Schizotypal Personality Disorder

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Based on the OP's mental and emotional state, I wouldn't put too much faith in the OP's interpretation of events.

That doesn't seem entirely right. He hasn't expressed any profound emotional disturbance. It seems to me that there is not much familiarity with AS in the medical community. In this particular case, it seems the diagnostic criteria used was this:



That's not valid, and he has good reason to be dubious about this professional's ability to diagnose AS.

But as far as dismissing the diagnosis he DID get, I don't think he's on very good ground. He dismisses it because he doesn't have magical thinking or delusions, but a quick look at the diagnostic criteria tells me that this isn't necessary. The criteria is five out of a list of eight or nine, magical thinking is only one of them. One could meet the criteria with the following five, for instance:

# Odd thinking and speech (e.g. vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, or stereotyped speaking)
# Inappropriate or constricted affect
# Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar
# Lack of close friends or confidants other than first degree relatives
# Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self.

The OP seems unusually upset over this. And I would be cautious about the way he interprets what his psychologist said. The "he had an Aspergers guy who doesn't actl ike him" statement was probably only one of the many reasons the psychologist had, but the OP likely became fixated on that statement.

Possibly, yes. I think he dismisses the diagnosis he did get a little too quickly. We can't pick and choose our diagnosis according to what's most comfortable for us or how we would like to think of ourselves.

AS or not, he could be schizotypal, and dismissing that diagnosis because one or two criteria aren't met (when they don't even need to be) doesn't seem valid. The label is not really relevant, it's the treatment that is relevant ... if I were him I would just try it and be open-minded and see if it is useful.

But I do think there is a lack of familiarity with AS. It wouldn't be out of bounds for him to question how much practical experience the professional has with it. Having had one patient isn't much at all. In this respect it is like any professional service. He should not make a judgement based on one single comment or by the fact he didn't get the diagnosis he thought he should get, though. But he might ask or look into the person's level of practical experience.

The Op said they were frusterated, I'd be frusterated too if one psychologist said one thing and then another said something entirely different and totally disregarded the already existing diagnoses. I guess I must be pretty freaking disturbed to based on that... :roll. Besides there is no way you could possibly know how upset the OP is over this based on that post not to mention its irrelevant.

A self-evaluation and diagnosis for something like this is questionable at best.

Well the problem is that this disorders in this area are related to each other.

People with schizotypal personality disorder have more often autistic traits and autistic people more often schizophrenic like symptoms, including paranoia, and there is also McDD as diagnoses who is between autism and schizophrenia.

That your cousin has schizophrenia doesn't help at all, because autism and schizophrenia are related to each other.

Just a specialist can find out in such cases what the "best" diagnoses is.

I'm also not that far away from schizotypal PD or McDD if you want it that way, but I've still just HFA as diagnoses, because I was very typical autistic as a child and my schizotypal/McDD traits are not that many and so they are considered as being part of the autism spectrum. In the end it is hard to tell sometimes and also a bit a matter of opinion.

If you actually read the OP you'd see it says he was professionally diagnosed with aspergers, and now this other psychologist is trying to say he doesn't have aspergers and has schizotypal PD instead.

Then maybe he has some symptoms of both. He did say he considers his Aspergers to be "mild", so why would he expect psychologists to unanimously diagnose him with that?

It's possible your 2nd psych is wrong OP. I was told I fit all the main features of Schizotypal personality when I was seeing psychs. My Schizotypal features were the result of a bad depression that had turned psychotic. None of the psychs believed I had Aspergers or anything on the autism spectrum & i was given the reasons that I communicated too well verbally, seemed too intelligent & that I had a high-school diploma from a college prep-school. I took some test & was told that my learning profile did not fit the typical Aspergers pattern. I am dyslexic & have a low vision disorder & parts of the test involved visual stuff which I had problems with. I'm fairly positive I have AS thou because I fit most of the typical AS traits & my mom suspected me of being autistic as a toddler but my GP laughed & said "Nick's just being Nick". I totally get why your upset; I'm pretty upset with docs & psychs too for not getting my diagnoses rite. I don't get how some of the 10+ things they felt I had could coexsist like Schizoid Personality, Borderline Personality, Obsessive Compulsive Personality & show all the main features of Schizotypal. I quit seeing docs & psychs a few years ago & I joined WP & learned a lot about Aspergers & I'm doing alot better now. My suggestion is to learn about AS & say your an Aspie if you identify with it.

I don't know, I am more curious as to why you are here.......I mean it looks like you're only here to invalidate the OP than to provide any helpful input. This website isn't the place to tell people anything they say should be disregarded because they have a mental disorder.

This website isn't here to tell people everything they want to hear either. I'd rather defuse the OP's irrational anger towards his psychologist instead of encouraging it.

What is so irrational about being angry a psychiatrist throws out the diagnoses you've been given to slap another one on you....because you don't act like another individual with aspergers. A psychiatrist of all people should know every individual with the same disorder does not act exactly the same......it unprofessional to rule out a diagnoses based on that. So I don't see what irrational anger you are referring to.

Even the OP thinks he only has "mild" Aspergers. If his symptoms really are mild, then it shouldn't come as a surprise that some psychologists don't think he has Aspergers. However, the OP seems to be fixated on that one statement made by his psychologist.

Some patients aren't "typical" in their symptoms.
Some patients are symptomatically between two diagnoses (and there is no black and white).
Some psychologists don't know that much about certian diagnoses.
Some psychologists don't want to tell that they aren't experts.
Some psychologists do.

It is the right of the patient to choose the doctor in most cases.
It is the right of the patient to ask for a second opinion.

Instead of being mad about a certain psychologist, it is possible in most cases just to change or get another opinion or just life with it that a psychologist has another opinion about onself.

Both psychologists can be right.
A person can have tendencies from schizotypal PD and Autism. This is actually very common. There is no reason to be mad at the psychologist. I would ask because of McDD in such cases.