I feel because of all the drugs I’ve smoked/done since my illness started, my SZA is somewhat more severe than some people who just have plain ole SZ. Not to compare and I know diagnosis doesn’t matter. I’ve been diagnosed SZ too… But I definitely have a mood disorder to go along with it. But as time has gone on it’s gotten so severe that if I only take half my medication I become severely psychotic within days. I know you can’t see psychosis clearly over the internet, but my psychosis seems more severe than that of people not on medication on these forums. Although I can still notice it, my psychosis is bad. I shake, I tremble, I hide, I isolate, I’m paranoid, It takes me 2 hours to walk through the grocery store to eventually run out and end up not buying anything. Then I become a workout fiend and don’t eat and do 300 pushups a night but lose 10 pounds in a week because I don’t eat enough. The voices tell me “No you can’t buy that unless you move your hands in some weird motion and do some weird things, or say something to someone, etc…”. And this was years ago before my illness got more severe I think. I couldn’t imagine where I’d be with no medication. I’m not trying to compare, but I think SZA can be very severe. Although I’ve had doctors tell me it’s closer to bi-polar than that of SZ, I don’t agree, because bi-polar people don’t always get so psychotic. And I’ve had TERRIBLE psychosis. And I forgot to mention the delusions I’ve had.
It’s somewhat my own folly (although they tell you in drug recovery it’s not your fault), but the drugs I’ve done has made my SZA worse. But I’m always going to be SZA and not SZ because I have a mood disorder. Am I Correct?
My doctor says I’m a very severe case of psychotic bi-polar aka schizo-affective. And then later on he said “You’re even more severe than I thought”.
I think that it depends, but SZA can be just as serious or sometimes more "complicated’ than SZ, because SZA can involve a lot more symptoms than SZ.
I think that over all, Mental Health professionals view SZA as being more severe than Bipolar, and less severe than SZ.
A lot of private therapists dont get to see a lot of clients afflicted with SZA or SZ, so they may be a bit ignorant when it comes to treating SZA or SZ clients.
SZA is a very controversial and obscure diagnosis - Lots of therapists and even psychiatrists have a hard time defining and diagnosing their patients with Schizoaffective.
My current psychiatrist is not certain of my diagnosis, she is torn between bipolar and schizoaffective for me.
She tells me that I am displaying SZA and bipolar symptoms and is having a difficult time with a concrete diagnosis for me.
But SZA does not always have to be less severe than SZ - It all really depends.
Thanks for your wisdom and info. I liked the part especially about how it’s controversial and obscure.
My old p-doc once told me when I asked what diagnosis I am, he said “you’re not anything but ____(my name)”
Maybe that stems from the confusion of the diagnosis.
And then a lady I saw for 1 visit was like “You were bi-polar but then you took drugs which made you SZA”, she was a (word I can’t say here), so I don’t trust her word. I think she was ignorant. And mean.
Now my current doctor doesn’t get too hung up on the diagnosis but I trust his word the most the one time he told me I was SZA.
I have both diagnosis, sza and paranoid sz, I really don’t know what I am. I used to show a lot of signs of mania back in the day, but now I’m more depressed with some episodes of mania. So maybe I’m sza. I honestly think whatever, the treatment is the same. I need to deal with the symptoms not the diagnosis.
turning,i am exactly the same. i can go to a place and to be so afraid that ill give up and finished go home…i also think that my sz is quite bad, worse than a lot of people and the meds dont really help till now
I don’t like saying my sza is less severe or more severe than others since I only know my inner struggles with this illness.
I don’t think it matters what your dx Is. Just you know you have some tough symptoms to deal with and just keep on moving forward.
Psychosis is difficult as well as mood swings.
One question would be do you care about being dx as Sz over Sza because it is known as the worst? I’m just speculating. Cuz I’ve thought like that just thinking to myself like “people don’t understand how bad I’ve had psychosis so they should know by my dx etc” which I think is coming from my ego.
but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. What matters is improving ones quality of life
Cheers
I think im schizoaffective, and illegal drugs definately did not benefit me. Delusions can be at times hellishly unbearable like “hell on earth” but im still going strong, what else can we do whether we take pills or not. I will admit reading books on therapies does help me and exercise.
I dont know whats “worst”, but schizoaffektive was concidered less bad than schizophrenia, because affective symptoms seemed to predict a more benign course of the illness. Those hardest inflicted with disorganised schizophrenia, are those with less affective flattening. While the most benign schizophrenia is belived to be paranoid, since that affects emotions less than disorganized schizophrenia.