentally grow up to be an adult and therefor would struggle with adult expectations, and for all of them it will be to an extreme level because this disorder like all personality disorder is an extreme by itself, even without reaching to the extremes i described, but yes i've been working and living an adult life for a while but it was extremely difficult and took a huge mental price, i killed myself emotionally in order to function, today i don't function and do the minimum to keep myself alive.

Remember that every behind every schizoid story there is a decision at a very young age (6~8) to become fiercely independent, basicly an adult child, not by actual choise, but rather lack of choise since we didn't have an adult around that we could trust to be the adult we need.

I thought this was obvious but looking at the comments i was surprised that nobody adressed this, thats what i meant by inner unresolved conflicts- expectations vs mental ability (which is low)