Just wondering… if I get high moods that don’t qualify for mania (a week) or hypomania (4 days) but only a few hours, does that resemble sz more or sza?
I do remember in the past unmedicated that my moods swung a lot up and down but they were very rapid not long lasting. But I also had major depression several times for up to a month or two. And once or so since 2012 I had three days of feeling electric and hyper.
So do the bipolar mood swings of sza have to be long or can they be very short too? Or is it sz if it’s short? The pdoc in my sixth hospital stay thought I had sz not bipolar because my moods rapid not long. But my last two private pdocs agreed it’s sza.
To me it sounds like Schizoaffective Disorder Depressive Type because of your major depressive episodes. And also Bipolar that swings rapidly can sometimes have a tendency to swing less severely because it doesn’t have time to dip so low or spike so high.
I have exactly the same mood swings, 15 years ago i was diagnosed sza, later they changed it to schizotypal pd. Mood stabilizers does not help, on the contrary they seem to worsen the depressive periods. Now i just tell myself i have a bit sz with mood swings.
For many years, I went back and forth from depressed and suicidal, to manic, irritable and violent along with almost all positive symptoms of psychosis. And I was, of course, diagnosed with sza.
Now, I have not been depressed nor suicidal for the past 15 years, and I’m only rarely psychotic. I’m on meds and I’m still diagnosed with sza.