psychotic depression really be just a label for misdx aspie?

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aspie's share a lot of traits with schizophrenics and since schizophrenia is a form of psychosis and so is psychotic depression it would make sense that an asp dx could be overlooked for a psychotic one. what do you think? edit: the thread title of course isn't 100 percent universal

That brings an interesting point, because I told my shrink that I had autism, back in 98. A year later, my other shrink said, Asperger's Syndorme. So here I was, this "autistic" person with psychotic depression, when I was and aspie, all along.

And I'm an aspie who sometimes suffers from depression. I am NOT however psychotic.

Vanilla_Slice

I think the not being psychotic part separates aspies from schizophrenics right?

It's possible to have psychotic symptoms without it being schizophrenia. I've been diagnosed "bipolar I with psychotic features" because when I'm deep in an episode I sometimes have psychotic symptoms. I believe I might also have AS though, because I do not fit the criteria for schizophrenia (psychosis only happens during a bipolar episode, I don't really have the "negative" symptoms of schizophrenia, nor does it last long enough, it usually goes away within a week or two.)

It's possible that an AS diagnosis could be overlooked as social awkwardness and psychosis occur together a lot of the time with the former being the result of the latter. However If someone is hallucinating or has delusions then I'd say it's a clear indicator of psychosis rather than AS.
People don't have to have schizophrenia to experience psychosis. I have experienced it in severe depressive episodes and I've also been diagnosed with AS, so you can have both.

I was suffering from a psychotic depression years ago & I was diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder instead of AS(I belive have AS thou) & I was told then I had all the symptoms of Schizotypal as well. When I went to my General Practitioner cuz of problems he thought I was suffering from bipolar depression or depression with minor schizophrenia. Anyways some psychotic & schizophrenic symptoms can be confused with AS sometimes. Some Aspies(like me) can mistake noises for voices if wer not paying much attention. If it's not explained well to a doc or the doc is not very knowledgeable about AS; they could assume the person is having auditory hallucinations. When I was suffering from psychic depression I had a lot of emotional problems like crying spells, panic attacks, felt unreal sometimes kind of almost like I was outside myself even in situations that I was normally comfortable in; I felt like I was dreaming when I was awake. I was very overly suspicious of things, I was angry for seemingly no rezone. Things that would normally make me happy like music, TV shows ect seemed completely confusing to me. I can think of a lot more but I think(hope) you can kind of understand the difference between psychotic & AS now

That makes no logical sense. The traits we share with schizophrenics are what are known as their "negative symptoms." Their psychosis, however, would go under the category of "positive symptoms."

Depression is probably a bit more common here than in the general population, but it's by no means a universal trait of ours. Nor are most depressed people Aspies.

In the end, the theory doesn't have a leg to stand on.

when i used to drink alot i'd have alcohol induced psychosis the next day. needless to say, i dont miss that bad company at all

It is possible to have both but they are not the same thing. I have both autism and schizoaffective disorder. I recently had a psychotic episode according to my psychiatrist. It lasted about a month. When I have the psychosis it mainly revolves around delusions. Hallucinations are not nearly as bad. The similarities between autism and schizophrenia are the negative symptoms. If you have the positive symptoms as well and had autism since childhood then you have both autism and schizophrenia. I mainly get the depressive episodes rather than the mania. There are occasional manic episodes though. Not the super dangerous ones where I overspend all the money in the world or do risk taking behavior. I sit there and truly believe that I will change the world for the positive, own several businesses, and make hundreds of millions of dollars. To be honest I really enjoyed those delusions. They had a positive impact on me, it caused me to get into public speaking (before the manic episode 2 years ago I feared public speaking) and it made me draw constantly producing sometimes a few detailed pictures a day. I miss thinking that I will make all kinds of money!! !!

IIRC, that's a contradiction in terms because according to the DSM, you cannot meet the criteria for one if you meet the criteria for the other. (Fun little catch-22, that. "You fit both sets of criteria, so guess what? You don't fit either set! Which means you fit both sets...")