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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffPeople with schizoid personality disorder are loners. Generally they:
- Choose activities that don't require interaction with others
- Prize solitude and independence
- Are often unable to respond to normal social cues in social settings
- Harbor little desire for sexual experiences with others
- Can appear dull or indifferent to others
- Are followers rather than leaders in groups
Some tendencies can appear in childhood and continue through adolescence and into early adulthood.
People with schizoid personality disorder may appear detached and aloof to outsiders, but some experts believe that they're actually quite sensitive and experience a deep longing for intimacy. However, people with schizoid personality disorder either are incapable of initiating and maintaining a personal relationship or find themselves suffocated or anxious in the company of others. Thus they retreat into their inner worlds and view their environs with great confusion or seek relationships for security, but break away repeatedly.
Often, people with schizoid personality disorder populate the fringes of life — choosing to work a midnight shift, for example. They may live in the basement of their elderly parents' homes or in some cases become homeless, refusing outreach services.
Signs and symptoms of schizoid personality disorder include:
- Emotional coldness or aloofness
- Indifference to praise or criticism and the feelings of others
- Close friendships with no more than one or two people, including family members
- Social withdrawal, or continual avoidance of social activities
- Flattened emotions or lack of expressivity
- Inability to experience pleasure (anhedonia)
- General feeling of discomfort or restlessness (dysphoria)
- Having little to say
- Lack of motivation or persistence (avolition)
- Tendency toward underperformance in school or work settings
The schizophrenic spectrum
Schizoid personality disorder is considered part of the "schizophrenic spectrum" of disorders, which includes schizotypal personality disorder and schizophrenia. These conditions all have similar symptoms, such as an incapacity for social relations and emotional inexpressiveness. The main distinction is that people with schizoid personality don't usually experience the perceptual distortions, paranoia or illusions characteristic of schizotypal personality or the psychotic episodes of schizophrenia.
Although their speech lacks enthusiasm, what people with schizoid personality disorder say is rarely abnormal or odd, as in the conversational patterns of people with schizotypal personality disorder.
When to see a doctor
Because personality tends to become entrenched with age, treatment for a personality disorder has the possibility of being more effective if it begins as early as possible.
People with schizoid personality disorder tend to shun interaction with medical professionals and are likely to seek help only at the urging of relatives or teachers or intervention by the legal system.
If you suspect someone may have schizoid personality disorder, be on the lookout for signs and symptoms such as consistent emotional detachment and social isolation. You might gently suggest that the person seek medical attention, starting with a primary care physician or mental health professional.
- 1. Pfohl B. Personality disorders. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 10, 2008.
- 2. Personality disorders. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: The Merck Manual for Patients and Caregivers. http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec07/ch105/ch105a.html. Accessed Aug. 1, 2008.
- 3. Skodol AE, et al. Positive childhood experiences: Resilience and recovery from personality disorder in early adulthood. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2007;68(7):1102-1108.
- 4. Schizoid personality disorder. In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2000.
- 5. Schizoid personality disorder. In: Sadock BJ, et al. Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005:2081-2082.
- 6. Zanni GR. The graying of personality disorders: Persistent, but different. The Consultant Pharmacist. 2007: 22(12):995-1003.
