My schizoaffective disorder

Hi I have just joined today, not sure how this forum works, but decided to join . I will start by saying I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in2010, recently had a relapse and went into hospital. I am not too bd now on medication, I would like to her from other people’s experience of this disorder, also psychosis. I find it difficult to make friends and mix with people on the outside world so it would be great for me to communicate with people I can chat to on line about my experiences of this disorder.

Hi welcome to PsychCentral! I don't have schizoaffective disorder but I do have depression with psychotic features. You might want to check out the schizophrenia page as that page seems more active than this one. Come hang out on the roll call with us. HUGS Kit

I have schizoaffective disorder too. Hello and welcome to the site!

I have schizoaffective disorder, biploar with psychosis depends on doctor. Meds stop the voices and aside from restlessness I live a normal life. I go to therapy, group therapy, work part time, live independently, things are going well. I have a supportive family and team in place. I date normal people. Because i seem normal and I'm beautiful. Life is good. Psychiatrist says I'm doing great!

It can be hard to deal with psychosis. My episodes were usually mania with acute paranoia and psychotic episodes that were pretty intense.

When I first had psychotic breaks it was paralyzingly terrifying. I was so relieved to have been diagnosed so I knew I could fight it.

I had quite a few relapses and hospitalizations. In fact, we had to cancel our wedding and ended up just going to the courthouse with our parents to get married because I was in the hospital on our wedding day.

Mixing with people was hard, luckily for me, I had moved back home to get medical treatment so I had some buddies from high school still around. Unfortunately, I lost touch with them one by one.

I finally met my wife on a dating site (waaay before tinder and all the crap they have these days - I can't imagine dating in this age) so I kind of adopted friends that way. I still do not have any friends of my own, but my in-laws are great and we are pretty close, so that helps.

I also joined to get some discussions with like minded people dealing with the same stuff as me. I am much better when I can take my time and formulate a well thought out discussion as opposed to having discussions in person.

Hi, @Toffee, I'm sorry I'm so late in
discovering this thread. I assume I am schizoaffective, not officially diagnosed. I have voices all the time & depression some of the time. I am being helped by others here at PC. I wish the best for you & hope you find relief here.

i have bp 1 with tons of psychosis probably easily could be changed to schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, as I am not sure what the difference really is.

You are not alone!!!!

I have schizoaffective-bipolar type. You can shoot me a private message any time you want to discuss the disorder or just chit chat.

I have schizoaffective/depressive type. I take a antipsychotic and two antidepressants, seem to make me functional enough But I have a flat affect (no expression on my face) and get those bugged out eyes that a lot of people associate with the insane. I really hate the bugged out eye look and lack of expression, I can't control it, my ID looks scary. Al though I may be seemingly normal on medications I guess my facial expression and lack of it, keep me from making friends. I ruminate a lot about anything if I miss a dose of medications, where I have "crazy laughs" out loud without realizing it cause I'm so lost in my head, I heard my downstairs neighbor mocking my "crazy laugh" once, my house gets messy and it's hard for me to get out of my head, sometimes even on medications, especially if I drink too much coffee, but I drink a lot to counteract the extreme apathy and lack of motivation I have. I don't experience voices/hallucinations at first going off medications, it has to be completely out of my system before I experience psychosis. Last time I went several weeks off my medications and would feel someone kicking me even though I lived alone, and fake mocking fart sounds coming from my butt even though I wasn't actually farting. Before I started antipsychotics, I would have mostly visual hallucinations some voice but mostly seeing things, or hearing footsteps and door slamming, mocking like things mostly or really dark images, or people following me from dreams, not sure if they were real people or not, but they looked real. I get major depression off medications. So the key thing is to stay on medications. I would feel fine and try to go off numerous times and it never worked out well for me.

I hope to hear again from the original poster. May you be well!

I hope to be back on this forum regularly, and I will see how much activity it sees. I have sza, bipolar type; two compulsive habits; and am kicking caffeine (down below 100mg per day now and hoping to quit).

Peace,
Jeff

Hi Toffee,


Welcome to the forums. I am normally active in the chats here but I have been having a particularly difficult time lately and can not manage chat right now. I agree with you that sometimes social interaction can be really difficult and it's nice to have the forums and chat for that. Also, it is true that the schizophrenia forum seems to be a little bit more active than this one so sometimes that is a good place to go. My first mental health hospitalization was about 11 years go and I am still struggling today -- I have recently applied for disability and that has been really difficult for me. Hope you find what you need here.