My new psychiatrist seems to be leaning towards a bipolar diagnosis.
In the past, I was never directly told I had schizophrenia. My dad read it (on a prescription I think) after I had anxiety that culminated in psychosis. I was unmedicated and also using drugs at the time. Since then, I have not had a pronounced psychotic episode. I’ve dealt with paranoia and raging anxiety when my bipolar swings would get too low/high. Also, much of my paranoia was linked to drug use.
We are maintaining the same medication for now as I am doing well, but he wants to examine the diagnosis closer as we move forward.
He told me I connect with people socially better than most of his patients with sz…do you guys have a lot of trouble engaging with others in most situations? He also mentioned that usually sz oriented psychosis is more prolonged and/or ongoing. I am curious as to your guys input on this situation.
I have sz and have several friends, some talk to me everyday. Sometimes they pick me up to chill. I dont go out much on my own driving though as I have bad negative symptoms. Some say sz negative symptoms are worse than sza or bipolar but I havent seen that here on the forum.
Honestly it can go either way for me.
Right now my diagnosis from my current psychiatrist is bipolar disorder but I’m not that social but I’m not a wallflower either.
The meds for SZA and bipolar disorder are basically the same thing.
My mom has never believed I have SZA- depressive type.
…She’s convinced I’m Bipolar.
I dunno mayne, I had psychosis that lasted for several months. Then, I went unmedicated for around 4.5 years.
In that time, I was mega-depressed while also racking up a couple thousand dollars’ worth of debt (which my parents thankfully bailed me out of).
Then just recently, I had what some would call a “mixed episode,” of both depression and hypomania.
As far as socializing and jobs go, I work around 32 hours a week in a very socially-engaging job. Too socially-engaging for my energy levels, honestly.
…Thinking I should revisit my diagnosis.
Enough about me though. Why exactly do you think you might be bipolar? Are you exhibiting depression and mania-type behaviors?
I don’t really have any friends in real life that I can call and hang out with. But I get along fine with the people at my main job. I also do some freelance work as a computer technician and don’t have a problem interacting with my clients. They like me and trust me because I get rehired all the time. I can be social when necessary and I usually enjoy it, I am good at small talk most of the time. But I do like my solitude as well sometimes.
I’ve had multiple diagnoses but the majority opinion has been schizophrenia so I just go with that. I use to care about the label and exactly what I have, but now I just care that the meds work and I am doing better.
Good to see there’s other ppl in the same boat. And yeah, I deal with very low lows. Usually the lows are longer in time than the high/mania periods. When I go manic I get a heavy self confidence boost and kinda get a bit argumentative. I also get super talkative to the point where I’m willing to engage with anyone.
I didn’t know there were mixed episodes…what was that like?
