Can Anyone Explain What Paranoid-schizoid Is?

[Cool Cat]

This is something my T says I have.
I kinda understand it a little but it is so complicated.
Does anyone here know how to explain the gist of what it is (IN ENGLISH :))
I can't find any non-academic stuff about it.
Is it really common or not that common?
I never heard about it before therapy.

 

[joeylittle]

Well, what is kind of interesting (?) is that the paranoid subtype of schizophrenia has been dropped from the DSM V
In plain English: :) There is no longer an actual kind of schizophrenia that can be called "paranoid", because a bunch of doctors decided that the criteria for the "paranoid" part was just too general. So, there used to be paranoid schizophrenia, disorganized schizo, catatonic schizo, undifferentiated schizo, and residual schizo. http://pro.psychcentral.com/dsm-5-changes-schizophrenia-psychotic-disorders/004336.html#

Is your therapist telling you that you have schizophrenia, or are they telling you that your personality type is schizoid?

 

[Ed Norton]

Schizoid is a personality disorder that is characterized by lack of desire for social connection, apathy and lack of emotions. Sometimes also they live in a fantasy world. Paranoid is also a personality disorder, which is somewhat self explanatory. I have never heard of paranoid-schizoid before.

 

[Friday]

An important thing to understand about diagnosis is that most disorders share symptoms with other disorders. It's the constellation of symptoms that are important. Not the individual ones (most of the time).

Case in point :
lack of desire for social connection / Isolating
Apathy / depression
Lack of emotions / numbness

3 symptoms that schizoid & PTSD share. But they're 2 very different disorders. Different cause. Different expression. Different treatment.

Some disorders are so close they're known as "sister-disorders" because they have virtually identical symptoms except for as little as 1 key difference. ADHD & Bipolar Disorder as sister disorders, for example. As are dyslexia, dyscalculia, & dysgraphia.

Because cause / expression / treatment are very different for different disorders, proper diagnosis is key. So very, very important. But misdiagnosis happens all the time. Either because the professional is an idiot, or self-diagnosis leads people to cherry picking what symptoms they have to share.

 

[joeylittle]

This link provides a very readable definition of the group of personality disorders called "cluster A". Both schizoid and paranoid are in the same cluster, which just means that they are related in terms of their traits.
Link Removed
Your therapist may be saying that you have some traits aligned with both.

Although if your therapist isn't a psychiatrist or psychologist, they aren't giving you a diagnosis, they are just describing you according to their opinion - but they aren't really trained to diagnose. Like us on the web. :)

 

[nerdluvin]

If this is a diagnosis, I suggest you get more than one opinion. For years, I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder by one therapist and ran with that. A few years ago, I got a second opinion and we came to the conclusion that it was Complex PTSD.

The most important thing was my therapist, who said "the label may help you orient yourself in what's happening but the important part is that whatever your condition, you are suffering and together we'll help you navigate the storm"

Remember that a label is just that. Find a therapist that will treat you like a human being and not a condition.

 

[Lucycat]

My T has described me as Paranoid. I don't disagree - he isn't diagnosing me with anything. He is stating a fact about a symptom on that day. He is not telling me I have a personality disorder, he is telling me that I have an illogical fear 'that they are out to get me' at that particular time. He is able to discuss with me why that fear has taken hold and look at the trigger for the Paranoia. Once analysed and processed it passes and I can return to my logical self.

 

[Cool Cat]

Is your therapist telling you that you have schizophrenia, or are they telling you that your personality type is schizoid?

^^ He's told me before I'm schizoid personality type, he hasn't said I have the disorder.

"the label may help you orient yourself in what's happening but the important part is that whatever your condition, you are suffering and together we'll help you navigate the storm"

Remember that a label is just that. Find a therapist that will treat you like a human being and not a condition.

Thats a good point, my T doesn't dwell on the labels, tbh I dont know why but I cant help keeping bringing it up, maybe I should stop that.

This came up on google goo [dot] gl/bEPNoA

 

[Ed Norton]

Even though they are allowed to...I think that social workers need to stay away from diagnosing. They tend to be incompetent at it, at least in my experience. If you want to diagnose you should go to medical school or study psychology. In fact, most psychiatrists seem to be idiots to me also. But I freely admit that I'm very biased and that I think many in the mental health field are idiots. They were usually bottom of the barrel medical students who couldn't get any other residency so they matched into psych. If I were a complete idiot in medschool I'd do family practice or internal medicine at least then I could be a real doctor. Sorry if I sound cynical.