What Is Schizoid Personality Disorder?
Learn what schizoid personality disorder is in this personality disorders video from Howcast.
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Transcript
So Schizoid Personality Disorder is one of ten personality disorders that are identified in the DSM, which is the manual that psychiatrists use to diagnose all mental illnesses, including personality disorders. The main feature of Schizoid Personality Disorder is that these individuals don't have any desire to engage in any kind of relationships. They'll prefer solitary activities, they won't seek out any relationships, including their family relationships, and certainly they will not be actively seeking out romantic relationships. Their most preferred way of existing is completely on their own and engaging in solitary activities. At times, you might come across someone who has this disorder, but you probably won't notice it, because the interaction will be minimal, and it won't be very memorable. So, individuals with Schizoid Personality Disorder are not hermits, because hermits will tend to actively separate themselves from society. Individuals with Schizoid Personality Disorder won't seek out social interaction, but they also won't be specifically shunning interaction with other people, either, which is to say, they will choose activities that are solitary without actively seeking to isolate themselves from other people, but the sum total of having Schizoid Personality Disorder is that they do tend to live very solitary, isolated lives and will generally not have very many, if any, relationships in their lives. So, these individuals don't generally come to treatment, because they don't have any problem with the way that they're living, and, like with many of the personality disorders, there's some controversy as to whether this is a disorder, given that the individual doesn't generally have any experience of their symptoms as a disorder, and they generally aren't causing problems for other people as well. So, these kind of illnesses, Schizoid Personality Disorder and some of the other personality disorders, are a source of some controversy, but the main aspect of is it that these individuals do not seek out or need any social interaction.
