Despite 40 years of psychiatric treatment and my current med reducing some symptoms doubts quite often appear.
- always
- often
- sometimes
- rarely
- never
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I sometimes have doubts because some hours I can appear and feel quite normal. But at other times the illness is very evident.
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Great poll @firemonkey as usual!
I marked sometimes - I mean I know I have bipolar disorder, so I guess this is a mental illness but I often question the need to add an antipsychotic on board - but I have gone off of the deep end many times, so maybe it is necessary.
Maybe it is a question of my insight slipping a bit - but the people surrounding me feel that I absolutely need antipsychotics, including my psychiatrist - she basically threatened to hospitalize me if necessary if I went off of my meds!
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I know there is something wrong with me. It is more contemplating the severity of the illness. Is it permanent? Will I need meds forever. I’ve come a long way in getting back to normal through conscious effort and viewing it as a cognitive problem. There is so much I have to just push out of my mind, or there used to be. I still hear things and see coincidences all the time that lead me to believe everyone is telepathic and my symptoms are real, but theses days of balanced with moments of equal clarity that it is not real. It’s all sort of exhausting keep myself moving in a positive direction, but I know it s better to not look back. I have found coping mechanism that practically eliminate symptoms. The most powerful tool is to just focus on life, but I can understand if someone needs time to sort through the chaos of a sz mind. With schizophrenia as such a broad diagnostic label, I think it is natural for one to ask themselves if they real have it. Good poll firemonkey.
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@firemonkey do you think the fact we are both based in the uk and are subsequently bombarded with anti sick/disabled rhetoric influences our vote.
I don’t think that helps @Jimbob but my doubts were present before then.
Yes, I believe I have some symptoms of mental illness, but everyone does!!! Does everyone have a mental illness? I think most professionals have a difficult time distinguishing whether or not a behavior is unusual, completely reasonable, or is correlated with a mental illness.
Despite me thinking I’m fine, I’m diagnosed with seven different disorders (!) I said, these all can’t be current. And oh yes, they said, all of these are. Obviously not all of them apply to me, so of course I question whether or not I actually have an illness, or they need a few labels in my file to keep me in the system.
I have serious doubts that what I have is mental illness when I am on meds because the symptoms are so much better, but then when I am off meds, well I just don’t know anymore. I feel like everyone has the same thing, thy are just better at hiding it? For instance, I can walk down the street and think, I can read her mind, but she can read my mind too, does that make sense? Its kind of hard to explain but I feel like it is not a mental illness but a gift, like a special power that was given to me, I just have got to figure out how to use it for the goodness of mankind, so far I have not gotten that far.
no the voices do that for me LOL
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I’ve had four different psychiatric diagnoses in my lifetime. I never believed any of them. Right now, according to online tests, I don’t meet the basic criteria for either schizophrenia or bipolar. My doctor tells me that you can’t go by the online tests. I don’t know how the online tests can be so wrong. What are they for anyway? I still get very paranoid at times with mind reading and everything. But, now that I’m on shots, that is better controlled.
I KNOW I’m ill, as evidenced by skipping more than a day’s medication.
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My mind reading is definitely NOT a gift. When I read people’s minds’s, everything I sense coming from their head’s is all bad stuff, really bad stuff and all about ME.
It’s not real man. People don’t think that hard and aren’t that composed. For some reason hallucinations are better constructed than reality. Most of my symptoms are gone now but this is new “hearing people’s minds”. Frankly bs. There had never been a single documented case of real telepathy. Making it scientifically impossible. You forget you had skin and bone around your neuronic mess of electrical activity? I certainly have in the past. Alas there is no telepathy. Rest easy folks.
I often question it…I have so many confusing experiences that it’s hard to know what’s sickness and what’s normal or healthy responses. I don’t like having the label because of how the world perceives it, but i accept that there is something wrong with me. I struggle with defining these experiences and I’m thinking about getting a therapist to help me understand myself better. I don’t know if it’s schizophrenia because it’s called schizoaffective. I had the schizophrenia label first so I don’t know where the moods fit in at all, or how bipolar fits in and adhd. I was labelled adhd as an adult and since stimulants help me so much it makes me question if there’d be a better word for what I have. I haven’t been off medication for a long time in years, and if I became delusional I would only be able to measure or compare once i realized it and then was on medication again and compared. but medication also can cause withdrawal psychosis so it is kind of upsetting that I have to live with this illness with so much confusion attached to it.
I know that I was ill when I was a teen but also somtimes i wonder if itwas just hormones but then I look at my mom and think it’s hereditary. Then I start wondering if she’s experiecning mid-llfe issues, but she’s always been kinda crazy. I was off Abilify for a week and yesterday had symptoms that were hard to distinguish because I just didn’t feel ok.
it’s a confusing disorder but at least it doesn’t make me violent, and at least my symptoms are manageable i know a lot of people have it worse. Ill, I am like a vaccuum i feel like everything just falls through me and collides, like a collapsing solar system. I can’t handle it but I haven’t actually been able to put a word to define or describe my psychosis because when it has occurred it was really bad at times in the past. Hearing voices and not being able to shut my thoughts away, feeling depersonalized and disconnected. Stuck in a dream world.
It’s not fun to be in a constant dream-state, or to fall prey to paranoia. I do try to avoid that and although my symptoms got progressively better and more manageable I guess I still have schizophrenia to some degree…
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I just take my medicine and feel mentally healthy.
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Last year my psychiatrist changed how I take my Geodon to once a day instead of twice. It became evident that I do have sz. I saw him on a Friday and by the following Friday when I had ECT that pdoc told me to take it twice a day again because he never saw me like that before. It reminded me of what it was like before the treatments. I think when you have the right treatment it is easy to forget what it was like before. I often thought that before I wasn’t trying hard enough or was faking it. That week from hell reminded me I really do have an illness that I’m not in control of. 
I know I need the meds… I know I’m mentally ill. I know what happens when I don’t take care of myself…
But at the same time… I don’t always believe that I’m mentally ill. It’s odd… I accept it… I work at staying stable and healthy, but I just don’t always believe it. Sometimes I feel cured. (I’m afraid that’s just when I’m manic)
I know I’m ill without a doubt. But my mania can cause me to think I’m cured . What a cruel trick lol
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I don’t think I am mentally well, but I don’t think I am merely ill. I think this is metaphysical. So yeah I constantly doubt it.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m bipolar more than schizophrenic. Not even sure if my voices are even voices. I’ve only had one true psychotic episode and that was it.
I am paranoid, suicidal, and hear voices daily… But I don’t know… sometimes I doubt it…