Okay, in doing some general web-browsing, I came upon a definition for Schizoid Personality Disorder. I was completely floored - I had nearly every diagnostic symptom. I have been treated with varying success for depression for the last decade. Depression alone doesn't seem to fit some of my symptoms, but I didn't ever know what to make of it. here are the diagnostic criteria of the ICD-10, of which four need to be met for the diagnosis:

Emotional coldness, detachment or reduced affection.
Limited capacity to express either positive or negative emotions towards others.
Consistent preference for solitary activities.
Very few (if any) close friends or relationships, and a lack of desire for such.
Indifference to either praise or criticism.
Taking pleasure in few, if any, activities.
Indifference to social norms and conventions.
Preoccupation with fantasy and introspection.
Lack of desire for sexual experiences with another person.

I (from my perspective) have varying degrees of all of those symptoms. Maybe it's time to talk to a shrink.

Hi:

Those criteria are also pretty close to major depressive disorder. If you try hard enough you can pretty much convince yourself you have everything by the way the criteria is written.

take care
trg247

That's very true. Of course, I have fairly high degrees of the symptoms least associated with major depressive disorder (with which I have been diagnosed). The literature on the subject discusses several fairly specific phenomena, like moving out of town on a whim, which I've done. The other big one is a pre-occupation with suicide without overt attempts.

It is possible also for both disorders to coexist, from what I've seen.

Mario, I don't think that too many people with personality disorders can analyze themselves very well like you are doing. My gut says that I doubt that you have a personality disorder. Like Trg said, I could see a depressed person having every single one of those behaviors too.

My husband has Schizoid Personality Disorder. They diagnosed him origionally as depressive. Make sure you find yourself a good clinic to go to with a good rep and if you really think you do have SPD (which i'm not sure about, since my husband couldn't care less what people thought about him or what society deems normal or not or that he doesn't like social situations and avoids them at all costs or that he is looked upon as being cold/shows indifference etc etc) you should find somewhere that has a SPECIALIST who deals with SPD patients or at least a specialist that deals with personality disorders. There are 5 types of schizoids and some have subtypes as well so even tho I'm not sure if you have it or not- my husband is a severe case and you may not be as severe as there are many types and subtypes. That's my advice.