Ok, she isn’t new. I had her before but now I am back with her starting next week and that makes me a little nervous.
One of the last things she told me previously was that she didn’t recall having ever treated me for schizophrenia symptoms in the 6 months she’d been my therapist. She said it was PTSD, Anxiety and depression - my other diagnoses. She felt my schizophrenia was in remission.
The psychiatrist she works under never said any such thing. All he did was give me pills.
It worries me because what if I come to believe her and it’s not true? I tend to expect a minimum of hallucinations, delusions and paranoia, anyway, but it would be really easy to get into the mindset that I’m getting well and if I’m not, I could have some big surprise problems…Granted, I think my anxiety is here to stay.
This territory is strange for me. I’ve mostly been very ill and everyone was in agreement but more and more professionals are questioning the activity of my schizophrenia. I feel like I need to have my eyes open and my guard up in what almost feels like a sense of paranoia. I was diagnosed 16 years ago; it’s weird to have someone question the continued validity and/or activity of that diagnosis.
Don’t worry @Wendy lots of therapists like to downplay or deny the Schizophrenia diagnosis or SZ symptoms.
Many of them are not used to working with SZ patients so they feel more comfortable calling it something else.
My current therapist is finally facing my SZ symptoms after calling it bipolar all these years.
As long as she is treating your individual symptoms you have nothing to worry about.
You’re right. It doesn’t really matter as long as I am getting the treatment I need and I imagine that until fall rolls around and I am completely moved out of the area, that’s going to all be about anxiety. If I have any serious hallucinations, I probably won’t call her, anyway. I’ll just try to keep off the subject of dx with her. I don’t have any reason to discuss it with her, anyway, especially since I am leaving so soon.
Well on one hand it makes sense to treat what symptoms/disorders are most prevalent at the time for that person. So if your psychotic symptoms have been stable for a very long time on medication, it would make sense that she is not focused on working with them. She still acknowledged you have it, and doesn’t seem to be questioning your original diagnosis, just that she feels it is in remission i.e. you haven’t displayed prominent symptoms of it for a while. (Being in remission does not mean you are cured!! It just means your symptoms are under control and stable due to your medication!)
The issue comes in if you feel that your sz is not in remission and is still causing you serious issues, in which case you need to communicate this to her and explain exactly what makes you feel that way.
I don’t take APs - I haven’t for most of the last 15 years. I know remission doesn’t mean cured.
I haven’t had a psychotic episode in over eight years. Different medical people take that to mean different things: more and more lately that I do not have a psychotic disorder at all. I have auditory problems but my ears are shot and mostly it’s a surprise that I can hear at all. This particular situation worries me because I am under a lot of stress and am moving and the last episode I had was during a move. I am afraid she won’t recognize if I am having psychotic symptoms because she is predisposed to the idea that I don’t have those sorts of symptoms. I’m also afraid I won’t be honest about them because I am holding fast to the hope I had that it was over. There’s some PTSD stuff going on and my anxiety is too high, so I’m probably worrying about nothing.
Hmm it could have been some other psychotic disorder and not necessarily schizophrenia then? Since sz typically gets worse over time without meds, not better…ptsd can cause psychosis for example.
Regardless if you ever feel that your symptoms are back and troubling you and your therapist is not taking them seriously, don’t hesitate to find someone new who will…
