Psychosis but what?

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So I have had a few psychotic episodes, first one being almost 3 years ago, but there has been no name put to this illness, just that I am psychotic. Can this be right? So I'm wondering if can you just be psychotic without being diagnosed with anything?

Of course you can have "just" a psychosis, that's a psychiatric illness.

The worst form of illness in the psychotic spectrum is schizophrenia. If your symptoms aren't severe enough or if your symptoms got triggered by meds or something else the psychiatrist wouldn't dx you schizophrenia, but just psychosis instead. Psychiatry is no 100% exact science.

I thought psychosis was a symptom, not a standalone illness.

Somehow you are right, but the problem is that there is not enough knowledge out ther to answer that question.
I once heard that psychosis is like fever. There is always something "wrong" in the system to develope this symtpom. Possible. But even the lable "schizophrenia" just means that you have recurent psychotic episodes and negative symptoms. That's all to it.
Psychiatrists just decide on your behavior what to dx, there is no real test were they can look you in the brain, just a few questions and another psychiatrist will maybe give you a different psychiatric label to explain your symptoms.
I know that's not much, but that's the way psychiatry works. There are just very few disorders and symptoms in psychiatry were you can be 100% certain what it is. In all the other cases it's just guessing and we still don't fully understand any of the psychiatric disorders.

Psychiatry is a very young sience actually, if you can even call it sience. It's actually mainly just about describing behavior and trying to explain it, that's it.

Last edited by Raziel on 25 Jan 2014, 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Perhaps you were diagnosed with psychotic disorder NOS (DSM) or psychotic disorder, unspecified (ICD)?

That basically means you have some sort of psychotic disorder, but it doesn't meet the criteria for any of the specific psychotic disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, delusional disorder).

I don't have a diagnosis

Your case, then, might be similar to mine. The psychiatrist I went to see for my third opinion said that he thought the psychosis I experienced at 14 and the on-and-off attenuated symptoms I've experienced since then were simply reactions to stress of a person with autism/Asperger's.

I see you have "Asperger's" on your profile, so perhaps your doctor has the same view?

I guess they just didn't tell you, because they HAVE TO give you a diagnosis to be able to lagaly treat you and if you have an insurence to get money from it.

Possible, but in that case "Asperger's" is the diagnosis they explain the symptoms with.

Why would they not tell me?

Good question. I would ask at your next visit.

Psychiatrists tend not to tell things, because they are not sure and/or don't wanna unsettle you.

Yes...I think I did bring up the question with them before, but the answer was very vague. I can try again. Thanks for the input.