Is your anxiety a separate diagnosis, or determined to be driven by untreated psychosis?

DX'd - Sz/SzA
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My pdoc seems to change his mind all the time

Does anyone else have a doctor who’s unsure if it’s residual psychosis causing anxiety, or it’s a standalone issue?

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I had some anxiety attacks after psychosis but that was always after substance abuse, so i got clean and never had it again. Maybe u can ask for cbt or mindfullness training, that helped me alot to manage my stresses in life

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Yes, this. It is how I have managed to eliminate most of my anxiety.

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My doctors have told me anything and everything. The only thing that is clear, is that extreme anxiety is a core issue. Whether it is caused by trauma, or psychosis, or medication, or autism, or food intolerance, or a spiritual issue, or perfectionism, or whatever…well…every single person in my life has a different opinion.

I personally think the label doesn’t matter. I think it is impossible to untangle what exactly causes what. Maybe it is a bit of both? Did the anxiety pre-date the psychosis? Or come after?

For me, I know things that help or hinder my anxiety. Whatever the cause. That is what matters. E.g. diet helps. Avoiding scary people helps. Being able to express my emotions helps. Avoiding too much cafein helps. Etc.

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Also: good luck. Hope you can solve the anxiety puzzle a bit in the coming period.

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Mine is a seperate diagnosis

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My psychiatrist is pretty certain that most of the paranoia I experience is connected to my stand alone anxiety/OCD disorder

I am doubting this and feel that my mild chronic paranoia is directly due to the schizoaffective disorder that I have.

Anxiety is almost a given when one experiences psychosis anyway

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Some of my anxiety is definitely caused by my psychosis. Particularly, my obsessive behavior which can drive me to massive amounts of stress. Found out that my other source of “anxiety” was just a big old fat diagnosis of PTSD. Oof.

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I had panic attacks long before sz. Sz makes them worse.

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I have a separate diagnosis for GAD. Persistent anxiety.

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My doctor said my anxiety is caused by schizophrenia

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Breakthrough symptoms of schizophrenia cause my anxiety

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My pdoc seems to think my anxiety is what’s causing psychosis.

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Never had anxiety before the depot. But i never had depot before diagnosis. So yeah I feel the depot being very strong on my system.

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I suffered from anxiety and panic attacks long before I became psychotic.

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Mine is also SZA related.

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I think my general and social anxiety is seen as secondary to the ASD and/or schizoaffective/schizophrenia. I’d say it’s more ASD than SMI related. When I was quite a bit worse mentally than I am now, although I didn’t see it at the time, I did things I wouldn’t do now. For example walking around badly dressed as a woman. Nowadays there’s no way, no how, I’d do that. I’m acutely aware of the risk of being physically attacked if I did. For me the social anxiety, which has always been quite severe, has increased rather than decreased as the SMI has improved over the years.

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