Diagnosis

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My bf said he thought I might have been misdiagnosed. I've been in remission for awhile, just switched to some better doctors who are saying I am doing incredibly well, but sometimes it seems too good to be true. I look at things from the perspective of a humanist and sometimes I have thought the labels in and of themselves are dangerous and detrimental.

Last edited by Kalinda on 16 Feb 2012, 3:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I just took the Aspergers/Autism spectrum test. I got a 36....which means very high functioning Aspergers. Like my bf thinks I have.

I have schizophrenia and a college degree as well. The difference is I started walking and talking a little later than average. In the past I considered that I may have Asperger Syndrome as well but all of my psychiatrists said that was highly unlikely so I just took there word for it. To answer your question I don't think either schizophrenia or Asperger Syndrome have anything to do with intelligence. There are always going to be higher and lower functioning individuals with each.

In my experience they label you schizoaffective because they haven't made a decision. Psychiatry is poorly executed hobby exercised by Narcissistic Morons who can't afford to be wrong - if you ask me. Negotiating with these clowns you have to learn.
If you find the right medication and the right dose – just agree with everyone and then suggest it. Read up – learn the language, they can’t get anything over you then. Trusting these people with your life is stupid because they only think you are well, when you are so drugged up you can’t think. Anyhow enough of my cynical outlook – hope U don’t get as bitter.
Apparently Autism and Schizophenia look the same in children - don't know how relevant that is to you.
Speaking about myself, I never got as far as College - my head was never stable enough. Had the intelligence I think, just could never get it together long enough.
Anyhow hope you get it together.

I'm so called SA, but I don't have high dopamine, I'd be happy if I did. Also, that's why anti psychotics caused me to either fall asleep immediately, become depressed, or lose concentration, and I didn't even need to 'get used to' them for them to have such an affect on me.

And also, I have doubts from personal experience about what doctors really feel on levels of intelligence not being linked to schizophrenia. I don't see a HUGE difference between treating a patient like they lack insight, and refusing to give them psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, or CBT, and treating those patients as unintelligent.

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Last edited by Kalinda on 16 Feb 2012, 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What do you worry about?

A medical student writing in 1987 said that English doctors tend to diagnose bipolar and that American doctors tend to diagnose schizophrenia. He also quoted an American doctor to the effect, Everyone deserves a lithium trial. Meaning the potential side effects to lithium are easier to see coming on than are the potential side effects to medications used for schizophrenia.
(will attach link to excerpts)
schizophrenia or bipolar? (Melvin Konner, 1987)
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt177714.html

(Of course, this is eons ago for medical practice.)

And sometimes it's important to come down from psychiatric medication in stages, even if it doesn't seem to be working or has negative side effects.

In my opinion, the main symptoms of Aspergers-Autism Spectrum are:

1) intense intellectual interests
2) social awkwardness. Or liking people just fine, but needing a lot of alone time to emotionally process.
3) stimming. For example, sometimes when I need to unwind, I will squeeze, twist, and shake a soft T-shirt as I imagine sports scenes and movie scenes. I also sometimes rapidly rub my fingers in my hair.
4) sensory issues, such as being bothered by sounds, flickering lights, smells, textures, considerably more so than 'normal' people (no such thing as normal anyway! ). For example, the intermittent chirp of a smoke detector with a low battery just bothers the hell out of me and I don't understand why it doesn't bother other people, at least not near as much. In the library, a computer screen next to me doing some stupid automatic movement bothers me. I am also bothered if my shoe laces are tied too tight.

The following is a reprint of DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) for Asperger's. There is also a proposed DSM V in the works which rolls Asperper's into Autism Spectrum.
http://www.autreat.com/dsm4-aspergers.html

And here's an advocate's creative spoof re-write of DSM IV, which I think is better than the original!
http://www.journeyswithautism.com/2009/ ... or-autism/

The bad ones, yes. It's the "be righter" effect. The psychiatrist "being right" is more important than the patient's life going well. Wow. Incredible, but true. Once his or her highness the professional has made the diagnosis, it is like Moses coming down from the mountain with the stone tablets.

Fortunately, some are better. And to people who have a mental health professional they can talk with and who is a reasonable individual, more power to you. I myself had have generally back luck with so-called mental health professionals (cough, cough). One of my better experiences was with a speech therapist who just informally acted as a counselor.

And everyone has a right as a patient, and as a human being, to a second opinion or even a third opinion. Different health care systems do a better or worse job of respecting this right. Sometimes, getting access to good health care is like a long hike through the swamp!

I feel like the label is a death sentence, and I don't know if the illness is genetic or not but I was advised in one day by two people about having children. Maybe my child would be a genius anyways. If she/he had the memory and cognition I have, I don't doubt it. But she also said because of the med I'm on, that I'd have to go off it to have kids, because it would be toxic to the fetus and cause retardation.

So I'm really thinking this over. If I want to have kids, I have to go off of the anti-psychotics and quit smoking/ aka be healthy again.

This puts me in an even worse predicament than I could fathom as a child. Now I'm dependent on a toxic pill.

Please don't view a label as a death sentence. And don't believe it like Moses coming down from the mountain with tablets either.

To my way of thinking, it's just a tool, just something that's potentially helpful. Might explain some past experience and might give a higher-percentage tool to address some future cycles.

And some drugs really are harmful for developing fetuses. That part might be quite true. Of course there might be safer drugs that could be an alternative. Maybe get a third opinion, or perhaps wait six months and check again to see if there's a new drug.

You make good points.

Last edited by Kalinda on 24 Feb 2012, 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Last edited by Kalinda on 24 Feb 2012, 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've always been told that "high dopamine" is what causes schizophrenia, and was shocked when my bf said he thought "low dopamine" caused it. Dopamine is a fundamental neurotransmitter that dictates the way the nano sized neurons communicate between each other in the brain. I also know that having more dopamine, in my mind, would theoretically make you smarter!

So I still think I was coerced into this thinking aka brainwashed into insanity. But I have to control myself when I get mad about it I was hospitalized for breaking a cup once out of anger; and my mom and dad told them I had been "breaking all of their dishes."

I think this counts as child abuse.