When I was in full blown psychosis I Googled the internet on every thing but my diagnosis. I thought the world around me was delusional and that I was the only sane one. I thought that those who plot against me was trying to make me crazy. If it was’nt for my psychiatrist who told me I have delusional paranoia I would have never discovered that the problem lies with me. Did any of you sort of prediagnosed yourself before official diagnosis by a psychiatrist?
I always had symptoms but they were not as apparent during childhood.
When I went to college I made the big mistake of taking a powerful Hallucinogenic (Mescaline) and this triggered strong paranoia and delusional thinking.
My parents took me to see a psychiatrist who was not sure if I was suffering with bipolar or schizophrenia.
He placed me on Navane, a typical Antipsychotic and later told my mother that I was suffering with Schizophrenia.
This was my first diagnosis.
I was later diagnosed by other doctors with Bipolar and Schizoaffective.
I was the same way, thinking everyone else just didn’t understand and was oblivious…I think it’s so weird because back then I was interested in psychology but I never suspected or thought that I could have a psychotic disorder until I got a friend involved in my delusions during a bad episode and she told me she thought I needed help…that’s when I slowly started to put two and two together. I still hid this suspicion that I had psychosis for several more years because I was so afraid of what would happen to me and my life if anyone found out.
I was diagnosed as bipolar when I was 19 or so and lived with that diagnosis til I was about 30. I was staying with my brother in Michigan and things were getting really bad for me in my head. I decided I didn’t want him to come home and find me dead in his bathtub so I called the crisis line and they told me to go to the hospital, which he drove me to when he got home from work. I ended up in a partial-hospitalization program where I was diagnosed as schizoaffective, bipolar type. This has remained my diagnosis for over ten years now.
Same here. I read books on psychology and I could see how other people are supposedly psychotic but never realised that I was in psychosis. I thought I was neurotic not psychotic.
quite the contrary.
I didn’t believe them, after diagnosis.
took more psych ward visits, to sink in…
I was so ■■■■■■ up in my head and desperate for help at the time of my diagnosis that I would have believed any diagnosis. I accused my psychiatrist that she was in on the plot. She tried to show me some reality checking but that did not help much cause I was paranoid about everything.
yes, my MI makes it hard to believe things. if I’m not careful and medicated, I’m irrational.
I was hospitalized 3 times in 18 months before i agreed to take meds.
My friend was the one who put it together for me. I was telling her about how afraid I was, and all the things I was hearing at night. I said I thought my house was haunted or something. She was studying psychology at the time, and told me I was exactly the right age to develop schizophrenia. It made a lot more sense than any other explanation I’d come up with, so I checked myself into the hospital, and the rest is history!
That was a good friend @Ninjastar that put you on the right track. I saw a psychologist for four years before he refered me to a psychiatrist.
I begged the pshychologist, i cried on his table, day after day, visit after visit, asking him whats wrong with me since I cannot live with the anxiety. He just kept on assuring me there was nothing wrong…until I gave him my “book” that I wrote…it was only then that I think he realised I have a screw loose.
My parents brought their Church pastor over to their house at 4am cuz they thought I was possessed cuz I went totally nuts.
The pastor told me days later that I was exuding symptoms of bipolar disorder and should go to the doctor.
Neither my parents or me knew what bipolar even was. Or psychosis etc… Then I was DX by a pdoc
After an unfortunate incident I got admitted to the psych ward and they decided to keep me there until I was properly diagnosed, since I couldn’t stay away from drugs outside of hospital at the time. Now I’ve been diagnosed for more than 2 years and I’m not abusing drugs anymore.
I told my dad that I was talking to a demon when I was around 11 years old and I was cutting my arms with scissors and razor blades. He took me to the hospital. I was in for about 3 months until they got me on a good medicine. I think it was risperdal. That was my longest stay in the hospital. Now if I go I get released in about a week.
Was seeing a psychiatrist as an out patient for years. Af one stage I was taken to thechospital by the police and stayed there for a third of a year. That’s when psychosis was diagnosed.
I was in and out of the hospital a lot and got diagnosed there. I always felt something was wrong with me so I never really fought the diagnosis. Once I was on meds that worked it was like I could finally see.
It’s good that the pastor referred you to the doctor, @anon31257746. Good for him for recognizing the issue you were dealing with. Glad it all worked out for you.
I was diagnosed by a military psychiatrist. I was a U.S. Navy Intelligence Specialist at the time.
I was diagnosed when I was 17 with Delusional Disorder. This was because I thought my parents were poisoning me. I had heard some voices when I was young, but not enough to make me believe I had Schizophrenia.
When my voices got really bad in my 20’s my diagnosis was changed from Delusional Disorder to Schizophrenia.
I was also diagnosed by a military psychiatrist. My first hospitalization it was adjustment disorder and I tried to return to full duty. I was able to get signed off fit for duty again but then I had my second hospitalization and it was changed to delusional disorder During my third hospitalization it was changed to paranoid schizophrenia and then I was medboarded found unfit for duty and ultimately medically retired.