Schizoaffective disorder vs BP

Who here suffers from schizoaffective disorder?
Could you try to describe your symptoms please?
I was told that I have Atypical Bipolar Disorder or schizoaffective, would like to know what the difference is.
Thanks

This isn’t going to be helpful, but at this point I’m diagnosed with schizophrenia and an as yet unidentified mood disorder. Which to me makes me think it would be schizoaffective. But idk, I think it’s semantics.

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I was diagnosed with both bipolar and Schizoaffective.
Doctors are uncertain when it comes to my diagnosis.

With Bipolar you can become Psychotic during a Manic or Depressive episode.

With Schizoaffective psychosis can occur outside of a Mood episode.

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That’s some harsh ■■■■ to have to deal with, both the mood swings and the psychosis. If I do have sza it’s depressive type. I’m currently being treated for depression pretty aggressively and if it goes away the doc thinks I can stop the antipsychotics. It’s basically a crap shoot though is how it sounds to me

I’m tired of the doctors not knowing what I’ve got.
The mood disorders are rough though, almost as bad as the psychosis. But if the mood and psychosis are connected then technically they would both go away together at the same time.

on meds it’s just my moods that go from depressed (i.e. I call in sick to work, don’t do dishes, walk around in pajamas) to manic (apply to tons of new jobs, do all the dishes and chores, and start a bunch of hobby projects). Plus, the chronic paranoia.

off meds: slowly start losing the ability to sleep. No sleep Periods of one hour of sleep at a time. Then comes the paranoia. Then comes the delusions and voices. The whole time, no sleep. Then comes the hallucinations.

After I go totally berserk, I get hospitalized and put on strong anti-psychotics. I finally sleep. I sleep a lot. I still hear voices I still see things. I can sleep, so it’s not just the insomnia that causes the sz. After a month or two on meds, the hallucinations go away. Then the voices. then the anxiety…but the paranoia doesn’t go away.

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Join the Club …

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Why don’t you ask your pdoc what the difference is?

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I was told by my psych nurse one time that with bipolar and sza, it is a matter of degree. Both bipolars and sza’s can become psychotic, but with sza, the psychosis is much worse. It is more constant and pervasive and tends to have a more bizarre quality to it. With bipolars, the psychosis is usually mood connected and more transient.

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Funny enough before my SZ break last year before that I had bi polar traits…deppresion for 2 months then a month of manic behaviour spending sprees excitibility this started in 2014 to about 2016 which was also year the SZ came so that’s 2 years used to having bipolar without SZ…i was unmedicated. Looking back wish I wasn’t…but never had delusions once they started SZ started settling in…i guess I’m one of the rare few to get both illnesses in my lifetime.
When I was bi polar it was deffeintly more mood orientated no negative symptoms with cognition or thoughts…if anything you’re thoughts are more clear during a manic episode and You re reactions and movement is amped up it’s you’re brain in fast mode…driving reactions are better etc…with SZ I fell disabled don’t drive much don’t watch much tv thoughts are sluggish don’t talk much it’s deffeintly a dif illness to bi polar.

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When I had the sza dx sometimes they would hint at bipolar. For 7 years 1975-1982 they had me on antipsychotics. Then I went on a closed ward and a different pdoc and the AP was dropped and I was switched to lithium. The sza/bipolar? dx followed soon after.
For the next 16 years I was on stand alone lithium. I guess it worked fairly well, despite often not reaching so called therapeutic levels, apart from the social problems.

Then an atypical was added back in. By 2002 I said the lithium wasn’t working as well and got switched to tegretol.The reason was I’d stopped taking the lithium because some bright spark of a nurse told me I only had dependent PD when I sought more support.
They switched me to tegretol but because of that moronic nurse’s comments I didn’t take it.

Then in 2005 came the switch to a PD dx and taken off all meds for a year.

My pdoc then although he’d taken me off mood stabilisers decided I couldn’t have a stand alone AD because of the possible effect on my moods.
I got put on olanzapine. Then eventually switched to Consta because I was poor at taking oral meds.

Apart from slightly depressive mood my moods have been reasonably stable. Whether that suggests any ‘bipolar’ symptoms have burnt out or that ‘bipolar’ never really applied to me is hard to tell.
Risperdal consta seems to have mood stabilising properties so my reasonably stable moods may be down to that.

As it says in the product literature.

In the maintenance treatment of Bipolar I Disorder, RISPERDAL CONSTA® monotherapy significantly delayed time to relapse to a mood episode (mania, hypomania, mixed, depression)* vs placebo (P<0.001).1,2

http://www.janssencns.com/risperdal/bipolar-i-disorder/efficacy/long-term-monotherapy-maintenance-trial

Having said all that I think it can be boiled down to diagnosis being a very inexact thing.

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I’m currently taking 3mg of risperidone.
It does a good job at stabilizing my moods.

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That’s not very nice

my doc said I have schizoaffective too as I have paranoia and most symptoms.

But I checked Bipolar symptoms are they are kinda identical.

I have been also thought to have ‘mania’ ‘delusional disorder’ then SCZA so not sure? Maybe Bipolar is much more tolerated too.

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I have schizoaffective, bipolar type. Unfortunately my moods are very rapid cycling, this has definitely gotten worse over the years… Mood episodes used to last for weeks and months but these days I can have mood swings every few days and even several times with a day (but thankfully, sometimes a few days of relatively normal mood as well.)

However, my psychotic symptoms never fully go away, and even during times when my mood is stable I can have psychosis from a manageable/acceptable level to the full blown psychosis when I have bizarre delusions and hallucinations in all 5 senses, plus the odd speech and behaviour.

I’ve never been able to find any pattern in this, I feel like I experience every combination of mood from depression to mania to mixed episodes, and psychosis that can be mild or severe that isn’t always connected to my mood state. It’s a hell of a ride, totally unpredictable, I never know how I’m going to feel from one day to another.

“When she was good, she was very very good, and when she was bad she was awful…”

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Good description. Sorry for your struggles

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Thanks MG. Same to you… I hope and pray for a cure for us all.

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yes it is…!!

It’s pretty tough having bipolar too guys. I also have psychosis so I have the really bad kind but I don’t think it’s a whole lot easier than having sz.
That’s why I’m on this site

Schizoaffective comes in two types, depressive or bipolar…so schizoaffective bipolar type (I was speculated to have depressive type so this doesn’t apply to me) involves psychotic symptoms at all times, with periods of depression and mania mixed in. The main difference between this and someone with bipolar with psychotic features would be that a bipolar person would only experience psychosis during a mood episode, most likely during mania…a schizoaffective person may not currently be depressed or manic but will still be experiencing psychosis.

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