Hi everyone. I don’t know if anyone remembers me, I used to be pretty active on the forum some years ago, then life happened, second child was born, left the country to work in a new one, brought my family here etc. So I wasn’t so active on here anymore, but I had this forum on the back of my head, as it taught me everything I know about coping and living with mental illness.
I am in the UK now and three pdocs, including my own have expressed their belief that my actual diagnosis should be Bipolar I and not anything related to Sz. I tend to agree because, while my interactions here taught me a lot about mental illness, what I was describing was always manic episodes and only occasional psychotic attacks and, looking back, some people did point out that it sounded like bipolar and not Sz, but I dismissed those insights as I had a diagnosis given overnight by a bunch of doctors to facilitate a C-section for my first baby to show for it.
So, my working diagnosis is of Bipolar I at the moment, with a differential diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, simply because that’s what my previous diagnosis was written down as, but with no leads for the doctors to believe that I suffer from that.
I love this community and, while I took long breaks over the course of time from posting here, I always felt that it was some sort of a safety blanket for me, a place where I could post if I needed comfort, advice and help.
I don’t know if I will keep posting/visiting here or find myself a Bipolar-related forum, to be sure to give and receive the right peer support for my actual symptoms, but I am sure as hell I owe a lot to this forum, and big thanks to @SzAdmin and everyone else for maintaining it.
You are welcome here if you feel good here. Nobody can judge another just because of another condition. Also you can look for other pages of bipolar disorder. Both things.
Meanings and definitions of mental illness is changing all the time anyway. I’ve been diagnosed with manic depression, depression, borderline personality disorders, epilepsy, and PTSD throughout my 37 years. As research improves understanding I’m sure I’ll get another label in the future. At least coming here can give you some consistency in an ever changing field of medicine.
Plenty of people here ended up rediagnosed w bipolar and still stay on. The forum is for people w sz and related psychotic disorders hence why we have a diagnosed “other” forum which I still always post in out of habit even though technically now I could post in the other as my diagnosis is schizoaffective now lol.
