If you hear voices doesn’t that mean you have schizophrenia @anon9798425 ? I don’t have other symptoms and I’ve been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
No. If your only symptom is hearing voices, you do not have schizophrenia. Either your doctor thinks you have more symptoms, or you were misdiagnosed.
The DSM 5 outlines the following criterion to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia:
- Two or more of the following for at least a one-month (or longer) period of time, and at least one of them must be 1, 2, or 3:
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disorganized speech
- Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
- Negative symptoms, such as diminished emotional expression
- Impairment in one of the major areas of functioning for a significant period of time since the onset of the disturbance: Work, interpersonal relations, or self-care.
- Some signs of the disorder must last for a continuous period of at least 6 months. This six-month period must include at least one month of symptoms (or less if treated) that meet criterion A (active phase symptoms) and may include periods of residual symptoms. During residual periods, only negative symptoms may be present.
- Schizoaffective disorder and bipolar or depressive disorder with psychotic features have been ruled out:
- No major depressive or manic episodes occurred concurrently with active phase symptoms
- If mood episodes (depressive or manic) have occurred during active phase symptoms, they have been present for a minority of the total duration of the active and residual phases of the illness.
- The disturbance is not caused by the effects of a substance or another medical condition
- If there is a history of autism spectrum disorder or a communication disorder (childhood onset), the diagnosis of schizophrenia is only made if prominent delusions or hallucinations, along with other symptoms, are present for at least one month
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By this definition, you are also saying that some people on this site who only have negative symptoms also don’t have schizophrenia. I have also heard some people on the site say that they only have delusions.
You’re American, right? If so, there is no other official definition. This is the only valid definition. And in the US, simple schizophrenia is not a diagnosis, so only having negative symptoms also means that you simply don’t have schizophrenia. And if you only have delusions, that’s not schizophrenia either, but delusional disorder.
You should talk to your doctor if you want to know why they diagnosed you. Most likely, they disagree with you about hallucinations being your only symptom. If they don’t, then they were simply wrong. It happens.
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Also, if you’re wondering, this is the gist of the criteria for countries that don’t use the DSM (i.e. most of the world). They’re pretty much identical:
a diagnosis of schizophrenia would require the presence of at least 2 out of 8 symptoms, including at least one core symptom. Core symptoms include delusions, thought insertion/thought withdrawal, hallucinations, and thought disorder. Symptoms should have been clearly present for most of the time during a period of at least 1 month. That is, after a thorough discussion of the relevant clinical and public health issues and an evaluation of the available evidence, the WGPD is recommending to keep the ICD-10 duration requirement of 4 weeks. If the symptom requirements but not yet the duration requirement for “Schizophrenia” are fulfilled, classification would be as “Unspecified primary psychotic disorder” until the duration requirement for schizophrenia is met.
I suppose I qualify according to other countries since I have thought insertion and thought withdrawal. And for what it’s worth the HVN approach has been helping me lately, but it did take a lot of work and therapy for me to get to this point. So I respectfully disagree with you.
Depending on what you mean by thought insertion and withdrawal, it could also qualify as either disorganized speech or delusions. It can be a delusion even if you don’t believe anything delusional to really be happening if you still act as if it were. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Don’t quote me on that last bit.
That is fine. You’re allowed to disagree. We know it helps many. But don’t advertise it or recommend it to people here.
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Here in Greece we use ICD. I am 20.3 undifferentiated schizophrenia cos I have traits of paranoid & disorganized, I guess.
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That’s my diagnosis, too.
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One of the psychiatrists who was runnining a study I participated in remarked to me that he would love for all of the people at HVN and all of the Jungian psychologists to rent a cruise ship and for it to hit an iceberg and sink with them on it. He viewed both as extremely damaging to SZs.
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Why are they so damaging?
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