[Atypical_Disaster]

I thought this would be a good little discussion as this question has been a major point of confusion for me.

When your schizoaffective disorder first started developing, what came first for you? Was it mood symptoms or psychotic symptoms or both?

For me personally I'm not sure and that's why I asked because I'm curious about what other people's experiences have been with this. My first episode resulted in a catatonic stupor that lasted the better part of two months ten years ago this summer. What I don't know is where that catatonia came from. Was it a psychotic thing? Or was it because I was possibly severely depressed at the time?

I started thinking about this more seriously when I started finding out that there's such a thing as catatonic depression and of course there's such a thing as psychotic depression in general. So I'm just wondering how it was for others here?

I think for me it may have been psychosis and mood symptoms at the same time.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Blue_Bird]

Good question,

I was first diagnosed with Bipolar Disoder after having manic episodes with psychosis, then I started having paranoid delusions constantly outside of manic episodes and that's when I got diagnosed as Schizoaffective. So I guess it was more mood first.

I'm still convinced it was a single long episode of psychosis and I'm cured now though but my doctor and therapist disagree with me.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Thank you for sharing your experience, I think I was first diagnosed with depression with psychotic features or psychotic disorder NOS I'm not sure. Then they put me on antidepressants and I went into mixed episodes on the first two and then full-blown psychotically manic on the third one. But amazingly, because I was so psychotic at the time they didn't bother to ask me about my moods at all, so I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. They missed the bipolar part for a long time which just shocks me. I kept having mood episodes but it was so long between appointments that nobody caught it or they attributed it all to psychosis. Once you're diagnosed with schizophrenia they don't ask you about your moods. I slipped through the cracks and I think that's part of why it's so hard to accept the bipolar part of my illness now. I can't believe they missed it.

Wow I'm rambling. I'm mixed so my apologies for going off on tangents everywhere! Lol.

[Blue_Bird]

I never new there was such thing as Schizoaffective Disorder until I joined PC, then my pdoc diagnosed me with it on my 20th birthday and gave me a print out about it.

You don't have to apologize, this is the place to talk about things like that. Most people I tell have no clue what it is, I remember when I was in an ambulance with Lithium Toxicity this past summer the EMT asked me what my diagnosis is and then told everyone at the hospital that I was Schizophrenic, I had said specifically Schizoaffective.

[Atypical_Disaster]

I know what you mean, I didn't know what schizoaffective disorder was really until I joined PC either. I wasn't diagnosed with it yet at the time, I showed up here with a schizophrenia diagnosis. I was so confused because I knew my doctor was missing something but I didn't know it was bipolar, I didn't know much about the mood side of mental illness so I didn't have much insight. It's like I knew things were screwed up and that something else was going on besides psychotic symptoms but I didn't know what it was. Everyone in my life though says I'm a very moody person, lol. But I was tragically misinformed about bipolar.

You're so right that people don't have a clue what schizoaffective disorder is. If I tell someone my diagnosis they're like, "so you're schizophrenic" and I'm like... no, not quite... Schizoaffective disorder and Schizophrenia obviously have some similarities but there's big differences too.

[jaynedough]

I'm clueless as to which came first. I don't remember much of my childhood. I do know I was in and out of the hospital with severe asthma. I think that the drugs they put me on really messed with my head. Also, missing so much school didn't help my social skills. I know I had paranoia / trust issues in grade school and I think I probably was depressed then, too. I wasn't diagnosed with sza until I was in my. 20's.

Boy, talk about rambling ��! When I start worrying about how my posts sound, I remember that most people here will understand. I call the people here my tribe.

[medicalfox]

Thinking back I think I first started have mania at age 15 then the delusions and hallucinations came not long after then they kind of progressed as the teenage years went on.

I had mood issues long before any type of psychosis. For many years I just experienced the manic and depressive sides of Bipolar. It wasnt until the last year that psychosis started coming with the mood changes.

[Terabithia]

I had the mood disorder first, starting with major depression, then bipolar when I was 25 with a full blown manic episode with audio hallucinatons, then in my 30's my thoughts became more disorganized I guess and my psychotic episode was one in which I thought I was being poisoned and I was hearing things, too, but the hallucinations were frightening, where as when I had my manic spell it was mostly very good. I actually was diagnosed by a psychologist when I was 17 with schizoid personality disorder, along with the depression. I wonder where personality disorders fit in with it all.

[Shmooey]

I wonder about personality disorders too, and where they fit. I had previously been diagnosed with both psychotic depression and schizotypal personality disorder. So, does that mean I no longer had the PD since my diagnosis has upped to SZA depressive?

For me, the mood and the psychosis came at the same time. But the psychotic stuff was attributed to PTSD from my childhood sexual abuse. I was given Zyprexa back when it first came out but no one talked about the psychosis as being anything but PTSD and DID related.

Now that I'm older and been through a lot more episodes, my diagnosis is crystal clear. My psychosis doesn't go away with controlled depression, so SZA depressive it is. I was devastated when I was first told, but I'm better with it now.

[Goldcrest]

I suffered from depression through most of my teenage years. At some point I began to have some psychosis during that period, but it can't have been too alarming as no one realised at the time. Obviously I knew things were happening, but invented explanations for myself. From late teens I think I started to have hypomanic episodes. Apart from the depression, which I knew was depression(!) the rest I just thought was crazy stuff I did, or crazy ways I acted, or crazy stuff happening to me... for a long time.

So I cycled like that all my life, eventually getting help for psychotic depression (which didn't help), which was re diagnosed as bipolar and eventually schizoaffective. Now I look back and see how the symptoms seem to have been there all along. Though sometimes I wonder does the diagnosis fit me, or am I trying to make my life fit the diagnosis?

Hmm, when I was a child I was diagnosed with depression (at around 9 years old). At around thirteen or fourteen I started to experience the psychosis. Once I was honest about what I was going through the doctor was finally able to diagnose me at twenty-four.

[Shmooey]

I'm amazed by how long it takes to diagnose some of us. I didn't get my diagnosis until this year, and I'm 44. I've been a mental health system veteran since I was 17 though. That's a long time, same as some of you!

[Atypical_Disaster]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! It's great to see this forum getting more activity!

I'm amazed by how long it takes to diagnose some of us.

Yeah, I think Schizoaffective Disorder is a really tricky diagnosis. I've been misdiagnosed soooo many times.

Originally Posted by Shmooey

I'm amazed by how long it takes to diagnose some of us. I didn't get my diagnosis until this year, and I'm 44. I've been a mental health system veteran since I was 17 though. That's a long time, same as some of you!

I think it took so long for me because I wasn't being honest about what I was experiencing. Once I was telling the doctors what was really going on I was easy to diagnose.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Originally Posted by Thehours

I think it took so long for me because I wasn't being honest about what I was experiencing. Once I was telling the doctors what was really going on I was easy to diagnose.

Been there, done that. It's hard to be honest when you're so scared and ashamed of what's going on.

Originally Posted by Atypical_Disaster

Been there, done that. It's hard to be honest when you're so scared and ashamed of what's going on.

Exactly, and for me there was also that bit of confusion. I thought my experiences were divine. But then they got scary and that's when I went through a bit of denial before I got help.

The moods came first for me. I was diagnosed bipolar for 9 years and only in the last 6 months have I started having issues with psychosis and strange thinking. it started where the psychosis was just in mania, but now it seems the mildest stressors seem to set it off...

[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, 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.

[spincera]

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.

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!!

[Victoria'smom]

I'm not sure Sza is in my records yet but T is sure. I started hearing a voice when I was 8. I have just learned that voice is an auditory halusination. I don't know how old I was when the bugs crawling on my skin started. By 13 I was having full visual halusinations. At 14 I was delusional. The voice didn't go "away" until I had my son. Showing back up when stressed. ....

[falcon09]

Psychotic symptoms first, and then I went through a major depressive episode and my doc changed my diagnosis to Schizoaffective. From what he's told me, it's basically because I fit the diagnosis for both schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.

[SillyKitty]

I was first diagnosed bipolar. I had psychosis outside episodes, but my first pdoc (along with telling me I was smelling/hearing/ etc ghosts) and then PA then inpatient pdoc kept telling me I was depressed. Excuse me, but I know when I'm depressed. Luckily, I have a pdoc who listens now.

This is tough for me. I've been dx with schizophrenia since 2012 with depression being a comorbidity. Then I started having anxiety and panic attacks so he put me on an SSRI to hit 3 birds with one stone. I had a bad reaction to the ssri and it sent me spiraling into bipolar2 symptoms. This was just a few weeks ago. I thought that it was just a reaction from the meds right? Well, my doc put me on Lamictal which takes 2 months to get to 200mg so he means to put me on it for the long haul. I asked him, with a sad look, so do I have a dual dx now? He told me that he still would dx with schizophrenia... but, after doing research, sza just makes more sense.

[strugglinggirl]

I was depressed a long time before I had any psychotic symptoms. I was in hospital dieing high school for depression but didn't start hearing voices until I was 20.
I was originally diagnosed with schizophrenia but changed doctors and the new one said it was definitely sza. I now take solian, pristiq, risperidone and get a invega injection every month.