Living and Dealing With Schizotypal Personality Disorder

The Mayo Clinic describes this disorder very clearly and easily understandable. They state that the individual displays odd or eccentric behavior. The person with this disorder maintains very few if any close relationships with others. Sometimes the person with this personality develops a mistrust of others and can be very skeptical about other peoples motivations.

I am pretty sure I have experienced this type of disorder all of my life. I have always felt lonely even when I am in a crowd of people. I have always been extremely sensitive and I have displayed emotions at what society would consider inappropriate times and places.

Here are just a couple of examples that have happened to me this last year.

1. Crying for no reason at Culver's or after eating Culver's food. The food is good and I enjoy it, but for some strange reason, I always start crying in or out of the restaurant after eating the food. It's not guilt, because It happens no matter what I eat.
2. Laughing hysterically after eating at Burger King. A friend of mine and I ate at Burger King one day as we were pulling out of the driveway he said, "It's going to be hard getting out of here." I started laughing hysterically. I couldn't stop laughing if I tried, in fact, I kept laughing for hours after that.
3. Driving to a town called Marshall in Wisconsin. Every time this year that I decided to go to Marshall Wisconsin I would start to cry, and a deep sadness would come over me. I don't know why, because nothing bad has ever happened to me there as far as I can recall.

Webster's Dictionary describes eccentric as a deviation from commonly accepted or conventional ways.in a quirky or bizarre manner. The word eccentric is rarely used in everyday conversations or used to describe a family member, friend, or neighbor. The word is usually only spoken to describe a millionaire who left all his money to his pet cat or monkey.

Although we are all uniquely different from each other in many different ways, there are certain or standard ways and roles the consensus or majority decide what a person should look like or behave like. I have learned first hand and the hard way, that if you do not fit into their neat little boxes of what they consider sane or normal, they will put a label on you and treat you whatever way they see fit.

1. Nikola Tesla -"The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane."
2. Oscar Wilde - “Lady Bracknell: “He was eccentric, I admit. But only in later years. And that was the result of the Indian climate, and marriage, and indigestion, and other things of that kind.”
3. Ben Franklin - “A fool is someone who enjoys calling other people crazy before they check out their own insanity in the mirror...first.”

While there is no way of curing this Schizotypal, the medical community believes that anti-psychotic medicine and therapy can lessen some of the symptoms associated with it.

Anti-psychotic medicine such as drugs like aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), or quetiapine (Seroquel), just to name a few works to prevent depression, aggression, and other symptoms.

Different kinds of therapies have been reported to help the person understand and cope with the behavior. Psychoanalytic therapy can help the person deal with negative emotions. While Cognitive behavior therapy assists in teaching the person how their thoughts and actions affect themselves and others.

Although counseling and therapy may be challenging for a person with this affliction because they have a difficult time trusting anyone outside of their family, and so may not seek to get help or openly discuss their situation with a stranger.

Therapy and counseling can be obtained as long as the therapist or counselor is understanding that it will take time for the person to discuss their problem until they are able to trust and feel comfortable with that professional.

After researching and studying Schizotypal disorder, I realize that I should have been diagnosed with this disorder. Everything that I have read about this disorder is something I could relate to every year that I can recall.

I tried to cover it up with alcohol and drugs when I was younger. My family and friends who are not doctors misdiagnosed me as being bi-polar which was not helpful due to the fact that I had so many symptoms or many things going on at the time. Instead of putting a label on me, it would have been more helpful and loving for them to take me to a real doctor and psychiatrist and let them diagnose me.

I always knew I was different than my family and friends, because of how sad and lonely I was in their presence. There is no cure for this disorder, but maybe with a little help and a lot of patience from someone who understands this disorder, I will be able to handle life a little bit better. One day at a time.