Mass misdiagnosis of schizophrenia?

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Sorry for the click bait title, but I want to ask you your opinion on my story. I used to have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and now I am off medication and have been free of positive and negative symptoms for over 6 years. My question is how many people have psychosis and can't overcome their problems due to not having social intelligence to overcome their symptoms? The dsm seems pretty incredulous to me with how it distinguishes the difference between psychosis and schizophrenia...... If schizophrenia is lifelong psychosis (assuming they are not two different diseases which I doubt), what makes it lifelong? Is it a different disease or do people have comorbid problems that stop them from overcoming psychosis? How many people have psychosis and autism and have a diagnosis of schizophrenia and could they be helped with understanding their illness properly to overcome their symptoms?

No opinions on that point of view? Right, wrong, not quite sure what you are talking about? I have been trying to think a way of finding out the ratio of psychosis diagnosis to schizophrenia diagnosis of people with autism and compare it to the statistics of people without it. I think it could be hugely constructive to people on the spectrum.

I have PTSD which has resulted in me having hallucinations and severe paranoid/delusional behaviour in the past, I could have easily have been misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia as I'm sure many people are, but when I was able to reduce stress, live healthier and distance myself from the damaging people in my life my symptoms disappeared without the need for medication.

I think allot of mental health issues are easily confused with each other and I think people with autism are more vulnerable to mental health conditions in general, I know someone with schizophrenia and on life-long medication and his symptoms start to show if he forgets to take his medication regardless of his stress levels, I've heard stories of people being cured of schizophrenia through various therapies but I wouldn't be surprised if most people "cured" were misdiagnosed in the first place.

I also believe most mental health issues are very variable in themselves, I was diagnosed with clinical depression as a teenager and put on various anti-depressants which had no effect on my depression at all, when I changed doctors my new doctor talked to me about my life situation. He suggested that I was possibly just depressed about my life situation, as opposed to being clinically depressed which is considered more of a chemical imbalance which requires medication, this turned out to be the case as once my life situation improved my depression cleared overnight without the need for medication or therapy.

I'm not sure there are any clear cut answers to autism, learning disabilities, mental health issues, or just being human in general, everyone's flawed, most of the NT people I've socialised with seemed pretty crazy to me, and people I've known with severe mental illnesses have been some of the most sane people to talk to, but then maybe I just have a crazy persons perspective.

The dsm is way off the mark. People think I am being crazy but I believe there is only psychosis and comorbid psychosis where something stops you from recovering. Schizophrenia mainly gives an addition of executive functioning issues, but they are pretty much a miss mash of ones from different diagnosis. If I were to recreate the dsm I would have labels of psychosis and comorbid psychosis due to illnesses like personality disorders, bipolar (schizoaffective), autism, panic disorder etc.

Is this your subjective opinion, or are you asserting it as an objective fact?

You made the mistake of assuming i was delusional Fnord. How would I know it as fact?

Please answer my question.

^ok, no, I don't think its fact, it is just outdated and unplausable.

DSM-IV perhaps, but perhaps not DSM-V.  DSM-VI is likely to be an improvement.  We will have to wait and see.

Hopefully. I have heard talk about a diagnosis of psychosis spectrum disorder. It kind of goes with what I am saying and hopefully they will have accurate descriptions of the symptoms which could lead to better treatment.

Fnord, can I ask what your skepticism are about the two diagnosis' not being different illnesses?

To give you an opinion on these matters, in hope of helping. Just for the record, I have never suffered from schizophrenia, although I think there were times where my long term doctor thought i was (I will explain later why).

May I also mention, that i do not think anything less of people with this terrible disease.
I have some friends who have suffered from this difficult to manage disease, some who I believe
are really nice, kind and intelligent people.

I also do not think that having such a label as schizophrenia gives people a licence to do what ever they want,
as i have met a few people with this disorder who have played upon it in order to exploit others, but also
to get away with really bad things.

But alas. Please let me explain a few things.

I believe that all the DSM definitions will always be a work in progress, so may fall short in some areas.
This is greatly due to the complex nature of the human brain and the vast variety present among our 7 billion inhabitants on this planet. Categorising, defining and detailing every aspect of the human behaviour within one small book is an epic feat to say the least. In addition, there may be other factors present that also cause extra variation that may not have been considered.

So. The present DSM definition may fall short in some areas. These definitions will most definitely change over time, as the human races understanding of the various ailments gets better. We are lucky that the human race cares to do such pain taking and complex endeavours, which in some cases, are thankless tasks.

So a bit thumbs up to all those who genuinely work in the various areas of health to protect and nourish life.
Without these such people, the human race wouldn't be as great as it is.

Now, secondly, may I say, from what I have read about schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, is that
lower level general health doctors have over the past 40 year or so misdiagnosed people with ASD / Autism / Asperger Syndrome because we (people with ASD etc) have a tendency to communicate in an odd manner, i.e. going off on tangents, speaking tangentially.

Combine this with sensory abnormalities that trigger tantrum like fits, as well as high levels of anxiety.
From the outside, from a less informed doctor, may think that their patients are suffering from psychotic fits, and going on about sounds (that many can't hear due to less accurate hearing), so the good doctor then thinks that their ASD patient is suffering from Auditory hallucinations that make them go nuts, perhaps even violent? (psychosis anyone)...

So yep. for the less informed, you may see how easy it may be for someone to get misdiagnosed.

People with ASD do not automatically have schizophrenia, and in fact, i have not many people with ASD who do have schizophrenia. Although, like any other mental illness, people with ASD may also have schizophrenia as well as ASD.

At one point, after being bullied by my sociopath ex-wife, who was gas lighting me at the time, i did read up on schizophrenia and what symptoms were required (and how long) for a person to officially get a diagnosis of this mental health disorder.

And I was surprised to find out that a person needed to suffer from the symptoms of schizophrenia for at least 6 months, before being given a definite diagnosis. Although, i note that a great deal of doctors including experienced psychiatrists do not follow these guidelines strictly, and if you go to a psychiatrist and their not very good and in a bad mood, you may be in danger of getting a misdiagnosis.

Back to the criteria. I believe that people can even have a momentary lapse in reason and suffer from a temporal psychotic turn, which lasts for a short time (say a day or two) and then they go back to normal.

In such cases, the doctors should monitor them and treat them accordingly.
But again, this doesn't always happen. Not all doctors are good, not all have the time, not all give a s**t.

May I also add, as anxiety disorders are almost always present with people with ASD, and because our neurological networks are different to normal (which is different to mental health disorders which are caused by chemical imbalance that can be remedied or managed with medication),

we have to be more careful with regards to what meds we take, as some meds will aggravate the symptoms of ASD, which in turn may cause psychosis.

I myself, went through over 10 years of being prescribed medication for anxiety (SSNRIs) that actually made my anxiety worse, and made me hyper vigilant to the extent that I was on the verge of becoming psychotic on a daily basis.

I suffered at the hands of doctors and even one or two psychiatrists who simply didn't know what they were talking about when it came to ASD and the effects that many commonly used SSNRI's have on a person with ASD.

Luckily for me, I am intelligent enough to research the subject myself and attain at least a basic understanding of psychiatry (I do not have formal qualifications however and do not profess to have).

However, i believe that my own research combined with a decent genuine psychiatrist who was willing to actually listen to their patient's analysis and suggestions, actually saved my life.

I believe if i continued to be mistreated at the hands of the other psychiatrists for the past year, i would now be dead.
But instead, i have made leaps and bounds on my recovery.

My point is, if you are able, try and read up as much as you can on the subject of schizophrenia and ASD.
Analyse your own circumstances, symptoms etc, and then try and work out a theory that explains your symptoms.

If you read up and gain a better understanding of both conditions, you may very well be able to work out where your issues are and how to overcome them.

Hope that helps.
Thanks

I have a dx of ASD(Asperger's) & schizophrenia . It was ASD + schizoaffective, but that was changed on account of the autism and supposed history of 'mild depression'( MAO-I , ECT when you've only had 'mild depression?!) .

I'm supposedly in remission with some minor breakthrough psychosis . Stress is a trigger for me.

Hi @firemonkey, it is admiralbarkley. I know @goldenrex was telling you "I harrased her so many times in pm" but it was twice and it was me responding to her trying to take stabs at me on the forum. I told her multiple times that I didn't like her and not to ever talk to me but she wouldn't listen. Anyway, I hated the forum and got tired of the blanking and disparity.

Stress is a major trigger for everyone with psychosis. A better understanding of your symptoms can help hugely with your outcome. I am off meds now and am doing great. Say hi to @butterflyy for me, you don't know how much I miss her.

^ I hope you're finding this forum helpful and supportive.

Yeah, that psychiatrists bible might be a misdiagnosis. It might be extra dimensional entities aka demons, like christian bible says. Hey, you can never rule it out right? Always get a second opinion.