Bipolar and not schizophrenia?

Medications
1

I’m starting to think I have bipolar and not schizophrenia.

I don’t touch meds much at all. And I don’t seem to relapse, I’ve had paranoia yeah. But what the hell is stopping me relapsing.

And why can I still “enjoy” so much. Eg music. Ideation of dreams or visualisation of dreams

Idk. I don’t think schizophrenia can allow someone to have nearly two years almost symptom free.

It seems to forgiving.

I’ve asked for a doctor change. My current one has me written as psychotic disorder and not schizophrenia but the last time I was hospitalised, the dr of the ward, she straight up had it written schizophrenia. And I definitely agreed.

Idk what to do. Who recovers from schizophrenia so well?

I should be happy. And I am. But then. I’ll relapse won’t I? Idk what’s going on.

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2

I think it’s worthwhile getting a second opinion for sure. Truly it’s about symptom control anyways but we can’t answer those types of diagnostic questions.

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3

Do you have mood symptoms like depression or mania?

Some schizophrenics recover completely after a psychotic episode.

4

Yeah. It’s taking time for them to arrange for the new dr but I will have to have a real discussion about it. Because in a way. It’ll change the way I view myself if it seems like it was only psychosis and not a full blown condition.

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5

I’m currently diagnosed with bipolar and I still suffer with disability.
It doesn’t change a thing for me.

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6

I wouldn’t go off the meds if I were you… I did that because I got a second opinion (hadn’t been on meds for months with no symptoms) they told me I had bipolar/ptsd… then 6 months later I was tripping again, hearing voices, seeing things, etc

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Yeah. I go in and out of depression.

Mania too.

I can understand with new methods of treatment there is recovery. But I don’t believe it, because the data although old, all seems to point at struggle.

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Even when there were asylums it was known that some schizophrenics get better even without meds.

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9

Yeah, it wouldn’t change the fact that I struggle. It would though help to explain a few things. Eg. Change motivation or beliefs because of what I believe are constraints of schizophrenia - if that makes any sense

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10

That I wasn’t aware of.

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Yeah, I don’t go off meds per se. I just hardly routinely use them, I’ve not done more than one month to two. But even when I do that, I still take a dose here and there whenever I remember to do so.

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12

dont worry too much about what dx they write down. If you symptoms are managed then your on the right treatment plan.

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That’s true. It’s just, I see more “closer to normal” living stories for people with bipolar than to schizophrenia, and it makes more sense to have the correct diagnosis so as not to mislead people.

Eg, in a position of explanation, you wouldn’t misinformation

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14

Yeah I think the general prognosis is schizophrenia can have lower functioning individuals although there are outliers(small percentage).

bipolar might have closer to normal because of the inbetween zones of say mild depression to hypomania, easier to function. but on the extreme scale of severe depression or mania with psychosis then you are not functioning.

I have a bipolar dx currently because I am higher functioning overall. but there are times when im very low functioning just not constant.

I have also had psychosis with no mood element. So that puts me over to the sza department.

Its really all a blend of symptoms with different levels of function. and the dx is used to help provide you the proper treatment plan.

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15

Bi polar people are welcome here. We accept psychosis as a guide and it’s all about treatment these days. If you’ve got the treatment right it’s all good and as pointed out people do recover from first episode psychosis.

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16

Yeah actually when I joined this forum I was having a hard time finding a forum that had good discussions about psychosis. the bipolar forums were mainly people talking about mania or depressions. and at the time I was only dealing with psychosis issues.
This site has been instrumental in helping to learn to deal with it and also just to relate to others that go through similar experience is relieving.

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17

Bipolar or schizophrenia. I have had multiple episodes, so I’m definitely psychotic prone, that much is for sure.

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I’ve been diagnosed with schizoaffective many times .
There’s very little difference between the two.

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Okay, I had Bipolar for 15 years and I’ve had schizophrenia for 6. I’m getting a little tired (no offense) of people comparing the two and thinking they just have Bipolar. Let me lay this out for you:

Bipolar means sometimes you’re happy and full of energy, sometimes you’re sad. That’s it.

Schizophrenia means you think the walls are crawling with bugs, your family members are shapeshifting aliens, there’s a camera under your skin, and the CIA is invading your skull with illegal telepathic technology. It also means you think you’re god and your food is being poisoned and you possibly hear voices in your head commanding you to kill people.

Comparing bipolar to schizophrenia is like comparing a cold to leukemia.

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20

what you just said is probably your experience and just another doctors view.
The dsm 5 has a more rounded viewpoint

these are so overlapped its silly lol.