Thank you for sharing your story! It helps those that have this illness and provides insight and comfort to family members that see their loved ones suffering and feel helpless for what to say-what to do-definitely most needed!
Thanks for clarifying these two conditions. For many people, symptoms are confusing and don't necessarily follow a continuum. Your description of your experience is helpful.
I'm glad I went through and thought about my experiences with bipolar to then schizoaffective. It has given me pause in the past about how all my mental health issues came about so it's kind of good for me to think about it. I wish I had better records of the care ie medicines I was on early in my treatment and for how long.
There is zero doubt that symptoms can be confusing.
Thanks for sharing Matt. My analyst says the part of me that is schizophrenic has disordered thinking that creates a false self-image. I want to ask her more about that, like, examples. She says it may not necessarily fit one of the book's exact definitions, but since she doesn't take insurance, she doesn't need it to. She uses it to help her listen to me, i.e., instead of trying to figure out every detail she can step back and say, oh, that is his disordered thinking. It helps me that way, too - to just hang all the various behavior 'hats' on one peg instead of trying to juggle them and get them all sorted out. My understanding of astrology helps in a way, too - to give a more personalized description/explanation of the workings of the illness based on the planetary positions and their relationship to each other in my birth chart.
It sounds like you get a lot from your analyst. I have a post coming up where I talk about the “continuum of symptoms” that accompany mental illness. Behaviors and the thinking in the brain are such complicated things.
Thank you for sharing your story! It helps those that have this illness and provides insight and comfort to family members that see their loved ones suffering and feel helpless for what to say-what to do-definitely most needed!
thanks for reading, Lisa
Wouldn’t miss your words of wisdom!!
Thanks for clarifying these two conditions. For many people, symptoms are confusing and don't necessarily follow a continuum. Your description of your experience is helpful.
I'm glad I went through and thought about my experiences with bipolar to then schizoaffective. It has given me pause in the past about how all my mental health issues came about so it's kind of good for me to think about it. I wish I had better records of the care ie medicines I was on early in my treatment and for how long.
There is zero doubt that symptoms can be confusing.
Thanks for sharing Matt. My analyst says the part of me that is schizophrenic has disordered thinking that creates a false self-image. I want to ask her more about that, like, examples. She says it may not necessarily fit one of the book's exact definitions, but since she doesn't take insurance, she doesn't need it to. She uses it to help her listen to me, i.e., instead of trying to figure out every detail she can step back and say, oh, that is his disordered thinking. It helps me that way, too - to just hang all the various behavior 'hats' on one peg instead of trying to juggle them and get them all sorted out. My understanding of astrology helps in a way, too - to give a more personalized description/explanation of the workings of the illness based on the planetary positions and their relationship to each other in my birth chart.
It sounds like you get a lot from your analyst. I have a post coming up where I talk about the “continuum of symptoms” that accompany mental illness. Behaviors and the thinking in the brain are such complicated things.
She is spare but precise with her psych Ed.