Perhaps for years we have wondered the cause of many of our own and other people’s behaviors, immediately and almost unconsciously attributing them to emotions. We use expressions like “she is like that”, “he is very angry”, “he has always been like this”, “he is very angry”… We express dozens of similar expressions but most likely we avoid the topic of personality traits, which are the point from which the following Psychology-Online article on the Schizotypy: what it is, symptoms and treatment.
What is schizotypy in psychology
The DSM 5 (2013) defines personality traits as persistent patterns of the way we perceive, think, and relate to the environment and ourselves, showing up in a variety of social and personal areas. If you want to see an example, here you will find.
A is a permanent pattern of internal experience and behavior that deviates considerably from the expectations or expectations of the individual’s particular culture. Furthermore, a personality disorder is characterized as a phenomenon that is not very flexible and stable over time that generally has a recognizable onset in adolescence or early adulthood and gives rise to clinically significant distress and social and occupational impairment.
Personality disorders manifest themselves in at least two of the following four areas:
- Cognition.
- Affectivity.
- Interpersonal functioning.
- Impulse control.
Summarized, it could be said that a personality disorder is a permanent pattern of the way of thinking, behaving and feeling that is relatively stable over time.
Meaning of schizotypy
Schizotypy is a personality disorder characterized by social and interpersonal deficiencies and that are highlighted by acute/intense discomfort and a reduced or no capacity for close relationships, also determined by evident and perceptual.
Schizotypy and schizophrenia: differences
Schizotypy, although a personality disorder, is mentioned in the chapter “Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders” of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM 5, because it is considered part of the schizophrenia spectrum and, According to ICD-9 and ICD 10 (International Classification of Diseases), it is classified as a disorder of this section. But this personality disorder and schizophrenia have many differences.
The main characteristic that differentiates these two disorders is their symptoms, since In a schizotypal personality disorder, psychotic symptoms are not present persistent or also known as characteristic symptoms of the active phase (hallucinations and delusions, disorganized speech, catatonia), which are required for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Another of its differences is present in your classificationsince schizophrenia is not a personality disorder like schizotypy is, a persistent pattern of behavior, affect and cognition, schizophrenia has as a requirement in its diagnostic criteria a duration six months (one month active phase) of your symptoms, including periods of prodromal or residual symptoms.
Although these two pathologies are different and must be appropriately separated when establishing a diagnosis, they can also coexist. For an additional diagnosis to be made to schizotypal personality disorder, this disorder must have appeared long before psychotic symptoms began and must have persisted when psychotic symptoms subside. Also a persistent/chronic mental disorder (in this case schizophrenia) can precede schizotypal personality disorder and both can be diagnosed at the same time.
Schizotypy: symptoms
People diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder generally present with the following symptoms:
- Reference ideas which Lawrence M. Porter (2005) describes as “a phenomenon characterized by the experience of a person who, based on innocuous events or mere coincidences, believes that these always have a strong personal importance or a notion that everything he or she “What they perceive in the world is related to their destiny.” They tend to be superstitious or very concerned about paranormal events.
- They usually have magical beliefs or thoughts that influences behavior and that is inconsistent with subcultural norms (for example, superstitions, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy or a “sixth sense”; in children and adolescents, extravagant fantasies or concerns). They may feel or have the full conviction that they possess special powers to perceive events before they occur or abilities to read the thoughts of others; believing that they have magical control over other people (for example, believing that a partner or a close family member falls asleep as a result of a thought they had an hour before).
- Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions. His speech may be imprecise, rambling or vague.
- Strange thought and speech.
- They usually have paranoid ideas (for example, a strong belief that coworkers intend to ruin or negatively affect your relationship with your boss).
- Inappropriate affection where they are frequently not able to regulate their emotions and interpersonal skills that are necessary for a relationship.
- They are often described or considered rare for their unusual gestures or behaviors and for that careless and disorderly way of dressing, they are also described this way due to their lack of interest in social expectations (for example, they avoid eye contact or wear torn and stained clothes, they do not make jokes or share with those of others).
- They describe and present a disinterest or discontent in intimate relationships and therefore they usually do not have friends or close people who are not first-degree relatives.
- They tend to be very anxious in social situationsespecially those that involve the participation of unknown people.
- They interact with other people only when they have to, but they prefer to be apart because you express feeling different or that you don’t fit in.
- Their anxiety does not decrease even when the environment or people become more frequent or familiar, because Their anxiety is often related to suspicion of the interests of others..
People diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder typically seek treatment for symptoms related to their anxiety or depression and not for the symptoms of the personality disorder itself. These people may even present transient psychotic episodes due to a high level of stress lasting from minutes to hours.
Schizotypy: treatment
Treatment for schizotypal personality disorder is usually offered with one or more types of psychotherapy (psychoanalytic or cognitive behavioral) using as an adjuvant some psychotropic drug.
Psychotherapy can help diagnosed people begin to trust other people and events by establishing a relationship of trust with the same psychotherapist. In CBT, thinking models that are distorted are identified and established and learned.
The medications that are generally recommended or prescribed are antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, antidepressants or anxiolytics, but the use of SSRIs (sertraline, fluoxetine, venlafaxine) and atypical antipsychotics (risperidone, clozapine and olanzapine) due to its lower risk of extrapyramidal effects.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Schizotypy: what it is, symptoms and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5). Panamericana Editorial.
- Lawrence M. Porter. (2005). Women’s Vision in Western Literature. Praeger.