Is schizoaffective really that bad?

I’m schizoaffective and I haven’t worked in years or had a gf in years sza really hurts. Just wanna call it quits most days

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Hang in there you will find someone some day.

Schizoaffective is a chronic and very serious mental illness. Yes it is very difficult. Although the prognosis for it is typically a little bit better than that of paranoid schizophrenia. It is like having a very psychotic version of bi-polar rather than a very moody version of schizophrenia…or so I’ve been told. Difficult to diagnose, difficult to figure out and difficult to manage. I have schizoaffective but doing pretty well now.

I know how hard this illness can be and I am schizophrenic not schizoaffective but it took me a long time before I felt better about life after being diagnosed. I believe you have to find hope. Hope in something. Anything. Just liking flowers or taking walks. Something that gives you hope can help you immensely. Good luck.

It’s really very bad,I am struggling too there are times where I feel well but it’s not for long

its absolutely brutal. I’m surprised im still around. I will leave it at that.

While (if accurately dx’d in your case) schizoaffective means something like “extended psychotic depression, mania or flip-flopping between the two” (see the DSM V, 'cause that’s a pretty accurate summation between those quotation marks), it may have a strong cognitive – as well as neurochemical – underpinning.

Would you be able to either get CBT or use a CBT workbook to see if looking into your beliefs and resulting evaluations of phenomena are over-affecting your emotions? If it turns out that way, there’s a good chance you may be able to get some relief from a CBT like REBT, SIQR or even collegiate critical thinking.

No. It’s both schizophrenia and a mood disorder. You experience both worlds.

Yes I said that, but it is closer to having a very psychotic version of bi-polar than a very moody version of schizophrenia. “Psychotic bi-polar” is near synonymous with schizoaffective. Unless my P doc is wrong.

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That’s pretty much what the DSM V says.

My doctor said its closer to schizophrenia. Since to qualify for schizoaffective disorder you had to have a few weeks of psychotic symptoms without a mood disorder present.

Well guys, we shouldn’t argue semantics :laughing:. It’s close enough. I was in a pissy mood earlier but feeling better now and realize it shouldn’t really matter whether it’s closer to bi-polar or schizophrenia. It’s probably dependent on the individual. Treat the symptoms not the diagnosis. Peace :blush:

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I feel like my abnormal psych class didn’t cover schizoaffective very accurately. They made it sound like it wasn’t even related to schizophrenia. They said the main characteristic was the schizoaffective people are anti-social and lack expression I guess?

Anyways it was a vague description so I don’t much about the disorder really.

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I think that being schizo-affective is like living in a dream that you don’t wake up from your whole lifetime. It seems that nothing is really relevant because I am not based in reality myself. Life seems rather crude anyway from what I do make of it. So maybe it’s just that I really do not want to be attached to it in a way. Kind of disconnected myself from it somehow as a buffer from the crudeness of it all. I am mostly not all here already.

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I think this relative to your average person. But relative to me I am very much here. I don’t care about your average person though so I am fully here. If that makes sense.

I was under the impression I was schizo first with bipolar problems. I feel like the schizo is always there but right now for example, as far as mood is concerned I feel relatively fine. the rest of last week… not so much…

I think sometimes the doctors just tell you what they think you need to hear. I’ve been freaking out lately and I feel like the doctor just tells me whatever’s going to make me relax a little sometimes.

Sometimes, it’s just the best the MHP can do. Overloaded with casework and the paperwork on top of it, as well as all the stuff they have to study and tests they have to pass to maintain their licenses, they sometimes just feel like giving up when. It doesn’t help that some pts are non-comp with their meds, won’t do psychotherapy, or won’t hear what their caregivers are trying to tell them. (NOT pointing the last sentence at you.)

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The doctors would know if your problems become too much for you to handle even with medications. My doctors have always treated me as If I am not troubled so much that I can’t handle it with medications and some family and social ties when I go out to pick things up from the stores mostly.

My has often said “we” as her and me can look into some vocational training to find a job, but then never get around too it. I think because I complain a lot about not working. I feel lazy, and she tries to explain that I have very serious illness and I wonder if she believes that I’ll ever be able to handle a real job. I can’t deal with stress, it hugely triggers my relapses, the more I stress the more I relapse.

Every job has its own stresses and I tend not to tell my perspective employers that I have a mental diagnoses because I’m afraid it would make me look week too them and might make them second guess hiring me in a community where it’s already harder than hell to get a job unless you know someone in upper management at the company. I think I should just stick to my writing and stop watching those shows like Dr. Phil who have family members complaining about others mootching off of them, and how he says 18 was check-out time at his house. Is that the same if you Schizo-Affective, or have other serious mental illnesses? Because I’m 33 and still living at home…but do try and help out as much as I can even if I can’t afford to give my parents rent. I do give them money if I have it…