What to do if misdiagnosed

Post Reply New Topic

Hey all, I'm still struggling with the diagnosis and I still feel it is incorrect. I am currently enrolled full time as a sophomore at a university majoring in mass comm and minoring in economics. I am doing fine, and I stopped taking Abilify because it was making me too spacey and dysphoric. I have a high vocabulary. One symptom of schizophrenia is word salad, I never had word salad. Only, I had trouble learning at the same pace or learning too fast or at my own pace instead. I was a very smart young girl, who was also sometimes very rebellious. When I turned fifteen I had a nervous breakdown and they diagnosed it as schizophrenia. Ever since then I've been trying to escape this never ending rabbit hole. I want to be left alone, and not dwell upon what is and is not sanity, because I know I am a good person and I could have control of myself if I didn't have the fear of becoming delusional hanging over my head. I may have bipolar with mania...but I'm not sure, maybe I was just a rebellious teenager or going through life changes and not really that messed up after all. Anyways, I am diagnosed with schizo-affective, ADHD, and alcohol abuse is written in which I think is absolutely ludicrous. I'm a college student, in fact I've started getting drunk since I'm angry at the sheer insanity of having that filled in when I never abused alcohol other than got drunk maybe once or twice in a months period. I never even drank till I was twenty one either, at all.

So I am really smart, I am empathetic. I socialize easily and make lots of friends fast. I dont even mispell words often. I am ok at math. So, here's the dilemma....

Just because i may occasionally have an auditory or outside sounding thought, doesn't mean I fit the criteria for schizophrenia anymore. We're progressing beyond that. It's a sensory issue and I don't know the cause, but it's not annoying to me because just a while ago I heard a voice tell me that the Preterite meant an action that happened in the past, so the voices help me. I think it's evolutionary or something. It was funny though.

Laughter is my only medicine. Cutting to the chase: I'm sick of psychoanalyzing everything and then medicating away my problems with pills, I want a fully integrated life and I am tired of being doped down and dumbed down, and possibly damaged or worsened by meds. I am still afraid or wary of going off them for over one year, but in retrospect the worst of everything always happened inside the hospital after I was put in there for fighting with my mom over my mental illness. She lied to get me in btw. She's really truly sick, and I don't know but maybe these illnesses arent biological but SOCIOLOGICAL. Anyways, I need out. Sooon.

Find a specialist for one of your disorders, either for schizoaffective (who can tell you if you have it or not) and/or for ASD.

Bring ALL your psychiatric reports with you and if you want to, you can also write down the symptoms and in which order they first occoured.

Thanks. I guess I'd have to find an AS specialist or convey this better. My psychiatrist is convinced still that it's schizoffective based on my reaction to anti-depressants.

I totally agree with suggestions to see other specialists if you doubt your diagnosis. It can be very tricky to tease out schizophrenia vs. bipolar-I psychotic mania vs. schizoaffective disorder. I just wanted to add that word salad is not seen in all cases of schizophrenia. It's seen much more in disorganized schizophrenia than in paranoid schizophrenia. Thought disorder is a key part of schizophrenia, but word salad in specific is just one of the most severe examples. And while I agree with you that there is way too much "overlabeling" nowadays, neuropsychiatric disorders are most certainly biological in basis. Yes, there are important environmental aspects, but genes play a huge role.

And keep in mind that, while schizoaffective disorder is a combination of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it typically is less severe than classic schizophrenia. So, if you don't feel that you have positive symptoms as badly as what you've read occurs in schizophrenia, that doesn't necessarily mean that your schizoaffective diagnosis is incorrect. This is especially true if all of your symptoms first occurred after SSRI use, which is a very common trigger for the start of bipolar disorder. I definitely think you should voice your concerns to your doctors.

But isn't disorganisation also a symptom of AD(H)D?
I am a layman in this but I get a kind of special interest in neurology and disorders, but how can you differenciate the disorganisation in AD(H)D from the disorganisation in schizophrenia?
Executive disfunctioning is also a kind of disorganisation, so what would be the differences in AD(H)D vs schizophrenia?
I guess that the disorganisation-symptoms in schizophrenia belong to the negative symptoms, but these negative symptoms occur in autism as well, if I am right informed.
Are there profound differences and if so how do they display differently?
I apologize for asking all these questions, but I am just very interested in it.

The disorganization in ADHD deals with having difficulty keeping things on track or "focusing." ADHD disorganization is the way we use the word "disorganized" in everyday speech. Like, when you usually say somebody's "disorganized," you mean that they lose things frequently or can't remember to bring the right materials to class or something. The disorganized subtype of schizophrenia has a completely different meaning. Here, it means very gross disorganization in speech and thought patterns. Yes, that is seen in all types of schizophrenia, but it is particularly pronounced in disorganized schizophrenia. This is why the disorganized subtype tends to be more severe than paranoid schizophrenia. Google "formal thought disorder," and you will find a lot about the details of what makes up the disorganized speech/thought patterns of psychosis. And no need to apologize for asking questions. If you have lots of specific questions, always feel free to PM me.

I need to go to bed now (Europe), but thank you very much for your reply.
I will google "formal thought disorder" tomorrow.
Thank you for your PM-offer and your knowledge.

How do you react to them?

Oh, I thought you meant my psychiatrist. Well, I was put on Strattera for about a month or so. It started making me outgoing and superfluous. People said I had finally broken out of my shell. Then, one day I was happy as a clam and I came into the appointment and started arguing that I didn't have schizo-affective, and that I was going to leave psychiatry. It made me Bipolar basically, or have weird swings from happy and peaceful to aggitated and confused. I would describe my behavior as mildly borderline on Strattera.
On the flip side, I've always questioned my illness. Now, I'm taking Vyvanse and it's not giving me the weird mania, although I can still go without sleeping etc. It hasn't really changed my thinking or moods too much.

The psychiatrist thought it was out of character to deny the schizoaffective, although I have been processing this disorder for a long period of time and am always trying to learn and experience levels of experience. Basically, I feel like I do have some kind of thought disorder...but I'm not sure how to quantify it. I think a lot about it, and I obsess and read between the lines a lot. I never felt comfortable, and I was first diagnosed with schizophrenia...and I was traumatized a lot in a bad facility for youth with MI.

I'm just really effing confused, lol. My disorganized symptoms always have been more like ADHD than whatever schizophrenia ones are like. I am a bit messy, but not too extremely messy. I wonder if my symptoms mimicked schizophrenia due to environment and stress.
I just told a friend about how I was hospitalized at 17 for trying to express that I wasn't mentally ill to my mom, and lashing out which was called an episode, since my dad thought i was manic. I was manic, but I didn't need to be in that hospital. I was put on Geodon and it increased my problems and induced.

I probably have Bipolar I and ADHD. That makes the most sense. Since my problem has always been overprocessing and not shutting my brain off, and not focusing because I can't slow down or sit still.

Thanks so much, so does "schizophrenia" basically mean sometimes things trigger hallucinations? I don't hallucinate on meds and I probably should keep taking Abilify. I am just curious if it will stop over time without Abilify. Abilify is a mood stabilizer and is the only medication that has really been successful in managing things the best. Seroquel gave me epilepsy, Geodon made me flat out sick which is odd because it increased my aggitation. So far Adderall/Vyvanse and Abilify work. J/w if this is an indication of Bipolar I vs. schizoaffective or what the major difference is, does it even matter? Bipolar sure does sound better.

The auditory hallucinations actually did first start on a medication called Geodon which is marketed FOR bipolar. I think it has anti-depressant like action because it made me feel like I took Prozac. My mom got worse on Prozac, and she is deff Bipolar I and struggles. Although she has paranoid delusions and is a lot worse than I ever was.

One last thing, ok this is what I'm trying to figure out. What I need to control and make sure is working? Does Seratonin or Dopamine trigger my hallucinations? Because Abilify amplifies seratonin and Vyvanse amplifies dopamine. It makes no sense. Why am I amplifying things? Isn't too much dopamine the theory for Schizo stuff and etc. Maybe I am just fatigued but I checked my Thyroid.