schizoaffective bipolar, schizophrenia, and bipolar and me

Schizoaffective bipolar is schizophrenia and bipolar. When I found out that I was schizoaffective, I found it helpful to look at both sides of my disorder. Due to researching the disorder and both aspects of it, I have begun to understand and accept how my brain works. Today I’m going to look at both aspects of as well as the disorder itself. This is to be informative and reduce the stigmas of these disorders. This is not to diagnose anyone. I was diagnosed about 2-3 years ago now with schizoaffective bipolar. I was scared; I thought that I was psychotic and I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to be called or known as.

Schizophrenia is often described as having disturbed thoughts or feelings. Some with this disorder are often losing touch with reality. There are positive and negative aspects of the disorder. Some with this disorder will experience hallucinations, delusions, thought or movement disorders. I know this sounds bad, but these are the positive aspects of the disorder it gets worse. Many people with this disorder also experience flat affect, reduction in feelings of pleasure in everyday life, difficulty in the beginning and/or sustaining activities, and a reduction in speaking.

Some of those with schizophrenia will have a reduced ability to understand information and use it to make decisions, focus as well as inattention issues, and issues with using information directly after learning it. Some causes of this disorder are genetics, environmental, and psychosocial factors. Some other causes are a chemical imbalance and chemical reactions. Current treatments are antipsychotics, specialty care, and psychosocial treatments.

Schizoaffective disorder is mostly described as schizophrenic symptoms as well as mood disorder symptoms. Many people are often diagnosed as a mood disorder or as schizophrenia. This is diagnosed in .3% of the population. Some symptoms of this disorder are hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, depressed mood (depressive type), or manic mood (bipolar type). The causes of this disorder aren’t entirely clear, but it is thought that genetics, stress, and drug use are factors. To be diagnosed with this disorder you need to have symptoms of schizophrenia with and without a major disorder episode.

Bipolar disorder is described as having shifts in mood, energy, the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, and activity levels. Some ranges in mood are manic (extremely “up”) to depressive (very “down”) periods. There are 4 types of bipolar disorder. Bipolar 1 severe manic episode requiring hospitalization and lasting 2 weeks or more. Bipolar 2 hypomanic and depressive episodes. Cyclothymic disorder rapid cycling between hypomanic and depressive moods for at least 2 years in adults and 1 year in adolescents. Unspecified bipolar and related disorders characterized by bipolar. Many sufferers may experience unusually intense emotions, sleep patterns change, activity levels change, behaviors become unusual. These distinct changes are called mood episodes and are distinctly different than the person’s normal mood and behaviors. Causes are brain functioning, brain structure, genetics, and family history of the disorder. Treatments for this disorder are medications and psychotherapy.

I have been on many different medications for my schizoaffective bipolar in the past 2-3 years. I have also been doing DBT as a part of my psychotherapy. I have found that Wellbutrin, Abilify, and DBT have been very helpful. This combination has been beneficial because I have seen myself during these therapies. I have been able to slow my brain down enough to pick up on key things in my life that causes shifts in my mood. Without my medications, I could become very depressed or manic quickly.

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