Don't know what I should be...

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There is a possibility that I'm schizophrenia. But according to DSM-IV, you can't be autistic and schizophrenic. So, here's my dilemma; should I keep the tag that I've hated all my life, or break free, but be thought of as insane? Either way it'll be hard to find jobs, and I'd have something tp work hard to hide. For one side, I can simply take medications for, and on the other side I can't do anything. So should I be rediagnosed to be schizophrenic, or sick with being autistic?

Or should I take the short way out and suicide...

Keep in mind that either way, it is just a label, and it does not change your condition as it is.

What are your schizophrenic symptoms and autistic traits? I don't think anyone can help much until you give us more information.

Suicide is ugly.

I don't think I've ever had any autistic symptoms, but I was a little bit crazy when I was 4, and somehow matched the symptoms. I apparently have delusions, and traits of dissociative disorders, and they kind of warped my personality. Except I'm not really sure whether to be schizophrenic or autistic, and whether people would change their opinions or not.

Being autistic or schizophrenic is not a choice. In the case of autism, you are born with it. In the case of schizophrenia, it rarely affects those under 18. If you are born with genes that predispose you to schizophrenia, the severity of the disorder depends on what kind of environment you grow up in. If you grow up in a very loving family, you may not develop symptoms at all.

Since you've stated you do not have autistic traits, then you're probably not autistic. But that does not mean you are automatically schizophrenic. That's up to a mental health care provider to determine.

Why do other people's opinions matter to you?

I have read some of those dx'd with autistic spectrum disorders being dx'd with schizophrenia (or a related condition) later on; this seems to be accepted provided the ASD is identified prior to the latter onset.


M.