I think maybe you mean you had bipolar without psychosis for 15 years? that would make more sense
Nothing is more valuable than hearing it from someone who actually has had the illnesses.
Bipolar was a small but avoidable barrier to my college education. Schizophrenia made me homeless, put me in jail for 5 months in a solitary confinement cell and basically destroyed my life.
I won’t post anything else on it. If you want to pretend you have a different illness that’s fine, but if you’re hearing voices or slipping into psychosis regularly then you have schizophrenia and you have to face that. Just my two cents.
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I mean that is unfortanate your symptoms progressed. and it happens to people with bipolar too.
honestly the whole segregated symptom dx’s should be thrown out.
it would make way more sense to have some sort of Mental illness disorder and different levels according to symptoms instead of so many different names.
thus the evolving world of psychiatry lol
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Yeah it would help if we could detect mental illnesses in the blood like physical ones.
Personally I think the most dangerous symptom is psychosis. If you’re experiencing episodes of psychosis, you’ve got to focus on getting that symptom under control with medication. The source of the symptom is less important, as you’re treating the symptom directly.
My hope is for better antipsychotics to come out, specifically ones that don’t cause extrapyramidal side effects.
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heres where things get confusing for my bipolar dx. I hear voices and also get visual hallucinations , tactile ones, i get smells that arnt there. all sorts of stuff. I was jesus I talked to aliens all that jazz.
but because I didnt end up in jail or lose my job I am bipolar.
"You cant be sz or sza cuz most of my sz sza patients have either been to jail or they end up dead or not working or anything’’ Literally thats what my pdoc said
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Well technically I’m schizoaffective. You don’t think that could be it do you? I am not qualified to diagnose but that’s what they pegged me with. Personally I don’t notice the bipolar symptoms anymore at all since I started hearing voices and having delusions. I’m thinking they’re still there, but they are being overshadowed by the more disruptive symptoms.
When I had bipolar I had months of dark depression with suicidal thoughts and months of energetic happiness. Nowadays I’m pretty even. I do take comfort in the fact that sza prognoses are more positive compared to sz, with no flat affect and less social disruption.
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I would of thought id be sza because ive had psychosis with no mood element as well.
but my latest pdoc says im bipolar because I can function and work. I still get hypomania and ocassionaly moderate depressions. intitially had full manias.
I mean for me it doesnt really matter as long as I get the help I need.
but yeah the whole diagnosing process is confusing to me
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I’m glad you can still work. I’m disabled mainly from the strength of the psychosis I was in. The last two years though, I haven’t been psychotic. It’s kind of like I was an accomplished runner, then some thugs cornered me and smashed my legs to bits with bats, now I’ve undergone years of healing and now I have to learn to run again… and as of now all I can do is walk slowly.
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Yeah. I have that. I don’t think you realise the extent of my knowledge.
I literally buzz with energy. And go back to having no ability to be awake bc of depressive symptoms.
Others on the forum already know I’m juggling a job and a university place — that’s not very “schizophrenic”
And to take the tone you’ve used. The way you’ve described it. It’s not at all as though they’re two absolutes and not diseases of the body. Really?
Bipolar type 1 with psychotic features is very similar to schizoaffective bipolar type.
You can have delusions and hallucinate just like SZ.
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My diagnosis was changed from bipolar to schizoaffective immediately when those symptoms started.
I thought that was the point. I guess not all psychiatrists agree.
I was diagnosed bipolar and sz and sza at various times but it was established sza in the end because I’d have severe depression and have rapid cycling mood swings and at same time have psychosis like delusions and voices.
My psychosis happens any time not just in mood episodes and isn’t related to my moods. I’d get Alien the evil spirit in my head trying to take over my mind and telling me to kill my husband and calling me a murderer, and I’d get paranoid about my mother in law trying to poison my food. These don’t necessarily happen when I’m depressed or hypomanic.
You can’t just say bipolar is just about moods because people with bipolar can also have delusions and voices. Only difference is they only happen when person in mood episode and they are related in theme to the moods (mood congruent)
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Do you get hallucination like voices even for one time? If yes then its likely sz spectrum. You might have bipolar as well then the dx becomes sza.