Was I miss-dx?

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You're going into an area of psychiatry where they often have no clue how to define things. Some authors have described the concept of apahnisis, an autistic-like, depressive-like state, in schizophrenia. This article says that aphanisis occurs in autism (p. 126) as well as in chronic schizophrenia (p. 118):

http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjour ... 1/118.long

The article mentions routines and repetitive behaviors in chronic schizophrenia as part of aphanisis (pp. 127-128).

This study mentions high rates of restricted interests and repetitive behaviors in the childhoods of patients with adolescent- and adult-onset schizophrenia (p. 41):

https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/2 ... 8249_1.pdf

And of course you also have stuff that seems to suggest otherwise, so you have no clue what these illnesses actually are.

"In psychology, aphanisis (from the Greek ἀφανής aphanes, "invisible") is the disappearance of sexual desire"

Well if this is a symptom of aphanisis then I don't have it.



Well psychiatry is always a bit substective, but I'm not 100% certain that there isn't an absolute answer. In case of schizotypal for example, it is possible that time will tell because the symptoms usually gets worse with age. Also the problem there is with the schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and ASD, that there seems to be a genetic linkage, what could explain the overlapp of symptoms. Also there is McDD where you have autistic and schizophrenic symptoms are mixed, and there we come to the next point, that psychiatric disorders are made up, up to a certain degree. So it's propably logical that there's some overlapp between disorders and one psychiatrist might explain it this way and another one the other way around.
I also once heard in a conference about schizophrenia that schizophrenics very often have autistic like symptoms in childhood but that they tend to get better or even disapear in youth (in contrast to ASD). So of course there needs to be more research done, I just don't think that there is no real answer at all.

That happened to me. I also have some "unconventional spiritual beliefs" that some people might consider delusions. I've been scared of going crazy since I was eleven. I'm seventeen and my "symptoms" haven't changed much. Hopefully things will stay like this.

My schizo-symptoms started being 12 years old, but they were mild like thinking that others could read my thoughts and thinking about it. My symptoms of developmental delay got a lot better being 14 years old and increased a lot within a half year to a year. The change was so big, that my mother is convinced until today that I must have taken drugs, but I didn't. My entire symptoms changed in that time. I always thought that this was due to puberty, but when I heard that this sometimes occours on the schizo-spectrum, it suddenly made more sence to me.
I still have routines and stims, but my social understanding is since then in the norm.

Of course I still have something autistic, but I guess that the human brain just doesn't care for dx categories.

My social understanding started to get way better at ten or eleven. I started to naturally get way better at reading body language. At that same exact age I also started to think more about my unconventional beliefs. Right now I sometimes feel like people might be reading my thoughts, but I don't get that feeling often. I feel like I'm in my own world most of the time. Sometimes I feel like I'm actually connecting to people. That's a nice feeling that I hope I can get more often.

I find it fascinating reading a similar story to mine. I ask myself what happens in the brain to cause that change in symptoms!?

What confuses me is that I'm somehow autistic (even since early childhood), but I'm still different. But I heard that this can also happen in ppl with schizotypal PD who can also occur in childhood. Also I think McDD exists, a mixture out of schizophrenic and autistic symptoms. There seems to be some level of developmental delay also occur in many cases in ppl in the schizophrenia spectrum, but there still seem to be some differences.

I also read that dylexia is a common comorbidity in schizophrenia, I wonder why that is!?

Maybe our "delusions" are true. I feel like I'm picking up on people's energy and figuring out how they feel that way.

I think that ppl with SSD are very sensitive and also have low bounderies. They seem to feel things faster and are often able to pick up hints in the environment, like feelings around them because of the low bounderies. But sometimes this goes too far and they find themselfs in beliefsystems who don't have to do that much with reality anymore. If you doupt your thoughts or still know somehow that they just exist in your head, than they aren't delusions, just delusion like symptoms, like a pre-delusional state.
If something bad happens to me, I've trouble forgetting and tend to get overly careful and after a certain degree that can switch into long lasting paranoid thoughts. But I still know that it's me who is feeling that, but I'm still not able to change that. My problem is that I've social anxiety who is connected to paranoia. But I still not go into situations who cause my paranoia, because I still misstrust those situations and I'm not sure if those situations might be really bad and that it's not just me. It's not like it's that bad in everyday life, but some situations just seem to switch it on.
With my "mysthic thoughts" it's more that I feel like things around me are mysthic. It's just a feeling actually and sometimes I think the world is a strange place and bizare. That's why I had trouble understanding why a friend of mine described me as slightly "eccentric", because I've the feeling it's the other way around, like the world is strange. But I know it's propably me.

I've trouble being in dark places or watching horror movies, because those are situations I start thinking about ghosts or stuff like that.
... so I keep avoid that situations.
In everyday life I'm actually acnostic and I'm very critical towards belief systems.

I do have "magical" thinking, but I barely ever have paranoia. Sometimes I feel like there is evil energy going after me when I'm alone in the dark at night time, but that never involves hallucinations.

It's defined differently in the article.



I agree, there are answers. I'm very interested in the self-disorders. In fact, I will go now to finish them up.

By the way, I told my mum about my spatialization of experience (thoughts at different points in the head), and she's like, Have you been on pot? LOL. (Never been, btw.) She mentioned she could weird stuff like that on pot, but not off it.

Well, I can't go back and edit it, so I'll continue from here:

2.4 Diminished Presence
At times, if I've been in a stressful or sensory-heavy situation, I'll begin to notice fog covering me, concealing me from the world. It is like I have gone to a magical land, like I am traveling with the Norsemen. I don't find this anxiety-provoking, though.

2.5 Derealization
See 2.4.

2.6 Hyperreflectivity: Increased Reflectivity
I can be spontaneous at times, but not all the time. I find that I often have to think about various things, including upcoming doctor's appointments, things coming up at work, conversations I anticipate having with my parents, definitions of terms, similarities between terms, etc. I feel that not doing that tends to lead me to be woefully unprepared for stuff.

2.9 Identity Confusion
Sometimes I will feel like I'm someone else, a real person or a fictional character, and will imitate their mannerisms.

2.12 Loss of Common Sense/Perplexity/Lack of Natural Evidence
I've felt like this since I was a kid, though I've gotten better. I find I have to think through what people say in order to understand them. I tend to see the trees for the forest. I have very rigid rules for my interaction. I also mull over the meanings of words, though I'm not sure if it's just cuz I like to. When I worked a job where I had to interact with customers as they went about looking at things, I didn't know how much or how little I should interact with them, but specirfically problems with this got me fired from at least one job. I work much better when there is a script.

Last edited by beneficii on 27 Feb 2014, 5:52 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I had a look in the article and how I see it, I still don't have it. I have the feeling it wouldn't make much sence in my case.

I don't have an inner feeling of emptyness or any of that, that very often occours by depression or by aphanisis. It's more like a free floating anxiety who doesn't let me calm down. I've the suspicion it's more a generalised anxiety issue or something simmilar, but because of my flat affect and my inability to show my emotions correctly, it might look very simmilar to depression. There are some depressive symptoms to it, but I think that anxiety is the maincause and not the other way around. Also my obsessive ruminations seem to be more connected to anxiety and/or paranoid thoughts

Actually, if you read more closely the article, you would see it said that negative affect like anxiety, which engaging in repetitive behaviors turns into "blankness," was mentioned as a major feature of aphanisis.

I still don't have the feeling that I would have it. I surely don't need to have everything.
I don't have the feeling it describes my core issues and there are many symptoms mentioned I don't have or are not my major difficulties. And I talked about anxiety and not blankness.

Paranoia is the worst.
Did you ever have hallucinations? I had them, on rare occasions, but are not typical. I've mostly just the feeling that the world is bizarre and a strange place. Consciously I don't believe in magic and all that, but subconsciously it comes up in certain moments.
So I probably do fit into schizotypal PD, but my schizo-symptoms are mostly just mild.

Well...
Why do you think that you were miss diagnosed?

Nothing you have said above indicates that.