To outsiders, some of the asocial behavior appears similar between these two diagnoses. In fact, when I was a child, it's just as well that I wasn't diagnosed back then. There was a man named Bruno Bettelheim who popularized the theory of the "refrigerator mother" as the cause of autism. He had seen people withdraw in the same way because of mistreatment during World War II concentration camps. He assumed (wrongly) that autism resulted from emotionally abusive parenting, specifically from the mother.

I don't yet know as much about schizophrenia, but apparently childhood environment is an influencing factor. Sorry that you got a rough start in life. :( Judging from your writings though, it seems that you've grown to evaluate the world critically (in the good sense).