Schizotypal Personality Disorder - Demystifying the DSM-V
The character needs to have problems with being social – they’re uncomfortable with and have a limited ability to form close relationships. They also need to experience some psychotic-like symptoms and act eccentrically.
The character needs 5 or more:
- Ideas of reference – the character believes that coincidental events have a specific and special meaning to the character personally. Not as strong as delusions of reference.
- Odd beliefs / magical thinking – believing things that aren’t considered normal by the character’s culture, and influence the character’s behavior – e.g. exceedingly superstitious, believing in ESP / telepathy, strange fantasies
- Feeling, seeing, hearing, etc, unusual things – not quite on the level of hallucinations
- Odd thinking / speech – not quite on the level of disorganized speech
- The character is suspicious and paranoid
- The character has a smaller range of emotions, or displays inappropriate emotions (laughing at a funeral of a loved one, etc.)
- The character’s behavior or appearance is strange, odd, or eccentric
- They don’t have close relationships (aside from immediate family)
- They have extreme social anxiety that doesn’t go away when the character gets to know others. Note – this is based more on fears and paranoia about others rather than being worried about being criticized.
This can’t occur only during the course of: schizophrenia, bipolar/depressive episode with psychotic features, other psychotic disorders, or autism spectrum disorder.