I don't have schizophrenia

I have been told by a psychiatrist that I have schizophrenia. Another psychiatrist said that I have not it. After so many years (since 2001), I still have no diagnosis. Still I surely have a mental illness. I must take an antipsychotic to be healthy. If not I have severe physical symptoms and I have racing thoughts and mood swings.

When I found this forum in June, I thought that maybe it would allow me to know if I have schizophrenia. Since the psychiatrists are not doing their job, I’m trying to do my best to figure out by myself.

I have read a lot of your posts since then and it allows me now to come to a conclusion. There are many problems that you are almost all experiencing and that I don’t have. I never had any of what you call “delusions”. I also never had any hallucinations. I don’t think my physical symptoms can be considered as that. Also I have never been paranoid. I have always been very rational and I never lost any contact with the reality. I don’t think I have been psychotic.

Also, it seems that it is a lot more easy for me compared to many of you to be functional, to have a job. I feel so sorry for everyone of you who can’t.

Thanks to you it is clear to me now that it seems that I don’t have schizophrenia. I don’t know why the psychiatrists have so much problems coming to this conclusion since I can do it so easily. It is really bad. I’m quite happy to not have schizophrenia, but it doesn’t mean that I have nothing. My mental illness is really dangerous because if not treated, I can be so physically sick, I could die.

I’m so uncomfortable with the situation of not knowing what I have and I don’t have so much hope of knowing it soon. It seems that my mental illness is so unsual and weird, so much that I don’t think that any psychiatrist who met me has known a similar case as mine. They didn’t know what to do at all with me. They used to tell me that they don’t know what I have.

Maybe I should just feel happy because I almost don’t have any symptoms from the illness now. Only a lot of bad side effects from the antipsychotic and many psychological problems.

I think it is probable that I am bipolar but I will never know for sure. I am not a psychiatrist. My brother is schizophrenic and my sister is bipolar and had psychosis. Why can’t I know also what I have?

Do you think what I just said makes any sense to you? Am I right?

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What happens off of your Antipsychotic?
You don’t experience delusions, hallucinations, paranoia?

Racing thoughts could be part of bipolar or anxiety.
Do you experience Mania? or depression?

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I have been sick for 12 years without any antipsychotic. During this time, I have never been delusional, hallucinating or paranoid. I have always been very rational.

Sorry to all of you here if I made you lose your time on this forum but at the time I didn’t know what it means to be delusional, to have hallucinations or paranoid. I learned it here. :slightly_frowning_face:

My main symptoms while sick were severe physical symptoms (mostly cardiovascular), racing thoughts and some mood swings. Not more than that. Well that’s what I’m aware of.

About mania, I think it is possible I have experienced it. I something felt euphoric and have unsual passions or projects. However it was not so extreme I think.

I sometimes felt depressed but for that also it was not so extreme.

You mean a rapid heartbeat?
Mood swings could mean bipolar.

I would definitely get a second opinion from a private and qualified doctor.

You could be suffering from a physical problem and were placed on Antipsychotics.

It also sounds like it could be Anxiety but I’m not a doctor.

You didn’t cause me to lose any time here, anubis. I’ve always enjoyed your posts. I hope you soon find the answers you need. And thank you for your empathy regarding people who cannot work. That is kind of you.

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My main physical symptoms were tachycardia, arrhythmia (some dangerous. I even had to take the ambulance), very low blood pressure, chest pain, severe lost of weight, apparent sleep apnea.

All these symptoms almost completely disappeared by taking an antipsychotic. Isn’t it weird?!

??? You got me there @anubis.
Maybe it’s some Somatic disorder?
Severe Panic or Anxiety disorder?

I would see a family doctor/cardiologist also.

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Yes, it makes sense. I dont think any of us are on antipsychotics for ‘physical problems’. They can dull psychosomatic pain, but i didnt even know they had physically medicinal properties.

Mental illness is seeing a shift to catergorizing things on a spectrum eg. (1-10 severity, needing a 7 to qualify for MI). So maybe u are on the low end of spectrum for mood swings, but havent reached bipolar threshold. Or everything could be psychological.

Also my professor said psychosis is required for sz so i agree u dont have it, which i mentioned before.

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I can’t see a cardiologist. I’m blacklisted in the public health system of the province of Québec, because I went a lot meeting cardiologists while I was sick and they were finding no problem.

They once decided to put me on the blacklist to prevent me from asking for more physical investigations and, how they said to me : “waste their time”.

I never felt panicking. Maybe anxiety… This is very probable.

Oh ok so it does sound like you suffer with Anxiety and Hypochondria most likely.
As long as the AP is helping.
Sometimes (rarely) are APs used solely for Anxiety but I guess they felt you needed to be on one.
Unless the doctors felt you were delusional.

Hypochondria, it is real, especially cuz ur family is ill. There was a guy who checked himself in at psych hospital due to severe stomach pain and he recognized it could be psychological, thats why he did it.

I wish many of the things I’m perceiving weren’t real.

My psychiatrist said that I don’t have hypochondria. She said that it is because people who have it are not really physically suffering. They are only affraid of having a physical illness.

My psychiatrist said to me that I was really physically suffering and that my symptoms and physical condition were real. And I totally agree with her for that. But she did not succeed in giving me more explanations. She just said that the cause of my symptoms were not a physical illness.

It is really difficult to understand.

Since the antipsychotic removed all my physical symptoms, it is clear to me that I have a problem with my neurotransmitters or something like that.

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No matter what your diagnosis @anubis may be, you are very much liked here.

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Thats kinda what i meant with what i said about the guy, his stomach really hurt, could of been psychologically induced pain tho. But going to see a bunch of cardiologists and getting blacklisted sounds like hypochondria.

Thanks a lot @Wave. :slightly_smiling_face: I have never known a so great community where people help so much each other like here. And everyone here seems to be so much nice human beings. I was really impressed by that when I discovered this forum. :+1:

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I read on Wikipedia that people who have hypochondria have a fear of having a serious physical illness despite they are not sick. This is not my case because I was really sick.

Since my antipsychotic solved the problem, I think I had a serious problem about my neurotransmitters, like a big chemical imbalance in my brain, which was causing real physical symptoms. So the cause was not physical. I know that. But I will never say that my physical condition was not real.

Thanks anyway for trying to help me to make some sense about everything.:slightly_smiling_face:

If I have more information from my psychiatrist in 2 weeks, I will let you know. If I can prevent someone from living the same nightmare as me just by reading my posts I would be glad.

My case is unsual, and if one day I know what I have, I want it to be useful for others. Then I would not have suffered for nothing.

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I can kind of relate to you in the fact that I don’t have schizophrenia but aps help me. They get rid of this dreadded feeling of terror I don’t really know how to describe sorry. But my dX athe the moment I’m cptsd with physcotic features buthat I disagrwent with the whole physiosis thing.

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parnaoia is such a subtle thing…it’s persuasive and it eats into your life which makes you not function.

If your taking antipsychotics and your doing well then that is a pretty good sign…if it keeps your head above water then I’d suspect depressive/ bipolar type illness…You still need the meds…if you didn’t you’d probably have some serious side effects like parkinsons type symptoms…our meds are pretty severe!

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