I’m not sure if I’m schizophrenic or not looking for opinions

Hey guys sorry for the random post but I just want some opinions. I know that none of you are doctors but I just want some opinions. My psychiatrist has been very reluctant to say what I have everytime I ask him he doesn’t really say much or he says I have depression with psychotic features but I’m not sure that’s the case since I’ve been hearing voices for a little over a year now.

Basically I’ve been really depressed these past 5 years and I began to isolate myself because I had no self confidence and really bad social anxiety. I’ve always been very timid and shy but it got worse because I began to gain weight and developed even worse self esteem than I had before. I should mention this started my sophomore year of high school. My senior year of high school I was so depressed that I hardly slept at night so I dropped out because I was going to school on literally 2-3 hours of sleep and this was destroying me. Fast forward about a year and 10 months I’m still super depressed but I had a very stress inducing event. My sisters boyfriend was threatening us and knocking on our house just to mess with us so this lead to me staying up late every night until 6-7 AM because I was scared of him trying to break into our house (this wasn’t a delusion he was actually doing this and my mom freaked out one day) a month or 2 after this happened I got Covid and after I recovered from Covid I began to have extreme delusions, paranoia and auditory hallucinations. The delusion and paranoia only lasted for 2 months but the auditory hallucinations remain almost a year later. The reason why I don’t believe I’m schizophrenic is because I only had delusions for about a month before I realized that i was just psychotic and a year after all of this I still know that none of my delusions, paranoia and auditory hallucinations are actually real at all. I still have auditory hallucinations and I’m aware that they aren’t real. The reason why I’m not sure if I’m schizophrenic or not is because I know in order to be schizophrenic some symptoms have to occur for 6 or more months. My only symptoms now are auditory hallucinations and emotional numbing…… I haven’t had delusions and paranoia in a year and I’m aware that they weren’t real. I’ve been unmedicated for about 10 of the 13 months I’ve been dealing with this and I’ve been alright for the most part and that’s why I’m confused. I have a family friend that is schizophrenic and he goes on a full on psychotic episode if he doesn’t take his meds for a couple a days but I’m fine even if I go months and months without medication. All opinions are appreciated.

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Very hard to tell. Hearing voices for that long aligns your experience with that of many people here with a schizophrenia diagnosis. You might have a relatively mild case of the disease.

I don’t know if you’ve felt much trauma, that can cause schizophrenia. It sounds to me like you’ll be fine. I share so many symptoms so common with others that they are cliche. My delusions we’re all religious. I had an extremely hard first six months and gave up drugs because my bottom lasted so long. Be happy, my opinion is you’re fine! except the voices if you start thinking they are spirits. Do some research into people who aren’t sz and hear voices. Socrates did and so did Carl Jung. That is my opinion and I don’t care if I am not a doctor, oftentimes they are quacks.

I take that comment back, not oftentimes they are quacks, sometimes they are. I’ve had like 100 doctors and only about 3 or 4 bad ones. Doctors are great.

If youve been having voices for a year and also had delusions in the past your most likely a sz

Maybe your not actually. Kinda depends on wheter the delusions and paranoia come back. Time will tell

That’s why I’m so confused and unsure. I’ve basically gone a year without the delusions and paranoia but the voices remain. They don’t threaten me they only say the same 3 things my name, can you hear me, and I know you can hear me- those are the only 3 things they ever say. I should also mention that after I take meds for about a month or 2 I can go long periods of times without hearing voices like 3-4 months. I just don’t know if I’m schizophrenic because like I’ve said I have a close friend that has it and he goes into a full on psychotic episode without the meds within a couple of days or a week. It’s been a full year now without delusions or paranoia the only things I have now really are the voices and Anhedonia or emotional numbing and I’m not on antipsychotics.

Welcome to the forum. I would direct you to the DSM-5. It can be a little difficult to navigate but “Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders” are covered starting on page 87. It is difficult for us to diagnose you(and we are not supposed to anyway.) with such a small look inside your life but maybe you can gain some insight looking into it yourself.

http://repository.poltekkes-kaltim.ac.id/657/1/Diagnostic%20and%20statistical%20manual%20of%20mental%20disorders%20_%20DSM-5%20(%20PDFDrive.com%20).pdf

Thats a thinker. Make sure pdocs dont blow your symptoms out of the water though. You know like make them bigger than tgey are

Thank you so much for this. I know people on here can’t diagnose me I just wanted opinions from people that have actually been diagnosed as schizophrenic or something similar to it. Thanks for the information though I’m definitely going to read it.

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Could it just be a case of residusl schizo fcking maniac salience syndrome

I know with me voices completeky convinced me they are real!! They didnt just spiut stupid sentences every now and then. IMO people with symptons like yours are not sz

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This is me. Im a schizofreindic

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My opinion is that you should see a doctor. It’s against community rules for us to diagnose you. Welcome to the forum.

Hello, welcome to the forums @BigAng5815

I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia back in 2004. I had visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations and a persistent delusion. I also had a lot of weird experiences (Telepathy, energy sensation, thought broadcasting, etc…)

To build on what @Bowens wrote here is a nice chart for schizophrenia based on DSM5 criteria. Read the column on the right and see if you meet the criteria for schizophrenia. The column on the left is just for comparisons sake, its the old DSM4 criteria but is no considered out-of-date.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t22/

Your doctor said you may have depression with psychotic features. “Psychotic depression” is a thing, I had a doctor suggest that before. I’ve had 4 different diagnoses from different doctors over the last 17 years but the majority opinion has been schizophrenia so I just go with that.

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Thank you so much for the information. I went through that list so far the things I had from it are the auditory hallucinations, the emotional numbness, and the bad hygiene.

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