The riddle of diagnosis

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1

Hi, I was originally diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, then schizoaffective and now more recently with bipolar disorder.

I don’t really feel like any of them fit though. Off medication I have suffered psychosis requiring hospitalisation 10 times. I don’t hear voices nor do I hallucinate (although I have on rare occasions during psychotic episodes). I feel low most of the time and never go ‘manic’ when on my medication, which is a monthly injection of the antipsychotic aripiprazole. My mood and energy levels don’t swing from high to low, I’m just down nearly all the time. I think I probably need an antidepressant but I hate the way they make me feel, like even more apathetic than I normally am.

I have been told that my diagnosis isn’t that important in the past by psychiatrists as long as I am well. But I’m not well, I’m very unhappy and I don’t want to be being treated for something that I don’t have if there is a better treatment available for whatever mental disorder I actually have.

Anybody have similar experiences to mine? With different diagnoses and not feeling like any of them fit?

2

You said that off medication you have severe psychosis therefore you are not being treated for something you don’t have.
Whatever your diagnosis is, for those severe psychotic symptoms the only ‘cure’ are these anti-psychotics.

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3

Yep I think I do need the antipsychotic but I wonder if I should be taking something else too. I meant things like they put me on Lithium (standard treatment for bipolar as you probably know) at one point which didn’t help my mood at all and had horrible side effects like severe shaking of the hands.

4

What are you symptoms now? Depression? :slight_smile:

5

Yep, it sounds like I just need to take an antidepressant but I’ve tried quite a few in the past and they haven’t really helped. It feels like I have depression which could easily lead to psychosis off antipsychotic medication. Is that Bipolar though?

6

Consult ur pdoc asap…???

7

We are not doctors, we can’t know, but there are also depression with psychotic features and schizoaffective-depressive type.
How was your mood when you were off meds? :slight_smile:

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8

What Were your phycotic symptoms

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9

My mood was a lot better and I had more energy but before too long I became unwell with psychosis. Thanks for replying by the way :slight_smile:

10

I was extremely delusional, with racing thoughts and took risks that could have killed me.

11

Perhaps these ‘depressive’ symptoms are simply sedation from the abilify plus the apathy of sz? :thinking: