I’ve been experiencing psychosis off and on since I was a young teenager (now 22) and in December last year I first got treated for it and was put in hospital for a short time (I didn’t realise I was psychotic until after I was put on Haloperidol, even since then I’m not always sure). Since then I’ve been taking antipsychotics, a few different ones now on quetiapine, and at other times some other medicines for depression and anxiety (since before anyone thought I was psychotic). My psychiatrist though won’t tell me if he has any idea of a diagnosis except that he said I have a recurrent psychotic disorder of some kind. So I was wondering what other things it could be if anyone know more about other psychotic illnesses? I know I don’t have something like Bipolar disorder, and the dr said I don’t have schizoaffective disorder, though he didn’t specifically say anything about schizophrenia. I think maybe they’re reluctant to diagnose me with anything because even though I’ve had delusions and hallucinations for years I’ve only recently had anyone know about it and it’s the first time I’m being treated for psychosis, so they hope it’s a one off. Plus, cause I moved home after I came out of hospital my psychiatrist at the moment hasn’t ever seen me when properly psychotic. Can anyone tell me if there are other psychotic disorders it could be?
Forgive me, I’m not familiar with recurrent psychotic disorder… When I googled the term, it said that the psychosis comes and goes.
Are your symptoms always present, or does it come and go?
Your right, there are other disorders that cause psychosis. There are even physical illnesses that can trigger psychotic episode. It’s frustrating to try and figure out what in the world is happening. But be patient with yourself and don’t be afraid to speak up, self advocate and of course, get second opinions.
maybe journal what you’ve been through so you can let the docs know what’s been going on. Because your right, by the time you see the doc, the crisis is over and they see a person doing rather well in front of them.
They can only go by what they see and what you tell them.
Good luck and I hope you find some answers soon.
I think most of my symptoms are gone since about 3 months after I started medicine so since February maybe (I still hallucinate occasionally though but not often).
But before that I think I’ve always had either some or lots of hallucinations or delusions. As a teenager I always heard voices narrating everything I did and I was certain that people were trying to kill me. Other than that it varied, sometimes I got worse and I got way more paranoid then started speaking to angels and demons and thinking I was a prophet or a demon come to start the apocalypse and things like that. I spent days alone in my room without sleeping or eating or talking to anyone except the angels and demons. Often I was trashing my rooms looking for microphones or cameras.
But sometimes it wouldn’t be as bad,. I still would think people I knew were plotting against me and heard people talking about me that weren’t really there, but it didn’t effect my functioning as much, other than contributing to me using more and more drugs.
I think maybe one issue is that my pdoc seems to think I always had insight, he doesn’t realise that I only started to question these things after being put on high doses of Haloperidol in hospital. Maybe I should explain that I never knew I was ill, and that even now I’m not entirely convinced that it was really hallucinations and delusions, and think maybe it was all real.
P.S I’ve been a long time reader of this site and I always read your posts and found them interesting so it’s cool that you reply
Like you said they may be hesitant to label you with schizophrenia because it’s only recent that they know about it. For schizophrenia you have to have symptoms for more than a month where your functioning has been effected for greater then 6 months, I think. You can always goggle the criteria. What I’ve been told, and I’m starting to believe, is it doesn’t matter what you call it as long as you treat the symptoms. I wish you the best of luck. 
Thanks I looked up the criteria and I think I fit them, but the pdoc said I would stop taking medicine in February so maybe they are waiting to see what happens then.
When i was first diagnosed all they said was you have psychosis. Had no idea what that was. Then they said I was schizophrenic after a while. they are just trying to make sure they get the correct diagnosis before they say something like you have schizophrenia.