I'm so confused. I don't even believe in the labels/classification system, but honestly I built a big part of my identity on being a successful unmedicated schizophrenic and that is the last official diagnosis I had before I left the system. Now I'm going through the DSM trying to work out what the hell I had, and if I did indeed ever have sz, and if maybe my clinical negligence case is actually unfounded because maybe I did have something approaching it and
how can so many doctors in so many countries be so ****ing wrong??
This is the DSM criteria for schizophrenia:
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Two (or more) of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period (or less if successfully treated):
Delusions - false beliefs strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness: for example,
Paranoid delusions, or delusions of persecution, for example believing that people are "out to get" you, or the thought that people are doing things when there is no external evidence that such things are taking place.
Delusions of reference - when things in the environment seem to be directly related to you even though they are not. For example it may seem as if people are talking about you or special personal messages are being communicated to you through the TV, radio, or other media.
Somatic Delusions are false beliefs about your body - for example that a terrible physical illness exists or that something foreign is inside or passing through your body.
Delusions of grandeur - for example when you believe that you are very special or have special powers or abilities. An example of a grandiouse delusion is thinking you are a famous rock star.
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I don't know. My immediate thought about a lot of things is that they are somehow connected to me. Part of this is my spiritual belief that everything is interconnected. Part of it is downright paranoia, which may be part of trauma or may be nuttery. I don't know. The Olympics security has been freaking me the **** out for the past few weeks and I have to constantly remind myself that they're not coming after me or watching me. I used to believe that the university I attended was "out to get me" because they were so ****ing discriminatory, but maybe it was just institutional blindness rather than them coming after me?? I used to think I was very intelligent, but then I only got an upper second class degree and nearly didn't pass the Bar. Was that a delusion? The doctors always treated it as such.
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Hallucinations - Hallucinations can take a number of different forms - they can be:
Visual (seeing things that are not there or that other people cannot see),
Auditory (hearing voices that other people can't hear,
Tactile (feeling things that other people don't feel or something touching your skin that isn't there.)
Olfactory (smelling things that other people cannot smell, or not smelling the same thing that other people do smell)
Gustatory experiences (tasting things that isn't there)
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Yeah, I totally have all of this. I see visual stuff all the time, which I call synesthesia (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia) but the doctors always called hallucinations. I hear voices, they're my own Greek chorus and they're often friendly, sometimes annoying, sometimes mean -- just like real people. I can feel my rapists touching me very often, but I think that is from trauma. I also smell and hear more real things than normal people, usually when I point the stuff out other people acknowledge it's a real smell/sound.
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Disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence) - these are also called "word salads". Ongoing disjointed or rambling monologues - in which a person seems to talking to himself/herself or imagined people or voices.
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No. Except when I'm tired and can't maintain my English. I do talk to myself though, except I think a lot of people do that.
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Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior (An abnormal condition variously characterized by stupor/innactivity, mania, and either rigidity or extreme flexibility of the limbs).
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I stopped talking both after I was raped (each time) and after the ECT I was made to have. I also continue to stop talking on occasion. I am also extremely flexible/a human pretzel. I can put my legs behind my head and do all kinds of crazy yoga **** without trying. Sometimes I squish myself into tiny places the less flexible amongst us could not fit into, such as the shelf below my closet. Why is that a symptom of sz? I don't understand the flexibility thing.
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"Negative" symptoms of Schizophrenia , these symptoms are the lack of important abilities. Some of these include:
Alogia, or poverty of speech, is the lessening of speech fluency and productivity, thought to reflect slowing or blocked thoughts, and often manifested as short, empty replies to questions.
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Nobody has ever judged my fluency in my native language, only in my second language. When I first moved to the UK, I had never before lived in an environment where English was my primary language to function. So I'm not sure. I don't think ESL stuff should count, but do they count it?? I also take a long time to think before I talk, but I think that's from the legal training and not from a disease. We legal beagles are coached to be reflective and speak minimalistically.
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Affective flattening is the reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact (person seems to stare, doesn't maintain eye contact in a normal process), and is not able to interpret body language nor use appropriate body language.
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Yes, definitely. I find it very difficult to make eye contact and I don't show a nice range of emotions. Like Homer Simpsons says, I have two emotions: angry and hungry. I use Greek body language, so I'm told, I guess because Greek people use a hell of a lot of body language and when I was living there I picked it up and really enjoyed it. The expressiveness freaks out the British people, though.
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Avolition is the reduction, difficulty, or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior; it is often mistaken for apparent disinterest. (examples of avolition include: no longer interested in going out and meeting with friends, no longer interested in activities that the person used to show enthusiasm for, no longer interested in much of anything, sitting in the house for many hours a day doing nothing.)
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I'm not sure. I am a young person, isn't this the phase of our lives where we all do this anyway? Our friends change, our interests change, etc. This certainly happened to me.
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Note: Only one Criterion A symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person’s behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other.
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****ing hell, I have FOUR voices that converse with each other and with me. Aren't voices for conversing?
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Cognitive Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Cognitive symptoms refer to the difficulties with concentration and memory. These can include:
disorganized thinking
slow thinking
difficulty understanding
poor concentration
poor memory
difficulty expressing thoughts
difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior
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No. None of these. I don't think I could have got where I am if I suffered from these. Except maybe I have poor concentration/am very scatty.
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Social/occupational dysfunction: For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset (or when the onset is in childhood or adolescence, failure to achieve expected level of interpersonal, academic, or occupational achievement).
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Hrm. I was always accused of this. It's certainly try that around the time I was diagnosed at age 18-ish, I stopped doing so well in school as I had always done and I have never got back there. But I was accepted to Oxford at 16, so I was at one point achieving academically at the very highest level that only a tiny portion of the population ever does. Do the psychs hold me to this very high standard for life? I've never figured out if the function decline is a result of some illness, or the "treatment" I was made to take, or the trauma I suffered. But I never really had many friends and have only just started my career, so I don't know how to judge those.
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Duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least 6 months. This 6-month period must include at least 1 month of symptoms (or less if successfully treated) that meet Criterion A (i.e., active-phase symptoms) and may include periods of prodromal or residual symptoms. During these prodromal or residual periods, the signs of the disturbance may be manifested by only negative symptoms or two or more symptoms listed in Criterion A present in an attenuated form (e.g., odd beliefs, unusual perceptual experiences).
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I have had many of the "symptoms" my entire life. The voices and visual/sensory hallucinations are present at all times.