What happened or what lead up to you being diagnosed as schizophrenic or schizoaffective??
Hmm long story but Iāll try to shorten it. During my first major psychotic episode I involved a friend and she ended up realizing I was completely delusional and told me I needed to get help. I was horrified that she thought I was crazy and was worried it would ruin my life if it got out. But then I started realizing nothing I believed was going to happen had happenedā¦and then I began to think if maybe I had a psychotic disorder. It suddenly explained every weird thing I had experienced in my life, the fear, the strange things I saw and heard and felt, my different beliefs and my communication with ghosts, angels, God, demons, etcā¦
So I had several years of denial and wrestling with myself not knowing what reality was anymore and scared to get help for my psychosis because I thought Iād be locked up and force fed meds. But after I got involved in the mental health system due to severe depression and anxiety issues I learned the rules and became more comfortable about it and myself and with encouragement from this forum I ended up telling my therapist about my psychotic symptoms for the first time and that lead to me seeing a psychiatrist and getting my first diagnosis which was really vague, nonspecific psychotic and anxiety disorder. Later I ended up being diagnosed with major depression w psychotic features.
A palm reader caught it early. 
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I told my pdoc I was paranoid and having olfactory hallucinations that were very bothersome. He gave me a diagnosis of sza. I was very suicidal at the time.
I was first diagnosed with ādelusional disorderā because I thought my parents were putting poison in my food (of course they werenāt).
Then when I started hearing voices more often I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and that diagnosis has stuck so far.
HI, I been hearing voices my whole life and never really thought much of it I had far out there ideas and beliefs that I never shared with anyone and I believed my delusions where real.
It all came to the forefront when I had my first major psychotic episode at work and believed everyone was talking about me and saying stuff I could hear them even when no one was around, I eventually got over this by myself but It happened again when I tried to apply to a new job and believed everyone was talking about me and making fun of me, I was then diagnosed with psychotic deppression and was on meds for that for a year and put on alot of weight, I went of the meds for a year and was fine until I fell in love with someone whom I know now was a part of my psychosis and the same thing started happening again I started hearing voices and believeng i could hear people talk about meā¦ which is when i got hospitalized again and diagnosed with schizophrenia based on my past history.
I was depressed, anxious and penniless. My life had spiraled to the bottom. I was sleeping in a shelter and living in my car waiting for it to get repoād. Other than that I was mentally normal. Then slowly, over the course of a week or two, I started feeling weirder and weirder. I thought I was being watched and filmed but tried to blow it off. Then one day I lost control of myself. I became convinced that brain researchers were controlling my mind and body. They made me dance through the streets for hours and leave my car in the middle of the highway. I got picked up by the police and taken to the hospital. I ended up in the psych hospital. I was first diagnosed with bipolar, then SZ and finally delusional disorder over the course of several months. That was a year and a half ago. I have had 2 āloss of controlā episodes since then. One was a suicide attempt. I am still very delusional but havenāt had a loss of control issue for about a year.
I had it for about 2-3 years before the actual diagnosis of schizophrenia. The doctors when I was hospitalized didnāt give me a diagnosis of schizophrenia. They gave me one of mdd. It wasnāt until I started seeing a private psychiatrist and told him of my symptoms when he gave me the diagnosis of schizoaffective. Since then the diagnosis has stuck through different doctors.
With a thermometer and a yardstick.