DSM V Overboard And Out of Control

By this point in time, you probably do realize that I'm not a "fan" of the Diagnostic Statistics Manual also known as the DSM book Whatever version it may be. The DSM is pubished by the American Psychiatric Association which is also known as the APA. Just ask any college student who attends the University of Phoenix how much of a whack job the APA is with their crazy formatting for academic papers. Clearly I'm no fan of the APA. The APA are label freaks. They live to label people, sometimes these labels appear to even be libel. To somebody with a disability these labels can cause an undue amount of stress, tension and aggravation. I watch like a hawk what changes that get made to the DSM. I question their authority and see it as dubious.

The DSM wants to label everything without regard to the subsequent consequences of negative impact that their labels can have on a person. I ask questions and challenge it. I can accept that I am schizotypal. My Doctor has given me tests, made me answer 366 questions but I still don't feel that it's definitive and and don't believe it went deep enough. My challenge to the Doctor is to figure it out, do the math perhaps come to a conclusion without using the DSM.

The latest diagnosis by the APA for the DSM book is called " Hypersexual Disorder" it's a proposal of something to be added to the book while at the same time APA wants to have "Schizoaffective Disorder" stricken. Inflammatory statements have been made in reference to the DSM because of the way it presents itself. One such statement is about the way us schizotypals believe in "magical thinking" I'm not going to deny that. We do, but I'm going to stand on it too. The commentary I had read is that it had said that people who are of the "Christian persuasion" are all schizotypally inclined" because we have faith in God who is "Supernatural" The DSM is a worldly book and it's it constantly changing and being updated by people who do not associate with things such as Christianity or religion. What the people who associate with Christianity would know is that though we believe in the unseen (that's our faith)

So just as the DSM says what our situation is under section 301.22 A person of the Christian Persuasion knows that in his book the Bible, which has been around a lot longer than the DSM, says in Eph 6-12 " For the war is not with flesh and blood but against the principalities, powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Quite honestly I took offense at the comments I have heard but I remembered that part in the Bible (which was the original manual by the way) because this is the war , the battle if you will.

DSM is constantly changing and being updated and revised, it's always clashing against the immovable unchanging word of God, which is the final word. DSM is a weapon and a deadly weapon. The American Psychiatric Asociation has lost sight of Sigmund Freud's conclusion that "sometimes a couch is just a couch" . Christians will tell you that in the Bible (the original manual- The New Living Translation) - "But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord, their vindication will come from me. I the Lord have spoken."
Isaiah 54-17



We take solace in that because we know that our faith is and has to be stronger than those poison-tipped arrows shot at us by the DSM. DSM is going to shoot it's arrows and it's going to do it in the name of "normalcy" The DSM has to be written from what they call a "scientific" point of view. What science itself fails to recognize is that Everything it comes to understand is a blessing and a gift that leads to learning and enrichment. It was not anything done by man.

Section 299.80 Asperger's Disorder from APA-DSM-IV

(used from the DSM-IV p77 current version)



A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:



1. Marked impairments in the use of multiple non-verbal behaviors such as eye to eye gaze, facial expressions, body postures, and gestures to regualate social interaction.

2. failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental levels

3. a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests , or achievments with other people (e.g. by a lack of showing or pointing out objects of interest to other people)

4. lack of social or emotional reciprocity



B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities as manifested by at least one of the following:

1. encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus.

2. apparently inflexible adherance to specific, non functional routines or rituals

3.stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flaping or whole body movements)

4. persistent preoccupation with parts of objects



C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.



D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g. single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases by 3 years)
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
F. Criteria not met for another pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia

Section 301.22 Schizotypal Personality Disorder APA-DSM-V

Individuals who match this personality disorder type have social deficits, marked by discomfort with and reduced capacity for interpersonal relationships; eccentricities of appearance and behavior, cognitave and perceptual distortions. They have few close friends or relationships. They are anxious in social situations (even when they have time to become familiar with the situation) feel like outcasts or outsiders, find it difficult to feel connected to others, and are suspicious of other's motivations, including their spouse, their colleagues and friends.
Individuals with this type are eccentric, odd or peculiar in appearance or manner (e.g. grooming , hygiene, posture and or eye contact is strange and unusual. Their speech may be vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, impoverished, overly concrete or stereotyped. Individuals with this type experience a limited or constricted range of emotions and are inhibited in their expressions of emotions. They may appear detached and indifferent to other's reactions, despite internal distress at being "set apart."
Odd beliefs influence their behavior such as belief in superstition, clairvoyance or telepathy. Their perception of relaity can become further impaired, often under stress when reasoning and perceptual processes become odd and idiosyncratic, ( e.g. they make seemingly arbitrary inferences, see hidden messages or special meanings in ordinary events) or quasi- psychotic, with symptoms such as pseudo-hallucinations, sensory illusions, over-valued ideas, mild paranoid ideation, or transient psychotic episodes.
Individuals with this personality disorder type are however able to "reality-test" psychotic like symptoms and can intellectually acknowledge that they are products of their own minds.

You're Just Paranoid!

As a person with StPD, we're often faced with times when we worry about everything. We concern ourselves with things like gossip or who is talking about who or things like a certain chain of events that sets of a catastrophic series of events. We find ourselves asking questions on things like making statements on things about situations being crafted to fit us specifically or see things that appear to be signs that somehow send us subliminal messages. Our perceptions are viewed as odd and eccentric because they do not conform to what is considered to be the traditional "train of thought" For us, the paranoia is real. It's ever present. Always there. Some say that it's a product of our own minds. I have to debate the word "product" because for us we do not see it as a "product." We see it as an emotion. It's an emotion that we are not able to handle well. The Paranoia stems from the many negative experiences that we have had in dealing with the normal world. The part where the word "product" applies is our reactions to situations as they present before us. How are we going to react to this? How are we going to react to that? We ask these questions often. What are we going to do if this happens or that?
If a situation ends with a negative conclusion most of the time it begins to develop a pattern of normalcy. The pattern of normalcy will be the criteria that is used in shaping the perceptions of a Schizotypal. We will begin to believe that this is how this is supposed to be and "it is what it is"
We want to control a situation all the time but we come up short and we fail. Most of the time it wasn't for lack of trying it was in the understanding.
All our doubts and all of our lack of confidence and self esteem draw from our understandings of the situation. If the situation does not go well, we will not be thinking positive thoughts on it. Some situations are able to bore us mightily and we loose interest in them pretty quick as well.

We Dream, But We Dream Big

As a person with StPD, we are a people who likes to dream, we have very active imaginations. Thisngs we tend to thnk about are often seen as odd if we talk about them. To a point normal people would see this as being "eccentric." We are eccentric to the normal person, as a Schizotypal, we would do better for ourselves to accept that and learn to work with it rather than fight this part of our personality. We know that we are often seen as being odd and strange and that we just think differently but it's how we think that calls attention to ourselves. What are the things that we think about that normal people take exception too? There is just so much.

We tend to think about things that are bigger than we are. We tend have a wider view and perception of things that are not easily understood by normal people. Normal people do not like things that are "abnormal" or anything that isn't normal. For us we are often frustrated by this because it represents people with closed minds, not willing to accept new ideas and an inability to understand things that are not normal.

We throw the words " Normal, normalcy, normalness" and any other conjugation of that adjective around and try to find acceptance within in it. For us as a people with StPD, it just doesn't happen like that. Eccentricity. As a person with StPD, often times we are "accused" I say "accused" because this is what our feelings are when normal people start putting things out there appear to be complaining of our interests in the parapsychological and paranormal. We dream big. We want to be more than we already are. Often times we feel trapped in our own bodies because our limitations hang around our necks like a boat anchor. We can go and watch a movie and become so "inspired" by it and leave that movie with such an emotional high that when we return home or back to reality, it really does come and smack us right back into reality and we are back in our rut again.
For StPD people, we tend to "invest" (as I said we use big words and unique word choices) time in things like science fiction and fantasy. These things catch our interests and captivate us because we tend to "gravitate" toward the things that show ordinary people facing incredibly overwhelming odds and beating them. Things like Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame, always getting shot up but making it home at the end of the day. Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame facing his fears and overcoming them by determination and not the "Force" or the Pevinsley 4 from Narnia fame, having came from an ordinary background and gone to become Kings and Queens of a great land.
Stories of ordinary people accomplishing great things by becoming something greater than they were all represent the Human condition, not just any variation of it. The correlation here is that we as Schizotypals see these qualities and admire them subliminally and subconsciously we want to be successful. Our challenge is being able to just do it, such as in expressing ourselves. As soon as we try to act upon it, trying to make something happen , our eccentricity pokes itself out and we are weird all over again.
As a Schizotypal, we have desires to want to be a part of a team, to fit in and be a part of something great, but our condition distinctively sets us apart from everyone else. For us to do this type of thing we need to recognize first that though we are different, we have strengths in some areas where others probably don't. It's also fair to go on and say that we have "deficits" where others don't, making us an "uneven fit" It's this "uneveness" that stands out all the time causing us to become "socially awkward" or even to the point of being recluse. We are there but what do we say? They talk about things that normal people talk about and we are talking about what catches our interests and they are worlds apart. The only things that they have in common is that they are human and breathing the same air. We dream, but we dream big. Bigger, better than we already are. You take the high road, and I'll take the low road and make a map along the way.

We Use BIG Words

As a person with Schizotypal Personality Disorder, it's important to understand that we just simply do not think like normal people. We like to take the "Scenic route" if you will. We will try to think of different ways to get the same goal accomplished. It's presently not known why we do this, sometimes it defies logic. Normal people still have increasing difficulty in trying to understand our thought processes and the truth is we understand that because so do we. Our language as schizotypals is often seen as strange because we use words that don't get to be heard everyday unless a person who is around it often comes in contact with it. We don't think we are being strange we don't see what we are doing as being odd but the normal world has a major hang up with us and it's something that we just don't comprehend. We want to try to resolve the matter but we don't really know how. We are often frustrated by this, so what tends to happen is that we isolate ourselves and we don't want to talk about it because we feel that we can't talk about it. Our words are large big and elaborate. We will insert words in places that do seem odd from time to time but the question is left to be asked, "Why hold it against us?" We are a smart people with a large vocabulary and our understanding of our vocabulary essentially becomes us. We are comforatable with our linguisistic skills and that comfort to the normal world seems unsettling. It's not anything that we can really explain, but we only ask that you try to please understand and be patient with us.

Schizo- What?

Schizotypal Personality Disorder. It's a big scary name for a condition, I mean afterall, the root word is "Schizo" so that means it must be connected to being a Schizophrenic. Truth is, this is correct. Most people hear the term and are completely freaked out by it. Schizophrenia as people have seen it means that people have multiple personalities, but lets take some time to explore it. A person is not able to really understand it until it's presented before them. Many stereotypes and prejuidices exist among us and the first way to knock those down are to educate the public.
Let's take a look at the root word "Schizo" Sometimes this word is used in derrogatory ways to describe somebody who is afflicted with a mental illness. There are many different mental illnesses that begin with the word "Schizo" but in the normal world it almost always means a reference to somebody who is suffering from Schizophrenia. A Schizotypal could go that way if they decompensate enough. Thankfully, most of us are not there at that point yet.