Introduction Into the Life of a "Former" Schizophrenic

DX'd - Sz/SzA
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So, out of the blue, my psychiatrist changes my diagnosis from schizoaffective disorder, which I’ve had for about 5 years, into bipolar with psychotic features.

Has this ever happened to anyone?

Now I’m completely at a loss since I thought for sure I had some sort of social dysfunction directly related to schizophrenia, but apparently my psychiatrist didn’t, even though our last discussion was about my social disabilities.

I haven’t always been so positive about my diagnosis. For the five years I was diagnosed by doctors and psychiatrists and therapists, I was completely in denial that I had anything to do with schizoaffective anything.

Fast forward to about two months ago, and I’m taking marijuana on my own, at a dosage more than 10 times the recommended amount, and suddenly I get extreme paranoia. The kind that makes me worry and forget my memory.

I was calling my mom and sisters and telling them what I needed to do, and apparently I said really really mean things to one of my sisters, but of course I don’t remember.

Now, when I have psychotic episodes, I start thinking that people are out to get me, that even my family wants to kill me. It’s because of this that I’ve had hospitalizations for 3 whole times. I also bring up a lot of child molestation cases in my speech when I get psychotic even though I obviously don’t want to do something like that.

But anyway, thankfully I wasn’t talking about sexual abuse in my speech when I was taking marijuana, and I was just thinking that I was gonna get killed while under the influence of a really really big high.

I’m never trying marijuana again, especially knowing that it can worsen my conditions and harm my psychosis even further. Not even at 5 mg – nothing! I warn everyone here who wants to even smoke one puff or take one bite or whatever.

But the reason I’m on this forum is because I have a few questions related to the social disabilities that come with schizophrenia:

  1. Have any of you confused your social dysfunction, stemming from schizophrenia, for autism? For the longest time I thought for sure I had a high functioning autism, and would go out of my way to find out if I had it, but eventually I couldn’t find testing for it, and besides that, my therapist and psychiatrist told me (Just last month) that it was schizoaffective related instead. Which I completely believe them on now.

  2. For your social dysfunction, how functional are you? My employment counselor says that I have hope that one day I might learn the social cues and such that are needed in everyday conversation, but I’m wondering if people are in worse or even better positions than I am.

  3. Do any of you find that being off your meds suddenly makes your social disability go away partly or almost entirely? This is what I’ve found with the last three times that I’ve been off my meds: I suddenly start speaking neurotypically, meaning that I understand social cues and what to say, and it’s as though I don’t have schizophrenia’s social disability at all. And it’s as though the medication somehow blocks being socially adequate.

  4. Have any of you been able to overcome your social dysfunction entirely like was previously described in question 3, but without any hint of schizophrenia’s sickness? I ask this because unfortunately when I’m off my meds, with the knowledge of social cues and being able to speak well with others, I get the symptoms of paranoia and I start talking about sexual molestation. Which is completely unwarranted and unfortunate because the good is being mixed with the bad, so to speak. But in any event, I’m wondering if anyone has been able to “speak well” without having any of schizophrenia’s symptoms?

  5. What resources have helped you with your social disability? This is the main question I want answered if none other is. I’m based in San Diego and have exhausted my current resources with NAMI, club houses and such and I’m looking to take things like cognitive remediation, social skills training classes, etc. I can’t go to things like meet up dot com’s meet ups, although I do do that on occasion, because it’s a little challenging for me when it comes to socializing, but I’m looking for actual classes designed for schizophrenics.

Thank you all for your time.

I know this was kind of long winded, but I look forward to reading the answers and getting connected with people on here.

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I am not sure about confused. I can’t talk about schizophrenia as an ex schizophrenic but I can talk about social dysfunction and severe mental illness vs possible autism/NVLD.

My worst issue is undoubtedly social dysfunction . It can be traced back to way before I got overt signs of mental illness. Even from an early age I was very much a loner and had no friends(well one but on hindsight that may well have been wishful thinking on my part) . For me the social difficulties preceded the psychiatric symptoms and indeed peer group reaction to my social difficulties was probably the trigger for my psychiatric symptoms. As psychiatric symptoms can also result in social dysfunction this undoubtedly added an extra layer to my already present social dysfunctionality.

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Where r u from buddy and how old are u…???

U seem positive to me my friend…!!!

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I do the best parties myself. I get on the net look up music videos. I make my own mix and listen to them.
Partymix
Homsickmix
I mean a musicmix for different personal moods.
From there I get great ideas how to pass my time here on earth.

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My congrats on your new diagnosis, sir. I remain, unfortunately, nuttier than an Oh Henry! bar.

:flushed:

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ok i read most of it. for me the social dysfunction is there on and off meds. i was fine socially other than some anxiety before schizophrenia hit me. With autism i think your socially challenged since almost birth. I know ill be asocial until they come up with some breakthrough medication or treatment.:v:️

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UPDATE: I found out that the reason for the diagnosis change might have been due to insurance purposes and changing of medication. My psychiatrist had mentioned to me that he wanted me to be on anti-depressants (But that he would try and calculate how that would affect me and my dopamine receptors) and so the change isn’t so much about changing my personal diagnosis (I still might very much have schizophrenia) but about which medications I am able to receive.

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I have read about some medication being able to help with cognitive functions or something similar. I saw a youtube video talk about schizophrenia and the specific medication was mentioned, I don’t remember what it was exactly.

Also, you say you were completely fine, socially, before schizophrenia? Funny, because I noticed no change when I first started getting symptoms, except that when I had psychotic episodes, my socializing would get better. So in a way, schizophrenia helped me socially, but hurt me mentally.

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Thanks.

I found out the change might have been for insurance purposes, so I might still have it.

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I would like to be the host for many parties.

Unfortunately, my poor social skills frighten me into holding off until later.

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I’m from San Diego

I think I do have schizophrenia, it’s just that the diagnosis was changed for insurance purposes.

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“For me the social difficulties preceded the psychiatric symptoms and indeed peer group reaction to my social difficulties was probably the trigger for my psychiatric symptoms.”

This sort of describes me in a sense.

I didn’t mention that at the same time that I was getting symptoms for schizophrenia (I was in school) I was highly stressed, and that, combined with the fact that my chronic pain was overwhelmingly painful, I totally gave out mentally and the symptoms started coming on.

I would say that peer group reaction, including from my family, was also a trigger. I’ve just never been able to socialize well, and that created so many obstacles and blocks stopping me from communicating that I had to find an outlet somehow. I think that’s what created the mental illness. It was a way of escaping everything.

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the 2 diagnoses are very similar tbh, i was recently rediagnosed after 14 yrs with para/sz, my p/doc doesnt seem to think i have it anymore lol, i hope he is right but i’m not stopping the meds unless he has a foolproof plan, i’d love it if he was right and i am starting to convince myself he is right, my new diagnosis is really strange and i dont understand it, i’m hoping they can explain it but if it doesnt make sense i’ll be getting a second opinion. :slight_smile:

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Have any of you confused your social dysfunction, stemming from schizophrenia, for autism?

Yes, so much so that I told my future husband that I was Asperger’s, which led his (we found out in the meantime) very Asperger’s self to read a number of books over the course of a few weeks to find out what that meant. He concluded I was not and so did my therapist.

I used to hitch hike to school and struck up conversations with people, then went on to take call center jobs after uni, so I can do well over the phone and leave good first impressions. However on an interpersonal type of situation, I am useless. I have no friends in real life and do not understand social cues at all, everytime anyone shows friendliness or interest in me, I ruin that entirely. At work my ideal is to be a coporate zombie, I collaborate well, but try to stay out of office friendships or politics, 'cause I am hopeless at it. I can’t tell a friendly face from a sarcastic one, I don’t understand groupsand fill ill at ease with them as well.

Do any of you find that being off your meds suddenly makes your social disability go away partly or almost entirely?

Yepz, it’s called mania and delusion of grandeur. People around me do not think I am adequate, but since my reaction to stimuli is more rapid ('cause I am manic) and I feel better about what I just said, instead of uncomfortable and self-aware, I feel more adequate when off meds. Same thing happened recently when I was on a SSRI - induced manic spree, so I know for sure it was mania and not actually me being suddenly socially adequate. Which I am not.

And it’s as though the medication somehow blocks being socially adequate.

It’s not. IT just limits the delusion of grandeur from happening, and so you don’t feel so so comfortable in your own skin, no matter what you do, as when manic. Sorry to put it so bluntly, I know itfeels awesome to feel adequate (And someties even be told you are a genius…by people who simply are less smart than you, medicated or not, so on.) but the truth of the matter is, mania just lifts the inner blockages you have when your prefrontal cortex functions well. It’s just like when drinking alcohol you might feel more gracious, apt, courageous, even smart… even though to others you are just a drunk mess.

4- sorry, I don’t get the question

What resources have helped you with your social disability?

ouch. I guess I went for a poor man’s type of “training”, I forced myself to speak to strangers and took call center jobs on purpose to train myself the “acceptable” demeanour work-wise. Didn’t help at all in my personal life as I usually take my “on the job” mask off out of sheer tiredness and relaxation at the same time. But I got the job of my dreams now nonetheless, and I hope to do well at it, too.

Last but not least:

So, out of the blue, my psychiatrist changes my diagnosis from schizoaffective disorder, which I’ve had for about 5 years, into bipolar with psychotic features.

Has this ever happened to anyone?

Yes. Exactly that happened to me. DSM V changed a number of criteria for diffrentiating between sza and Bipolar I, and many practitioners align with that criteria all of a sudden. For me the difference was made by a SSRI-induced manic episode. Judging by a very mportant change in DSM V, only bipolarity can cause this type of event, no other illness. So my pdoc can rest her case on me being bipolar I rather than sz.
Also, psychotic episodes with no manic or depressive element to them are a clear sign of sz. If your psychotic episodes have a strong manic component, as you seem to say, or follow a strong manic episode, then you are not sza, you most likely will be classified as Bipolar I.

Long answer, hope this helps.

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More specifically:

One example of a solid improvement is the removal of the exclusion criterion for bipolar disorder if a patient ‘switched’ into a manic episode after treatment with an antidepressant. Because there is now overwhelming evidence that such ‘switches’ occur uniquely in patients with bipolar disorder and not in those without bipolar disorder, that exclusion criterion present in DSM-IV has now been removed.

Source here

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I mean by myself. I party on my own.

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You realize these disorders are almost exactly the same thing right? One is a psychotic disorder with mood episodes and the other is a mood disorder with psychotic episodes. The medication regimen for both is exactly the same, a mood stabilizer and an antipsychotic. So don’t let yourself be too shaken up by this.

I am exhausted and going to bed soon so I only read the first part of your post but I’ll read it all tomorrow when I get the time.

If you only experience symptoms of psychosis while in a mood episode-either depression or mania-then it is bipolar. If you experience psychosis regardless of whether you are in a mood episode or not, it is considered sza. Perhaps your pdoc realized your psychosis only correlated w your mood episodes.

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