Index
Equizoid personality disorder is one of the strangest personality disorders and is considered a psychotic disorder. Psychotic disorders affect the subject’s mind, preventing them from thinking clearly, having good judgments, responding emotionally, communicating with other people, being assertive, understanding reality and behaving appropriately according to the norms imposed by society. .
Subjects with schizoid personality disorder have a general pattern of detachment and detachment from social relationships, as well as a restriction of interpersonal emotional experience .
Generally, people with this type of disorder often have difficulty expressing their emotions and do so in a very limited range, especially when communicating with others. They often react passively to adverse circumstances and have difficulty responding adequately to important life events.
People with equizoid personality disorder prefer to spend most of their time alone with themselves rather than interacting with other people.
Causes of equizoid personality disorder
The exact causes of this type of disorder are still unknown. It is estimated that they can be caused by biopsychosocial factors such as: genetic factors; social factors (environment); psychological factors such as: traumatic events or brain alterations due to injuries; or due to the abuse of certain psychoactive substances that can lead the subject to present an amotivational syndrome that ends in an equizoid disorder.
Symptoms of equizoid personality disorder
- Distancing in social relationships, especially with disinterest
- Decreased emotional expressiveness
- Flattening
- Restricted affective expressiveness
- Emotional insecurity
- Cold and distant
- Choose solitary activities
- Prefers to spend time on themselves rather than being with others
- They carry out activities related to computing and / or mathematics
- Enjoy few activities
- Has no close friends
- They may suffer from agoraphobia (phobia of open spaces)
- Have episodes of anxiety
- No desire for privacy or to have people you trust
- Indifferent to praise and criticism from others
- Indifferent to opportunities to establish social relationships
- Low sexual interest
- They may have episodes of panic attacks
- They don’t care what others might think of them
- They do not respond to social norms, so they can appear socially inethe or superficial and immersed in themselves
- No observable emotional reactivity
- Few reciprocal gestures such as smiles or nods
- They rarely experience strong emotions such as anger or joy
- It gives the impression of having no emotions
- Your life doesn’t seem to have goals
- Their work does not deteriorate if the activity is isolated
Equizoid disorder and schizophrenia
There is a close relationship between schizophrenia and equizoid personality disorder, even on several occasions these disorders can be confused and misdiagnosed.
Schizophrenia is also considered a psychotic type of mental condition. It is a disorder that generates changes in the behavior of individuals, delusions, hallucinations and loss of contact with reality that can last for more than 6 months. Like equizoid disorder, schizophrenia disrupts a person’s social activity, preventing him from properly connecting with society. People with these two disorders can see themselves as strange or eccentric.
Unlike people with schizophrenia, those with equizoid disorder are in touch with reality, so they are unlikely to experience paranoia or hallucinations (experienced in schizophrenia), their words generally make sense (although they have a discouraged tone ) and do not tend to exaggerate situations.
Treatment for equizoid personality disorder
Generally the most used treatment to treat personality disorders is psychotherapy .
Some people choose long-term therapy : therapy that tries to tackle the problem at its roots, finding its focus . The people who come to this type of therapy are the ones who are aware of their problem but have not yet been extremely overwhelmed by it. In short-term therapy, they will focus mainly on trying to solve the problems of the moment, those that are generating stressful episodes for the person.
As a complement to the therapy, medication -generally antidepressants- can be included , which will be prescribed by your psychotherapist or health professional who attends your case and deems this supplement convenient.
There are self-help methods , made up of support groups, that can help a person with schizoid personality disorder overcome fears of closeness and feelings of isolation.
Hello Readers, I am Nikki Bella a Psychology student. I have always been concerned about human behavior and the mental processes that lead us to act and think the way we do. My collaboration as an editor in the psychology area of Well Being Pole has allowed me to investigate further and expand my knowledge in the field of mental health; I have also acquired great knowledge about physical health and well-being, two fundamental bases that are directly related and are part of all mental health.