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Originally Posted by cashart10
I have become, in the past, extremely psychotic but only for a short time (although my bizarre delusions can last for months). Is that enveloped in my bp diagnosis?
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The answer depends on whether you continued to have mood symptoms during those months when the bizarre delusions persisted. If yes, then Bipolar does cover all your symptoms. But if your mood was stable and the delusions continued anyway, then you're starting to fall outside the established BP symptoms.
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Are other types of psychosis diagnosed only if you have symptoms outside of a mood disorder (I have read something of the sorts)? I have always been curious about this.
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They're only diagnosed if you have psychotic symptoms outside of a mood episode, meaning when you aren't depressed, mixed, or manic.
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Why are some people who are psychotic during episodes diagnosed as BPI, some as BP with psychotic features, some as scizoeffective, and some as scizotypical.
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Well, Bipolar Disorder with psychotic features is still Bipolar Disorder (type 1 or 2). The "with psychotic features" thing is just an additional coding number doctors add to denote that feature. It's not a different diagnosis. Schizoaffective is a different diagnosis, given when psychotic features persist outside of mood episodes. Schizotypal is a personality disorder marked by persistent bizarre beliefs and behaviors but without the positive psychotic symptoms (ie hallucinations) that mark the actual psychotic disorders (hence it being classed as a personality disorder). I know you can't (or at least certainly shouldn't) be diagnosed as both Schizoaffective and Bipolar, because each diagnosis requires that the other be excluded. However, I don't know of any reason a person couldn't have both Schizotypal Personality Disorder and Bipolar.
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I've even wondered if my psychosis is actually psychosis and not actual occurrences and if my delusions are actually legitimate beliefs. Is it normal to wonder that long after psychosis has occurred?
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This is completely normal. I've wondered the same thing many times and so has everyone else I know who has experienced psychosis.