Definition, Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Definition

The word personality describes deeply ingrained patterns of behavior and the manner in which individuals perceive, relate to, and think about themselves and their world. Personality traits are conspicuous features of personality and are not necessarily pathological, although certain styles of personality traits may cause interpersonal problems. Personality disorders are rigid, inflexible, and maladaptive behavior patterns of sufficient severity to cause significant impairment in functioning or internal distress. Personality disorders are enduring and persistent styles of behavior and thought, not atypical episodes.

Schizotypal personality disorder is a pattern of deficiency in interpersonal relationships and disturbances in thought patterns, appearance, and behavior. Speech may include digressions, odd use of words or impoverished vocabulary. Patients usually resist closeness, experience distorted thinking, and display odd behavioral patterns. They typically have few, if any, close friends, and feel anxious around strangers although they may marry and work in spite of odd behavior. These symptoms may place people with this disorder at a high risk for involvement with cults. The disorder, which may appear more frequently in males, surfaces by early adulthood and can prompt anxious and depressed moods.

Symptoms
People with this disorder may be severely disturbed and may resemble those with schizophrenia; more commonly, however, patients behave only mildly oddly, having unusual beliefs (aliens, witchcraft, etc) that they cling to so strongly that it isolates them from normal relationships. Hallucinations are unusual. Other symptoms include:

Discomfort in social situations
Odd beliefs, fantasies or preoccupations
Odd behavior or appearance
Odd speech
No close friends
Inappropriate display of feelings
Suspiciousness or paranoia

Causes
The cause of Schizotypal Personality Disorder is unknown, but there is an increased incidence in relatives of schizophrenics.

Awareness of risk, such as a family history of schizophrenia, may allow early diagnosis.

Treatment
Schizotypal patients rarely initiate treatment for their particular disorder, seeking relief from depressive symptoms instead. Some people may be helped by antipsychotic medications, but in many cases therapy is preferred. Patients severely afflicted with the disorder may require hospitalization to help them form social contacts and thereby overcome fears of relationships as well as to provide therapy. Schizotypal Personality Disorder patients do not often demonstrate significant progress. Treatment should therefore help patients establish a satisfying solitary existence.

The social consequences of serious mental disorders—family disruption, loss of employment and housing—can be calamitous. Comprehensive treatment, which includes services that exist outside the formal treatment system, is crucial to ameliorate symptoms, assist recovery, and, to the extent that these efforts are successful, redress stigma. Consumer self-help programs, family self-help, advocacy, and services for housing and vocational assistance complement and supplement the formal treatment system. Many of these services are operated by consumers, that is, people who use mental health services themselves. The logic behind their leadership in delivery of these services is that consumers are thought to be capable of engaging others with mental disorders, serving as role models, and increasing the sensitivity of service systems to the needs of people with mental disorders (Mowbray et al., 1996).

Psychotherapy

Behavioral modification, a “cognitive-behavioral” treatment approach can allow Schizotypal Personality Disorder patients to remedy some of their odd thoughts and behaviors. Recognizing abnormalities by viewing videotapes and improving speech habits with the help of a therapist are two effective methods of treatment.

Prognosis

The outcome varies with the severity of the disorder. It is usually chronic.

that seems so awful... when they said " they have no close friends" i will try to give them a real friend

"Schizotypal Personality Disorder patients do not often demonstrate significant progress. Treatment should therefore help patients establish a satisfying solitary existence"

Well, that was depressing to read.

My therapist told me that she thinks I have schizotypal personality disorder, but I don't think it fits at all, and I'd like some input.

It's true that I don't like talking to people and find it very difficult, and I'm very anxious in social situations, but I don't have a fear of relationships or of closeness, and I relate very well to the people that I'm very close to, like my boyfriend, whom I've been with for over 9 years, and my former boyfriend, who I was with for 14 years and am still very close to, though we don't talk very often because he lives about 2000 miles away.

I have absolutely no instances of magic thinking. I don't believe in signs or synchronicity at all. In fact I don't have a lot of patience for people who believe in anything supernatural (no offense to anyone here, of course). I don't believe in ghosts, aliens, etc. I don't even believe in god or any sort of spirituality, as they just seem like fairy tales to me, with no basis in reality.

I'm also not paranoid. I'm even less paranoid than the average person. It's not uncommon for some people to have thoughts like, "I know she didn't say hello to me because she wants to put me in my place," which is a type of thinking that could be characterized as mildly paranoid, but I don't ever think that way. If anything I'm much more naive than average. For example, someone I'm not friends with anymore knows some of my passwords, and I haven't changed them, though it's been 2 years.

I may be somewhat eccentric, since I don't care very much about how I look, and my beliefs may be slightly unusual in that politically I'm much farther to the left than the majority of Americans, but I don't think that's a symptom of "disturbed thought patterns"?

Is it possible to be schizotypal and have no paranoia, magic thinking or strange thoughts?

I know how u feel, static. Therapists aren't always right. I remember when I was involved in a community mental health group and one mental health worker there pronounced an entire room of us borderline personalities. It was an unfair blanket statement, and it scarred me. I fought the woman who said it and claimed her claim was presumptuous at best.

In more recent times, I have been lead to believe I am a schizoid. I just took an online personality disorder test and it said I score highest on schizotypal. Like you, however, I don't really fit most of the criteria. I'm not paranoid. Magical thinking, maybe, but I am not prone to cults, witchcraft, aliens, or any such predilection. Eccentric, definitely, but what's so bad about that? Imagine the whole world was full of the same cookie-cutter brand of moron.

Guess I'm generally confused, but I empathize with how you feel. And remember, therapists are just human. They can make all the educated guesses they want. And there is definitely hope. That thing about "satisfying solitary existence" is a cruel oxymoron, and I hope we never submit to the societal limitations the experts would place on us.

Anyhow, I mean, I guess none of us know u personally, so we're not in a diagnostic position, but I don't think u sound very schizotypal, based on the criteria. Heck, my therapist doesn't even believe in personality disorders. I'm the one fighting her and saying they're real. She believes they're dubious at best and overlap so frequently it is very difficult to pin one on a person, except in extreme cases.

Hope u're not being 2 hard on urself.

Thank you for your reply and your kindness.

I think I just felt frustrated with my therapist because I felt she knew so little about me, coming up with a diagnosis that to me doesn't seem to fit, after I had been talking to her for 6 months. (I actually stopped seeing her after that.) It wouldn't upset me to be tagged as schizotypal if I thought it was accurate. I don't think there's any shame in it or anything like that.

But I don't even particularly feel the need to have a diagnosis, I would just like my therapist to understand me. Sometimes a diagnosis can be useful in that way, to have as a sort of guidepost. I think I understand your frustration in not being able to get your therapist to understand your point of view.

I also took a schizotypal quiz and scored 17 out of a possible 74.

And yay for eccentricity!

I hope you're doing okay. Take care.

I think you should be careful with trusting a psychiatrist. They are in a business and you are just a tool. I would never trust a diagnosis from a psychiatrist. You have to come to your own conclusion of who you are through self knowledge and studying. These diagnoses are no magical forumulas for people but they do contain truths.

I think Im close to this personality although I dont fear close relationships (tho not had that many and dont trust in them so maybe i do fear them :O). Ok so I'd like one, that was with someone who'd be trustworthy and do what they say they're going to do. I'm not bothered if I spend my life alone, but I would like a husband one day. I doubt I will have one as I havent yet and Im 40 but who knows.

Im not emotionally cut off either. At times I would say Im over emotional and over sensitive. When someone of the few I've let in crosses the line I can emotionally disconnect from them almost immediately (apart from one who Im currently having trouble doing that with because of our history and he's an N but that's a different story).

I dont know that I actually do have this but I identify pretty heavily with most of it.

Just thought I'd throw his out, partly to see is anyone dx SPD relates, but also I guess just to see if this sounds familiar.

My dad is very messed up. Extremely. He was abusive and traumatized my whole family.

His appearance is pretty eccentric. His hair and beard are wild and stained from cigarettes. He wears really dirty clothes covered in industrial glue or varnish from his job... in public. This all goes away if his wife (who he's had three of) takes care of him.

He has really intense, sometimes bizarre beliefs about politics. I remember him once calling me up to talk about how his wife was "stealing his liberty." As in, the liberty due him from the founding fathers of the US.

He's paranoid to an extreme. He used to throw the telephone away because he thought people were listening. He thinks that people stalk him. He thinks co-workers are secretly taking nude photos of him and putting them on the internet. I can tell you he has NEVER used a computer let alone the internet... all because he's paranoid.

He used to call me up after watching a news report about terrorism to warn me about the NYC subway I take to work everyday. I tried to reassure him by telling him my particular train is not a target because it isn't well used. He told me that's what, "they wanted me to think."

He strongly dislikes most institutions: banks, universities, governments,

He has no friends at all. Never has.

He spends his time in basements or attics.

He's very smart, but has no interest in making money to support himself.

My mom, an LCSW, thinks he's schizophrenic. My T says he sounds like schizotypal.

BUT... if you asked if he was paranoid, he'd say no. If you asked if he was eccentric, he'd say he just thinks differently from most people (with a kind of superior attitude). If you asked why he doesn't have friends, he'd say he prefers being alone.

Regardless, anyone else can easily see that he's really, seriously, an odd person.

Any of this make sense to people dx with schizotypal?

It reminds me of a relative that had paranoid schizophrenia.