During my first week-long stay in a mental hospital they gave me a piece of paper during my smoke break that said I had Schizophrenia. I picked up the lighter and burned it. lol. The nurse compromised I guess because when I was discharged, the "official" diagnosis was Major Depressive Disorder with psychosis. A little more palatable I guess.
Later I got the diagnosis Bipolar Disorder. But after a month and a half stay in a state hospital, they gave me the Schizophrenia diagnosis. This time it stuck and a few months later, another doctor said since I also had depression, that my actual diagnosis was Schizoaffective disorder. Then a few years later, after psychological testing, they determined it was Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar type.
My point is that for many of us, our diagnoses can change over time as doctors figure out what is going on with us. For the record, I never heard voices or believed I was abducted by aliens. I feel I had minimum positive symptoms and some negative symptoms but they stayed and persisted over time, which is how someone gets that diagnosis. Remember, your psychiatrist works for you, not the other way around. If you disagree with a diagnosis, you have the right to ask for a referral to a clinical psychologist for behavioral testing.
Very very accurate here.
These things are spectrums that exist within a place a doctor cannot see, examine or analyze in any other way than what you say to them.
Medical science is always a BEST GUESS type of science.
I was diagnosed with "Drug Induced Schizophrenia", as well as atypical bipolar, anxiety, depression, add, etc.....
In reality it was mostly a prolonged psychosis which happened to produced some permanent schizophrenia like symptoms.
I no longer would qualify for a schizophrenia diagnosis. My brain healed. I still have some symptoms but they are very mild at this point. So was schizo diagnosis wrong? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we just don't really have the best understanding of these things - because we don't.
Since it relies solely on the physician's assessment predicated upon behavior and the patients' thought processes, it can be misdiagnosed. It can't be tested empirically like physical diseases such as cancer. I have a diagnoses of Schizophrenia, but I don't know if it's valid in my case. I have read the literature regarding the illness and, yes, I do meet some of the criteria, but I think my thought processes are not abnormal, and occurred via nature, not nurture. I do not have "bizarre" delusions. I have a lot of mistrust and suspicion, but there are others who are by nature mistrustful but that does not make them mentally ill.
Obviously, if you believe aliens have inserted a chip in your brain and dropped you back off to Earth and you believe they are keeping logs of your thoughts then, yeah, something is obviously. But my so-called "delusions" are NORMAL. Just wanted BL'er's opinions on this.
Schizophrenia is a spectrum. It's not some scary diagnosis all the time. I no longer hear voices or anything like that. I probably don't even qualify for a schizo diagnosis anymore.
Don't stress too much about this. Just because they labeled you something doesn't mean that you are now this or that. It's not some label that says "crazy person". They might even have completely misdiagnosed you which is not uncommon.
It often takes several doctor's opinions to get a truly accurate diagnosis.
Also, sometimes brains can heal from such things - especially if it's not genetical predisposition.
3-4 years after my schizo diagnosis... I am no longer schizo (I still have symptoms, and will probably forever to some degree, but they are so mild it doesn't bother me anymore)
Please don't stress so much on it, because for me, when I stress about such things it makes my symptoms even worse.
