Disbelief in my diagnosis, firstly by myself and then by others

I have posted this in the recovery section basically because i am in recovery however im new to this so correct me if its in tge wrong spot.

Hi. I was diagnosed with paranoid schz about 3 years ago. While i shouldnt have been surprised by the diagnosis because the shoe really does fit, it took literally 2 years to believe it. For the last year i have been getting comfortable with the lable and as i am high functioning with very rare symptoms i have found other people who arent my immediate family questioning my diagnosis. I am on haldol injections which make me really tired for the first week of the month but basically this illness in my life is invisable. I had to leave my job 4 months ago because my boss was ignoring my pleas for less hours and my health was going down hill. There were some issues with a colleague at work and the paranoia was starting to creep in so i left and that was that. Due to money issues i have to go back but my boss has promised me less hours. I am in a relationship, recently engaged but i get the feeling my fiancee doesnt fully get my situation and that sux a bit. Even my psychologist questioned my diagnosis. Can anyone else relate?

Yes everyone has questioned my diagnosis. I even had doctors tell me I don’t have schozophrenia. I sometimes think it’s neurological.

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Thanks for the reply. I dont quite understand about the neurological part. Would you mind explaining?

Well my neurologist that my symptoms were from chronic migraines. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with me like schizophrenia.

I have never had chronic migraines so i couldnt comment on that. Thanks for explainig.

Sometimes getting and accepting a diagnosis is a frustrating process.

My diagnosis went from Anxiety disorder NOS to Schiophrenia to Bipolar to Schizoffective to Bipolar back to Schizoaffective, and frankly I still think that my pdoc is uncertain of a solid diagnosis for me - she is settling with Schizoaffective for now.

Psychiatrists and therapists prefer to deal with symptoms as they come and go - they do not rely on the diagnosis so much wen it comes to the patient.

Diagnoses becomes necessary for Insurance companies and when a psychiatrist is sharing information about the patient to another doctor or Hospital.

I am constantly baffling my pdocs and therapists - When asked about my diagnosis to my psychiatrist she told me that she is not sure where I exactly stand - its between Schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type or bipolar type 1 - she told me that sometimes in psychiaty there are a lot of “Grey Areas”.

My official diagnosis for now is Schizoaffective disorder from her - but again she is not certain.

Getting a diagnosis can be frustrating, especially when there are these grey areas involved.

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When I hear stories like that, it just sounds like the meds are working. On meds, everything fine, off meds, psychotic mess. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re not ill just because the meds are working well.

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Yeah im hearing you @wave. That does sound frustrating. I know if i over do it i increase my chances of getting really sick again but for the people who have never seen me in psychosis they just think im like them. Thats probably a good thing i suppose but as you said… a bit frustrating.

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Yeah its funny i occasionally tempt myself with the idea of going off meds but i know i cant. Thanks for your input. @everhopeful

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When I was diagnosed age 25 - I WISH I HAD A POUND FOR EVERY TIME SOMEONE SAID I WASN’T SCHIZOPHRENIC - but those people had ZERO experience of schizophrenia - didn’t have a clue what it was and just mouthed off like they were medically qualified. I had people telling me I needed to get off the medication, all sorts of bollox advice from people who didn’t know what they were on about. The thing is there are degrees of the illness and some people can have it worse than others, also different people react better or worse to various medications. Listen to your team of medical professionals and take the layman’s advice with a large pinch of salt - people don’t have a clue what schizophrenia actually is - they see it as a derogatory term for a bad person - so listen to your medical team.

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Thank you, thats good advice.

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I totally agree with @Username,

Try not to be focused on the diagnosis but get focused on being well.

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There was a girl I dated… I told her straight up a few times I suffered from schizophrenia… after 6 months into the relationship I had a relapse and ended up having to start from square one again…

She left because she said she didn’t realize I was actually schizophrenic… she thought I was joking. (what a weird joke )

Not very many people know what this illness is like…

But you sound like your at peace with your dx… your working with your doc to get better… you sound like your getting on top of this much sooner then I did…

I was diagnosed at 17 and wasted almost 10 years of my life fighting my doc’s and my family… not taking meds… doing drugs… ending up homeless… getting worse and worse…

It great to see people who are diagnosed early… take the meds… work with their docs and over come this quickly… The sooner you get help… the better you heal.

congratulations on getting back to work… being in a relationship and not letting this stop your life… :v:

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@surprisedj thank you. That story of the girl you dated pretty much sums up my experiences. I dont understand why anyone would think we would admit to an illness if it werent true, as far as i knew it is not a particularly good pick up line, “hey by the way i have schizophrenia” and then there are the people who probably think im saying it to get out of work. If only they knew hey. Oh well its all insignificant in the big scheme of things, im healthy and mostly happy so ill focus on that. Great to hear everyone elses experiences though.

What im drawing from this thread is to not worry about the dx, stay on the meds as they are obviously working and that people just dont understand what schiz and all the grey areas within schiz is. Cheers everyone.

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thought i would say hi.
take care :alien:

Most people I associate with find it hard to believe I have an illness, they look at me as a strong independent able bodied youth. When I do mention it(less and less nowadays) I get a look of disbelief and they think I am liable to lose my ■■■■ at any moment. Kinda sucks. I was at disbelief myself until my last bout with psychosis things went very south very quickly. I have now come to terms and have agreed to stay on my medication until one day I hopefully can live with out it. THe differing diagnosis in the beginning don’t help with the disbelief factor.

Hi there :slight_smile:@darksith

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@julrus. I could really relate to your comment. First psychosis is kinda like whoa what was that, thank god thats over and then the next one hits and its like â– â– â– â–  oh boy how do i make sure that never happens again.

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Don’t look at the diagnosis. Just work at improving your symptoms.

Otherwise you’ll become obsessed with what the diagnosis is or could be versus the management of your symptoms.

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