Quote:
Originally Posted by Mercury Man
I think my journey began with a mood disorder that was related with severe alcohol addiction. I used to act out quite a bit and got hospitalized in a crisis center where I was erroneously diagnosed with bi polar disorder. I was put on Seroquel which helped me greatly with my mood disorders and it even kept any more alcohol craving at bay. Afterwards while my Seroquel treatment progressed I began hearing voices so I was back in a psychiatric ward where I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder> I was put on medications such as Invega and Geodon and these were pretty good kept the voices in check but were causing bad sexual dysfunction (and some other disorders especially with the Geodon) so one day I decided to go back to Seroquel and boom! voices came back with some of the old delusional and psychotic factors as well, I was then put on Zyprexa but the voices wouldn't go away and my delusional, psychotic and hallucination symptoms grew worse as I was becoming paranoid and got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Then I was introduced to this wonder drug called Clozapine which is used as an alternative to treat treatment resistant schizophrenia and it worked very well. This has been my journey in a nutshell, it began as a mood issue but began progressing toward more complicated things such as delusions and hallucinations. I've been "bi polar" schizoaffective, schizophrenic psychotic, paranoid schizophrenic. I am a great success story though with a great recovery and highly functional thanks to Clozapine. I am 37 now and my sickness began around the age of 32.
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That is an incredible journey Mercury Man. You have been through a lot in 5 years. I, personally, was diagnosed in my late 20s with major depression. Then in my early 30s with borderline personality disorder. Later when I was 36, I was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder, ptsd, and anxiety. Then in Jan 2014 when I was 41, I was dx with OCD along with the other dxs. Finally, last September my hallucinations started and gradually got worse and so did my delusions. I had had hallucinations when I was both 6 years and 14 years old, but they only occured once each. I didn't realize what they really were until recently. (I'm not sure why). I have also had paranoid delusions for a long long time as well. The therapists just kept telling me that I was "catastrophizing." My paranoia, voices, dark shadows, large red spidery things, people, and other disturbing things reached a head not too long ago. I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. It all makes sense to me now. I'm on a new medication, and I think it is starting to work for me. I'm starting to feel less terrified and am beginning to relax. Yay!!
