I’ve been diagnosed with sza, bipolar type since 1994 and sza is a form of schizophrenia, not bipolar, according to my pdoc. Sza is worse than sz, in a way, because not only do you have to deal with psychosis and psychotic symptoms, but, you have to deal with mood symptoms and mood swings, as well as cognitive symptoms and negative symptoms. Sza is like having two mental illnesses at once: schizophrenia AND bipolar. Sza has a better prognosis than sz, but not much better. Bipolar alone has a much better prognosis than both sza and sz.
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I am also diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar type.
Not an easy disorder to live with.
I take my meds and see a therapist and also have a Case Manager that sees me once or twice a week.
Sometimes I feel like giving up, but somehow I manage to keep on moving forward.
Baby Steps.
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I also have Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar type. When I am stable like I am now I still have unpredictable mood swings from happy to irritable, admittedly not as bad as when unwell though.
When they say SZA has a better prognosis then SZ I think that is a red herring because people see people with SZA people as more functioning but I think SZA is just as troubling as SZ.
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@Gina2 I don’t think that schizoaffective is worse than schizophrenia,
people with schizoaffective tend to have a better prognosis.
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I think there are only label that have no sense schizophrenia/ schizoaffective bla bla only label. The reality is that no one know what we have in our head. There are people with sz that have a career better than those without the ilness
but if you but the two types in the same room, it is rumored there will be one heck of a lively convo and a little party may even break out. 
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