Avoidance of social interaction bc of no interest or bc of paranoias?

DX'd - Other
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I was diagnosed with paranoid sz some years ago, and yesterday I was reading this wikipedia page:

it says:

There are many similarities between the schizotypal and schizoid personalities. Most notable of the similarities is the inability to initiate or maintain relationships (both friendly and romantic). The difference between the two seems to be that those labeled as schizotypal avoid social interaction because of a deep-seated fear of people. The schizoid individuals simply feel no desire to form relationships, because they see no point in sharing their time with others.

I feel like I have both. I mean I have the ā€œdeep seated fear of peopleā€ and I ā€œsee no point in sharing my time with others.ā€

Do you have the same thing? How do you feel about this?

In addition to these two, I also feel like Iā€™m a misanthrope.

Thanks in advance.

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for some people, the fear kind-of devalues the interaction

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I didnā€™t see it that way before. Very interesting.

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Definitely on the fear side here.

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maybe you have not developed a good sense of how relationship are either romantically or with family and friends.
So you donā€™t really know how the different ways relationships work, and donā€™t have the simplicity alignment and flow of it.

Like learning the notes of a piano and developing the song.

the same could be said for bad relations with others, and that could make you have a couple notes off tune.

Add that to the hardship of schizophrenia and the self discrimination, defeating manner of it may be a really hard thing to re-invite,invent yourself in that area.

Hope you the best in finding a healthy place with this.

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I also have paranoid sz but have trained away most of the paranoia and social anxiety. The problem I face now is that my thoughts are very muddled and I canā€™t concentrate on what people are saying and so am still avoiding people. Even if the sz symptoms abate I will still be left with the cognitive and attention deficits.

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I wonder when social anxiety and fear converge. For me I am wary of interaction because of the possible reaction Iā€™ll receive. This very much stems from peer rejection and bullying in my youth especially. My social interaction skills were poor then and are still poor now. I would be described as socially awkward.
Then there is the thing that I get anxious/nervous if people get too close to me, probably because I then get overwhelmed as to how to be re the rules of social engagement.

You could say the reluctance to engage involves a degree of paranoia. I have often described myself as an avoidant paranoiac.

I veer between a degree of ASD as an explanation, a degree of schizotypal,or more likely a degree of both.

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You may find these interesting:

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Lower social interaction.PNG954Ɨ159 8.83 KB

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hi nuts! Me I face the paranoia right now. I spent 17 years without interacting too much and I guess its a big problem now. How did you get rid of the paranoia? Do you think that the giving up of interacting years ago played in my current state where I sit at home or we are at this point because of the paranoia,wow? me too, cognitive problems. logical thinking problems and catching up the things cause too anxiousā€¦

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I spend as little time in day treatment and as much time in my room as possible. Sometimes it seems kind of dreary to come back to my solitary room after being among dozens of people, but then I quickly habituate to my room, and I donā€™t want to go back and join the crowd.

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A form of therapy called Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and also by repeatedly looking at pictures of angry faces and sad faces on the computer for half an hour daily until they no longer upset me.

Hereā€™s a short video about EMDR.

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Bumping to get more answers.

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Pre-schizophrenia, there was a period that could be considered my prodrome, where I would have some friends but didnā€™t meet with them all too often. It was usually the other who initiated contact. Altough I could interact with people fairly well, nothing odd going on, I enjoyed being on my own. I even prided myself for being such an independent individual, and cultivated this attitude accordingly. Little did I know what I had coming my way. Nowadays I value the companionship of my friends much more. And while I did not so much gain any friendships because of schizophrenia. The turnaround in attitude has made my friendships much closer. I suppose I had to learn what everybody knows already: relationships are a good thing, and they are reciprocal, it is about giving and taking. It has been greatly rewarding to have had this shitty attitude of mine towards others turned around. Schizophrenia was a wake-up call for sure.

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very rarely do i meet someone i actually want to spend time with, so usually i donā€™t make an effort. most people and conversation drain me.

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I donā€™t really have a fear of people, I more just donā€™t like social interaction when Iā€™m not doing well. Like lately I just havenā€™t been able to tolerate it because thereā€™s too much going on with me. I tend to isolate.

Iā€™m not like that all the time though.

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Both :slight_smile:
I donā€™t think that having no interest in social interaction is pathological; but it is if this is a part of a ā€˜globalā€™ anhedonia.

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I find for myself, itā€™s both things.
I tend to have the paranoia people might hurt me, or I just have no interest in wanting to interact. People probably see me as boring due to not saying much, too.

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before psychosis I had schizotypal disorderā€¦

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The previous EMDR link broke so here it is again updated.