If you feel comfortable, you can go ahead to pick one from the list below that best describes you.
Formerly diagnosed with schizophrenia then schizoaffective from 1975-2005 now diagnosed paranoid personality disorder. I still think the switch right over to a PD instead of schizoaffective with PD or staying schizoaffective was because (a) The pdoc making the change was big on PDs (b) If they see you as an awkward patient they tend to leap to label you PD (c) I said at the time medication was only partially successful. What they didnāt know was I wasnāt taking my tegretol and only taking zyprexa 50% of the time.
Thereās a tendency to think combined with (b) that that suggests you have a PD not bipolar/schizophrenia etc.
When i came on the forums over 10 years ago I had a schizoaffective mixed type diagnosis .
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Schizoaffective disorder mixed type
In this type, you have psychotic symptoms with both manic and depressive symptoms. However, The psychotic symptoms are independent and not necessarily related to the bipolar disorder symptoms.
Whatever my diagnosis although I go on and am quite active on other forums I probably feel most comfortable here.
@firemonkey, you donāt have to defend your mental illness. Personality disorders are no walk in the park and having lived with a sz/sza diagnosis for decades certainly gives you enough ācredibilityā, as if anyone needs some. I know that in some circles personality disorders are looked down on but thatās an unjust stigma that needs changed.
And you have every right to be here.
Iāve been diagnosed for about twenty-five years.
you forgot ābatmanā lol
iām batman hahaha
Maybe at some level I was defending it but I didnāt see it that way. My primary intention was just to be upfront as to what my current dx is and what I feel about it . At the end of the day I guess what matters is the symptoms you present with and how they are treated.
I identify with quite a lot here irrespective of diagnosis and although I waver over the question of psychosis when it says things like ādelusionsā and ādifficulties with perceptionā that kind of tells you at times your thinking has been off.
Missed injection last week because I got up late and couldnāt face a crowded waiting room(feel uneasy with too many people in close proximity to me - paranoia and social anxiety). Went this week and they had been phoning me because I hadnāt turned up. I never got the calls as it was to my mobile which I had switched off because I hardly use it.
At times I question whether Iām ill and need it (funny how after 40 years you can still have doubts) but I guess they wouldnāt phone if they didnāt think it was important.
What he said. 
Place wouldnāt be the same without you!
10-96
i was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and it changed at times to āundifferentiatedā because i had a massive crack six or seven years ago (iām bad with dates) and i had a lot of disorganization suddenly and slipped into catatonia. but itās back to being paranoid schizophrenia again since my one hospitalization (my āoneāā¦like there have some small handful or something, donāt let me mislead, thatās not the case) two or three years ago. i donāt always understand the compartmentalisation system but i know the schizophrenia part has remained for twenty years.
but checking that box was a lot harder than i thought itād be. i didnāt believe i was the sick one for a long long time and i often still donāt. itās hard for me to identify as being mentally ill because i feel like thatās letting them win somehow. the discreditors all these years and the them whoāve done this to me to begin with from their implants and wiring in me.
iām going to try not to think about that this morning though. and let my answer stand. i certainly donāt fit into any of the other categories.
I know to some this is just a silly splitting hairs thingā¦ and to some itās knit picky and a non-issueā¦ we all have our own big issues and non-issuesā¦
to for meā¦ I donāt call myself a Schizophrenic.
I call myself a man battling Schizophrenia. I donāt expect anyone else to see it that wayā¦ that is A-- OK.
But in my head I really like the idea of human firstā¦ illness second. (or even third or fourth)
Thatās cool. I like this idea. Put people first.
X unlimited
I feel like I have schizophrenia, but I am officially diagnosed with another disorder.
With me the delusions were more known about when I was in and out of hospital and in more frequent contact with services. After some years they faded somewhat and I kept the thoughts to myself. They centred round gender. Not sure whether the wanting a sex change was a delusional obsession but things like looking in the mirror and thinking I could notice body changes, thinking I had female parts and could have a female orgasm if I tried hard enough, wondering whether I was an hermaphrodite- were I guess all delusional.
A frequent thought of mine is we are all characters in an alienās computer game/dream. Is that delusional or the creative mind at work?- I donāt know.
My psychiatrist believes that sometimes there is very little difference between schizoaffective disorder bipolar type and bipolar.
Sometimes they blur together in some way. I dont know what dx she wrote down for the insurance company - but verbally she told me that I have bipolar disorder - she mentioned type 1 and the mixed variety - but the way these doctors diagnose these mental illnesses are not exact and they are vague - I apparently do have some SZ type symptoms, but I guess overall I am closer to the bipolar side of things
This is where instead of a diagnosis they might be better saying ā X has primary mood symptoms with secondary anxiety and thought disorderā . That covers the bases without giving a diagnosis that could change over time with different pdocs.
Thatās cool. I look at things a little differently. Iām not saying there is anything wrong with what youāre doing at all, I just figured Iād chime in on the subject from my perspective.
Iām a diabetic. Iām a schizophrenic. Iām a man. Iām a gamer. Iām an atheist. These are all labels. I donāt feel that any one of them defines who I am entirely but they all are aspects of who I am. I donāt feel any shame about any of them and I acknowledge that they are all true.
I donāt define myself or others by any single label but I recognize that some labels are accurate and a part of me.
Just as a matter of interest were you a diabetic from a young age or was it meds related?
I would guess that it was more because I gained a lot of weight. I canāt say it was directly med related though that might have had an impact.
Depressed Schizophrenicā¦battling high anxiety and low vitamin Dā¦