[RD] Ask a Schizoaffective.

[caketastydelish]

Interesting. How are the prospects of you actually being able to control your mood, and so to speak roll with the punches to consciously mitigate the effects of this?

That's a good point to bring, and the answer is I often don't. I know I should be able to control my mood, but more often than not I can't. I am a very moody person; it is a problem.

Is this disorder common among Coldplay fans ? I mean, this does explain a lot of things.

Guys, when I said people would flame me, this kind of thing is what I was talking about. Also, I am not exactly a "Coldplay fan"

I sometimes wonder if I have something similar to schizophrenia. What sort of symptoms should I look for?

Kyriakos gave a better answer than I probably could, but what you should look for are the symptoms. Because the symptoms of Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective are identical. Delusional beliefs, hallucinations are the main ones. However decreased memory, attention span, and organization are also common.

yes, but my question referred to whether you were able to recognize early signs and symptoms that your condition was worsening....for example, some individuals become more withdrawn or their sleep patterns change....since it is generally considered beneficial to deal with an exacerbation asap

Do you mean before I was diagnosed or after? AFTER I was diagnosed yes, more or less. If I'm unable to "get my stuff together" that could be a problem. I often ask myself questions in my head and then answer back. The more I do that, the more I know I'm probably "sick". Sometimes I see stuff as well, although not often. Mainly what I see is flying black dots. As far as auditory hallucinations go, it's mostly hearing people call my name, and other than that I do not hear "voices".

How does it differ from manic depression? Other than frequency of delusions and/or av hallucinations. If it happens during amplitudes of either episodes I'm having trouble seeing the difference.

 

[bernie14]

How does it differ from manic depression? Other than frequency of delusions and/or av hallucinations. If it happens during amplitudes of either episodes I'm having trouble seeing the difference.

by the content of the delusions/perceptual disturbances.....a manic depressive (bipolar) can be delusional and experience perceptual disturbances, but the character of these are related to their current mood, that is, a person in a depressive episode may have delusions that they will make everyone around them sick or hear voices telling them they should kill themselves (nihilistc), a manic person may have delusions that they are rich or are some famous person or say that they hear the voice of god telling him he is the new messiah (grandiose)

in the case of a shcizoaffective, there are prominent mood symptoms but the delusions/perceptual disturbances are unrelated to mood...

 

[caketastydelish]

by the content of the delusions/perceptual disturbances.....a manic depressive (bipolar) can be delusional and experience perceptual disturbances, but the character of these are related to their current mood, that is, a person in a depressive episode may have delusions that they will make everyone around them sick or hear voices telling them they should kill themselves (nihilistc), a manic person may have delusions that they are rich or are some famous person or say that they hear the voice of god telling him he is the new messiah (grandiose)

in the case of a shcizoaffective, there are prominent mood symptoms but the delusions/perceptual disturbances are unrelated to mood...

That's some good information, but here is a link from a site I go to regularly.

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=54&ContentID=87235

edit: and for those of you that don't want to click the link, here is the text in a spoiler.

Spoiler :

Schizoaffective disorder is one of the more common, chronic, and disabling mental illnesses. As the name implies, it is characterized by a combination of symptoms of schizophrenia and an affective (mood) disorder. There has been a controversy about whether schizoaffective disorder is a type of schizophrenia or a type of mood disorder. Today, most clinicians and researchers agree that it is primarily a form of schizophrenia. Although its exact prevalence is not clear, it may range from two to five in a thousand people (- i.e., 0.2% to 0.5%). Schizoaffective disorder may account for one-fourth or even one-third of all persons with schizophrenia.

To diagnose schizoaffective disorder, a person needs to have primary symptoms of schizophrenia (such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior) along with a period of time when he or she also has symptoms of major depression or a manic episode. (Please see the section on Mood Disorders for a detailed description of symptoms of major depression or manic episode). Accordingly, there may be two subtypes of schizoaffective disorder:

(a) Depressive subtype, characterized by major depressive episodes only, and

(b) Bipolar subtype, characterized by manic episodes with or without depressive symptoms or depressive episodes.

Differentiating schizoaffective disorder from schizophrenia and from mood disorder can be difficult. The mood symptoms in schizoaffective disorder are more prominent, and last for a substantially longer time than those in schizophrenia. Schizoaffective disorder may be distinguished from a mood disorder by the fact that delusions or hallucinations must be present in persons with schizoaffective disorder for at least two weeks in the absence of prominent mood symptoms. The diagnosis of a person with schizophrenia or mood disorder may change later to that of schizoaffective disorder, or vice versa.

The most effective treatment for schizoaffective disorder is a combination of drug treatment and psychosocial interventions. The medications include antipsychotics along with antidepressants or mood stabilizers. The newer atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, and aripiprazole are safer than the older typical or conventional antipsychotics such as haloperidol and fluphenazine in terms of parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia. The newer drugs may also have better effects on mood symptoms. Nonetheless, these medications do have some side effects, especially at higher doses. The side effects may include excessive sleepiness, weight gain, and sometimes diabetes. Different antipsychotic drugs have somewhat different side effect profiles. Changing from one antipsychotic to another one may help if a person with schizoaffective disorder does not respond well or develops distressing side effects with the first medication. The same principle applies to the use of antidepressants or mood stablilizers ( - please see the section on Mood Disorders for details).

There has been much less research on psychosocial treatments for schizoaffective disorder than there has been in schizophrenia or depression. However, the available evidence suggests that cognitive behavior therapy, brief psychotherapy, and social skills training are likely to have a beneficial effect. Most people with schizoaffective disorder require long-term therapy with a combination of medications and psychosocial interventions in order to avoid relapses, and maintain an appropriate level of functioning and quality of life.

 

[Kozmos]

by the content of the delusions/perceptual disturbances.....a manic depressive (bipolar) can be delusional and experience perceptual disturbances, but the character of these are related to their current mood, that is, a person in a depressive episode may have delusions that they will make everyone around them sick or hear voices telling them they should kill themselves (nihilistc), a manic person may have delusions that they are rich or are some famous person or say that they hear the voice of god telling him he is the new messiah (grandiose)

in the case of a shcizoaffective, there are prominent mood symptoms but the delusions/perceptual disturbances are unrelated to mood...

So it is like schizophrenia with mood swings? Well...there have been reported comorbodities of that for quite a while. When it rains it pours.

@Oldschooler: Well I see the dots and hear stuff as well. But I think they are related to some ocular defect rather than a mental illness. The sounds and other stuff I get when I'm either majorly depressed or euphoric. Also bees. Goddamn bees.

 

[CivCube]

As far as auditory hallucinations go, it's mostly hearing people call my name, and other than that I do not hear "voices".

Do you hear them from other people in the same room?

Thank you for starting this thread. Like others have said, that takes a lot of guts to post about such personal things even with an anonymous handle.

 

[caketastydelish]

=

@Oldschooler: Well I see the dots and hear stuff as well. But I think they are related to some ocular defect rather than a mental illness. The sounds and other stuff I get when I'm either majorly depressed or euphoric. Also bees. Goddamn bees.

I don't know enough to diagnose you or not; I am not a doctor. Usually though, it takes both hallucinations delusional beliefs, not just one or the other. That's what I've heard, anyway. If your only psychotic symptoms whatsoever are just dots and a few other things, I would say you're ok.

Do you hear them from other people in the same room?

Thank you for starting this thread. Like others have said, that takes a lot of guts to post about such personal things even with an anonymous handle.

No, like if I'm shopping with my dad at Wal-mart I'll hear him calling my name even if he's far away in a different part of the store. Or I'll hear someone calling my name from a voice I don't even recognize. That sort of thing.

 

[holy king]

do you suffer from disorganized thoughts and speech?
do suffer from hallucinations? if yes, of what nature are they?
paranoia?
delusions?

 

[caketastydelish]

do you suffer from disorganized thoughts and speech?
do suffer from hallucinations? if yes, of what nature are they?
paranoia?
delusions?

Disorganized thoughts, certainly. And quite a bit. It's the number one problem in my life in fact.

Disorganized speech not so much, or so I would like to think.

my hallucinations are few and far between, and maybe that's because I take meds. It's pretty much limited to black dots. And as for hearing things, every now and then I'll hear someone calling my name or maybe some random sound, but that's about it.

paranoia: No, not really.

delusions: Not anymore, but before I was diagnosed yes. I thought the CIA was controlling my mind and knew my every thought. That's when I was diagnosed.

And I saw had auditory/visual hallucinations that were much more extreme when I was young, about 3ish I would say and maybe it ended when I was 6 or so. I saw other people that would talk to me and I would talk back, as well as a wolf that stood on two feet that would attack me while I was in my bed, trying to go to sleep. At the time my parents did not believe I was hallucinating, but rather "using my imagination".

 

[Narz]

Any particularly notable habits or techniques that have helped you become more organized?

 

[Josu]

Does it have cure?

 

[Hygro]

Hey, I have some questions. Forgive me if they seem out of place or rude! I only mean them in hoping to learn from your experience.

• Have you been able to translate some of the energy into artistic endeavors or is it too disabling?
• Are you comfortable thing with associating yourself with terms like "mental illness"?
• Do you have faith that in time and self-acceptance, you will have conquered your "inferiority complex"? That even if you don't feel good about your self value now, you know one day with work and practice you will?

Thanks!

 

[Zelig]

As to the side effects: More than anything else, is that I fidget a lot. I mean, I have to tap my fingers or toes all the time and things like that.

How do you know that's a side effect of medication?

It is to be noted that there is a difference between delusional beliefs an arrogance. For example, someone without a mental condition could believe "if I practice the guitar really hard I will one day become a rock star". This is an arrogant belief, but not delusional because there is no way to PROVE that he's wrong. It's just improbable. Delusional would be "there are aliens on mars, and I am communicating with them" because everyone knows there is no life on mars.

Does that make sense?

Not really.

If he spent a decade lighting up kilometer-long strings of lights in the desert to form morse code to communicate to the aliens on Mars (which nobody knows about), that means his belief is just arrogant, even though everyone thinks there's no life on Mars, there's no evidence for life on Mars, and he's inadvertently communicating with them.

 

[dirtyparrot]

I believe that people affected with schizoaffective disorder typically have a better prognosis than people suffering from schizophrenia. Can you explain why that is?

 

[caketastydelish]

Any particularly notable habits or techniques that have helped you become more organized?

Cleaning my room. Doing "everyday" task such as doing the dishes, driving (which I'm terrible at) spending plenty of time on my academic studies. These sorts of things I consider to be good for my brain, thus making me more organized.

Does it have cure?

No. However medicine helps relieve the symptoms.

Hey, I have some questions. Forgive me if they seem out of place or rude! I only mean them in hoping to learn from your experience.

• Have you been able to translate some of the energy into artistic endeavors or is it too disabling?
• Are you comfortable thing with associating yourself with terms like "mental illness"?
• Do you have faith that in time and self-acceptance, you will have conquered your "inferiority complex"? That even if you don't feel good about your self value now, you know one day with work and practice you will?

Thanks!

Yes I like to write in my spare time, as well as play a keyboard and synth (see avatar) so in that sense I guess you could call me "artistic". However I do find it to be disabling as well, and I wish I didn't have the illness. I would gladly get rid of the illness if I could. I am not "proud" to have it, and I do find it troublesome.

As to conquering my inferiority complex in time, that depends on how successful I am in life.

How do you know that's a side effect of medication?

Because before I took medication, this was never a problem.


Not really.

If he spent a decade lighting up kilometer-long strings of lights in the desert to form morse code to communicate to the aliens on Mars (which nobody knows about), that means his belief is just arrogant, even though everyone thinks there's no life on Mars, there's no evidence for life on Mars, and he's inadvertently communicating with them.

There is not water on Mars, as well as other things that are prerequisites to life, and therefore, there is no life on mars. If there was, our photographs of mars would have shown them.

I believe that people affected with schizoaffective disorder typically have a better prognosis than people suffering from schizophrenia. Can you explain why that is?

Well it is given scientific knowledge that people with Schizoaffective have a better prognosis. However why that is, I don't know to tell you the truth.

 

[Hygro]

Yes I like to write in my spare time, as well as play a keyboard and synth (see avatar) so in that sense I guess you could call me "artistic". However I do find it to be disabling as well, and I wish I didn't have the illness. I would gladly get rid of the illness if I could. I am not "proud" to have it, and I do find it troublesome.

As to conquering my inferiority complex in time, that depends on how successful I am in life.

Cool on the synth and the writing, too. Thanks! As for the last bit, don't wait for success to feel right about yourself. These words might ring hollow, and striving for success is great, but I have learned in my own life there are many paths to self-acceptance and esteem.

 

[emzie]

There is not water on Mars, as well as other things that are prerequisites to life, and therefore, there is no life on mars. If there was, our photographs of mars would have shown them.

Completely off topic, but there's water on Mars. It's just mostly ice, though there's reason to believe it occasionally may melt.

 

[Zelig]

There is not water on Mars, as well as other things that are prerequisites to life, and therefore, there is no life on mars. If there was, our photographs of mars would have shown them.

You missed the point of my post.

Let's say a person believes A.

Everybody believes A is false, as there is no evidence to support A, but in fact, A is actually true.

Would you call this person delusional or arrogant?

 

[Kyriakos]

Lets say someone in the dawn of history believed the earth revolved around the sun. His view would be correct, only what he meant by it might be utterly out of reason. He would have no scientific facts backing it, and more importantly: he would not have arrived at that idea from reasoning. For all you know he saw a dream of the revolving earth, and for all you know the dream symbolized something utterly different, and not the actual planet and the star.

In that case he would be still delusional, no matter if his view, when pronounced today, would be deemed as true.

 

[caketastydelish]

Lets say someone in the dawn of history believed the earth revolved around the sun. His view would be correct, only what he meant by it might be utterly out of reason. He would have no scientific facts backing it, and more importantly: he would not have arrived at that idea from reasoning. For all you know he saw a dream of the revolving earth, and for all you know the dream symbolized something utterly different, and not the actual planet and the star.

In that case he would be still delusional, no matter if his view, when pronounced today, would be deemed as true.

No that would not be delusional, simply because there is no way to prove (back then) whether the sun revolved around the earth or the other way around. Here's something that I believe: Global warming is real, a lot of people today don't believe in it, and in the future virtually everyone will.

That being said, the people that don't believe in it today are not delusional, but misinformed.

You missed the point of my post.

Let's say a person believes A.

Everybody believes A is false, as there is no evidence to support A, but in fact, A is actually true.

Would you call this person delusional or arrogant?

What you're saying now is different from your analogy, because in your analogy not only is there "no evidence" but there also evidence to the contrary. In the specific case of what you just said (not the analogy) then no, that person would not be delusional.

I also think you're missing my point though. If there truly is life on mars (which there isn't) and someone was actually communicating with the aliens through codes, then of course they're not delusional. But if someone tells me they are communicating with life on mars, I'm going to presume they are delusional unless they can prove their claim. Psychiatrist don't work like lawyers; not "innocent until proven guilty". If psychiatrists couldn't even give help to someone that says "there is life on mars and I am communicating with them" then they might as well not help anyone.

When I was 18 I thought the CIA was reading my thoughts. With the kind of attitude you're suggesting, I wouldn't have got help, considering "there is no way to prove that I'm wrong, even if it's unlikely to be true".

 

[Kyriakos]

My own point was that there is ( or appears to be, in the paradigm) no ability to have that belief be the product of reason. If a child of the beginning of speaking age is asked if the sun has an extremely high temperature or not, and says that it has, it would be correct, but it would not be a belief that was born out of reasoning. The child has little understanding of what the sun is, and even a relative understanding of what "extremely hot" is, thus his thought that the sun is extremely hot is only on the surface synonymous with the thought someone who has learned about the sun could make, ie a learned estimate.
Thus you have to see the thin line here, in that if the child believed the sun was cold, it would be an equally false estimate, since it is no estimate at all; only in name it would be a correct view.

Now imagine a person in early antiquity, who ahs no access to mathematics and astronomy, and is believing he knows the earth revolves around a star; chances are overwelmingly that he is having deluded views, since he means something other, or is basing the view (correct in name) on something false on its part.

If you want to not name that a delusion, i accept it, but it is clearly a different case of being wrong, when in name you are correct