Schizophrenia - General Discussion

Richard Murphy6 said:I guess we're just waiting for our friend here to chime in, since they've got schizoaffective disorder rather than just schizophrenia.

🤣

I was wondering, for those of you living with schizophrenia, how long did the suspicion linger before you finally received an official diagnosis? Also, if you decided to open up about it, how did the people closest to you—like your parents, partners, or best friends—actually react?

I’m not sick myself, but my mother is... and I've heard it can be hereditary. I truly hope I never have to endure what she goes through. There are moments when fear creeps in, but I try to stay positive...
Honestly, I think this is one of the hardest things a person can face. I’d almost rather deal with a physical disability than suffer through this. People like my mom require an incredible amount of support and genuine empathy. What hurts most is seeing how society treats people with schizophrenia—it’s like they view them as nothing more than trash. Sometimes, I just can't believe how incredibly ignorant people can be.

man, please god don't let you end up with that crap, especially if it's mixed in with bipolar disorder
if there's any way you can dodge
do it by any means necessary
literally anything is better than psychosis, period

brightridge59 said:🤣

I was wondering, for those of you living with schizophrenia, how long did the suspicion linger before you finally received an official diagnosis? Also, if you decided to open up about it, how did the people closest to you—like your parents, partners, or best friends—actually react?

🤣 🤣 🤣 they mostly don't even react, it's like they just vanish into thin air, you can't even tell how they felt
I actually self-diagnosed about three months before my first official diagnosis, though back then I didn't even know about schizoaffective disorder, which basically covers everything

brightridge59 said:🤣

I was wondering, for those of you living with schizophrenia, how long did the suspicion linger before you finally received an official diagnosis? Also, if you decided to open up about it, how did the people closest to you—like your parents, partners, or best friends—actually react?

lol in my case everyone knows
it usually goes one of a few ways: "it's all your fault"
then there's "grandma and grandpa are to blame"
or just "we don't really get what this is, but you've always been a little weird"
then back to "grandma and grandpa are to blame"
or "honestly, I don't really understand any of this stuff"
or "we don't know much about it, really"

brightridge59 said:🤣

I was wondering, for those of you living with schizophrenia, how long did the suspicion linger before you finally received an official diagnosis? Also, if you decided to open up about it, how did the people closest to you—like your parents, partners, or best friends—actually react?

Hey everyone. For me, there wasn't even any doubt that I was heading toward that diagnosis because I had already gone through two psychotic breaks. I ended up checking myself into the hospital for a third time, even though I wasn't dealing with hallucinations at that specific moment,
but the depression was just absolutely crushing me.
I laid it all out for the psychiatrists during intake—gave them the whole unfiltered truth—and ended up staying for ten days,
which is when they officially handed me the F20.

I snagged my F20 in just five minutes, but it took me a full three and a half years to get the F25

honestly though, who even cares...

Does anyone else have experience being able to coherently explain how those around them reacted once they found out about their diagnosis? I’d really appreciate any insights you could share. 🙂

My dad has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (I think it's F20), and honestly... living with him is an absolute nightmare. To make matters worse, my mom is currently in the middle of getting a divorce. His episodes are wild—he’ll just wander off to join some cult, like the Hare Krishnas, and disappear for a month at a time. He won't say where he's going or when he'll be back; he just vanishes. On top of all that, I'm a student and I need about $667 a month just to cover my expenses, which is basically what my mom makes in her paycheck,
but his disability benefits are capped at $1000 max. And I really need to emphasize that since they're splitting up, we aren't going to have any joint income to fall back on. So, if anyone here has a family member struggling with schizophrenia and thinks they've got it rough, let me be your cautionary tale..

My aunt lived with schizophrenia. I say "lived with" because she took her own life five months ago at fifty years old. She was first diagnosed back when she was twenty, and from that point on, she endured unimaginable horrors—and we went through them right alongside her. We did everything in our power to be there for her, especially my mother, who completely upended her entire life just to make sure she had the support she needed. There were times she lived with us, times she tried to manage on her own because she felt she needed independence, and she cycled through countless medications and endless hospitalizations. But despite all that, her condition only continued to spiral.
After a few unsuccessful suicide attempts, things seemed to settle down slightly. We let our guard down—not realizing we were missing the very signs that were signaling what was coming next. We caught our breath for a second, became momentarily complacent, and that momentary lapse ended in tragedy.
There isn't a single day, or even a single moment, where we don't find ourselves wondering what we could have done differently to stop this, or how we could have possibly missed the warning signs.

As for how people reacted to her illness... it was everything. You saw genuine compassion, but you also saw people run for the hills, some offering courage, while others were outright condescending. People are terrified of mental illness because they simply don't understand it; they have no clue how to interact with someone struggling with a condition like that. And ignorance is a dangerous thing.

Honestly, what can you even say about a society where seeing a psychiatrist is still treated like some kind of dark, forbidden secret?

I’m looking for some clarity here.

Does anyone here have experience interpreting the F23.1 diagnosis? Specifically, I'm looking at "Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with schizophrenic symptoms." My main question is whether this is technically considered a specific subtype of schizophrenia, or if it’s an entirely different mental health condition that just happens to present with similar symptoms.

The situation is a bit confusing because the same individual has been assigned two different codes: F23.1 and F23.0—which is "Acute psychotic disorder without schizophrenic symptoms."

Could someone help me understand the distinction between the two? A little extra context or a deeper explanation would be greatly appreciated.

I’m dealing with psychosis and I'm pregnant right now—has anyone else been through this exact mess? Looking to swap stories and see how you guys handled it.

crimsonmoose53 said:I’m looking for some clarity here.

Does anyone here have experience interpreting the F23.1 diagnosis? Specifically, I'm looking at "Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with schizophrenic symptoms." My main question is whether this is technically considered a specific subtype of schizophrenia, or if it’s an entirely different mental health condition that just happens to present with similar symptoms.

The situation is a bit confusing because the same individual has been assigned two different codes: F23.1 and F23.0—which is "Acute psychotic disorder without schizophrenic symptoms."

Could someone help me understand the distinction between the two? A little extra context or a deeper explanation would be greatly appreciated.

That’s a separate mental illness that just shares similar symptoms—basically, it's psychosis. I'm not sure about the other one, but maybe that F23.0 code just means there aren't any hallucinations.

I thought I’d share a little bit of clarification I found over on Wikipedia to help clear things up. 🙂

* (F20.) Schizophrenia
o (F20.0) Paranoid schizophrenia
o (F20.1) Hebephrenic schizophrenia
o (F20.2) Catatonic schizophrenia
o (F20.3) Undifferentiated schizophrenia
o (F20.4) Post-schizophrenic depression
o (F20.5) Residual schizophrenia
o (F20.6) Simple schizophrenia
o (F20.8) Other schizophrenia
o (F20.9) Schizophrenia, unspecified

* (F21.) Schizotypal disorder

* (F22.) Persistent delusional disorders
o (F22.0) Delusional disorder

* (F23.) Acute and transient psychotic disorders
o (F23.0) Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder without symptoms of schizophrenia
o (F23.1) Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with symptoms of schizophrenia
o (F23.2) Acute schizophrenia-like psychotic disorder
o (F23.3) Other acute predominantly delusional psychotic disorders
o (F23.8) Other acute and transient psychotic disorders
o (F23.9) Acute and transient psychotic disorder, unspecified

* (F24.) Induced delusional disorder
o Folie à deux

* (F25.) Schizoaffective disorders
o (F25.0) Schizoaffective disorder, manic type
o (F25.1) Schizoaffective disorder, depressive type
o (F25.2) Schizoaffective disorder, mixed type
o (F25.8) Other schizoaffective disorders
o (F25.9) Schizoaffective disorder, unspecified

* (F28.) Other nonorganic psychotic disorders

* (F29.) Unspecified nonorganic psychosis

And if you're interested in seeing the full list of classifications, here is the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICD-10_...ural_disorders

I’m familiar with the standard
classifications, but I’m struggling to wrap my head around why this specific diagnosis was established—especially since the symptoms don't actually include hallucinations.
My concern is that we might be looking at a precursor—something that eventually evolves into schizophrenia.
Could anyone perhaps walk me through the earliest red flags of a mental health disorder that typically signal a progression toward schizophrenia?
To be honest, my gut feeling is that what we're seeing here is just severe anxiety and intense panic attacks, though I’m certainly no expert—so if someone could provide some clarity to help me compare the two, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks,

I’m certainly no expert here—just a layman—but you have to realize that psychological disorders are incredibly complex fields. The human mind is a labyrinth, and these classifications are essentially just agreed-upon frameworks. They aren't absolute truths; they're more like descriptive approximations rather than exact maps of reality.
Even within those guidelines, it notes "with symptoms of schizophrenia," yet hallucinations are merely ONE symptom among many. You can't define the whole by just one part.

If you can, I’d really suggest finding a doctor you actually trust—someone you feel comfortable being completely blunt with—who will be willing to sit down and answer these kinds of questions straight up.

hey

I recently had my first appointment with a psychiatrist—it actually lasted a good twenty minutes or so, which was surprising—and I've been dealing with these symptoms for about ten years now. On my clinical assessment, she noted progressive schizotypal personality disorder (which, truth be told, is what I had already diagnosed myself) and mentioned that there’s an observable progression of schizophrenic processes under observation. Now, here is the thing: I am resisting medication for the time being; I really wanted to see if psychotherapy could be my first line of defense. Of course—as I had already suspected—she informed me quite bluntly that no therapist in the States is going to take me on if I refuse to take medication. Since I don't have symptoms that would actively derail the therapy sessions themselves, and considering how overworked our American psychiatrists are—seeing fifty or sixty patients a day is not uncommon—I highly doubt anyone would bother talking to me unless I was medicated. I even asked her what kind of prescription she would suggest if I did decide to comply... and she said she wasn't quite sure yet. Well, isn't that just... something.

Can anyone here tell me what kind of medications are typically prescribed for schizotypal disorder? (To add some context: I deal with intrusive thoughts and elements that lean toward cyclothymia... though no hallucinations... if I were to list every single symptom, I'd practically be writing a dissertation 😁.)

And honestly, what on earth... if there is an organic basis for this, I have no way of knowing what it might be since I declined the meds right out of the gate. She simply told me that given the nature of my questions and my intellectual capacity, I could only find the kind of care I'm looking for through private practice—which, unfortunately, is simply not an option for me financially—and then she told me to reach out for a follow-up as needed. A follow-up🙄...

I certainly suspect that functioning properly without medication might be a struggle, but due to certain personal and health-related reasons, I have a massive amount of fear and resistance when it comes to drugs.

So... is there anyone else here living with schizotypal?

Thanks!

coppergardener said:hey

I recently had my first appointment with a psychiatrist—it actually lasted a good twenty minutes or so, which was surprising—and I've been dealing with these symptoms for about ten years now. On my clinical assessment, she noted progressive schizotypal personality disorder (which, truth be told, is what I had already diagnosed myself) and mentioned that there’s an observable progression of schizophrenic processes under observation. Now, here is the thing: I am resisting medication for the time being; I really wanted to see if psychotherapy could be my first line of defense. Of course—as I had already suspected—she informed me quite bluntly that no therapist in the States is going to take me on if I refuse to take medication. Since I don't have symptoms that would actively derail the therapy sessions themselves, and considering how overworked our American psychiatrists are—seeing fifty or sixty patients a day is not uncommon—I highly doubt anyone would bother talking to me unless I was medicated. I even asked her what kind of prescription she would suggest if I did decide to comply... and she said she wasn't quite sure yet. Well, isn't that just... something.

Can anyone here tell me what kind of medications are typically prescribed for schizotypal disorder? (To add some context: I deal with intrusive thoughts and elements that lean toward cyclothymia... though no hallucinations... if I were to list every single symptom, I'd practically be writing a dissertation 😁.)

And honestly, what on earth... if there is an organic basis for this, I have no way of knowing what it might be since I declined the meds right out of the gate. She simply told me that given the nature of my questions and my intellectual capacity, I could only find the kind of care I'm looking for through private practice—which, unfortunately, is simply not an option for me financially—and then she told me to reach out for a follow-up as needed. A follow-up🙄...

I certainly suspect that functioning properly without medication might be a struggle, but due to certain personal and health-related reasons, I have a massive amount of fear and resistance when it comes to drugs.

So... is there anyone else here living with schizotypal?

Thanks!

Back when I was at the Mayo Clinic, they had me on 3mg of Moditen and Citalopram for depression and F21 schizotypal disorder. I didn't try anything else after that, but honestly, those didn't really do much for me either.

coppergardener said:hey

I recently had my first appointment with a psychiatrist—it actually lasted a good twenty minutes or so, which was surprising—and I've been dealing with these symptoms for about ten years now. On my clinical assessment, she noted progressive schizotypal personality disorder (which, truth be told, is what I had already diagnosed myself) and mentioned that there’s an observable progression of schizophrenic processes under observation. Now, here is the thing: I am resisting medication for the time being; I really wanted to see if psychotherapy could be my first line of defense. Of course—as I had already suspected—she informed me quite bluntly that no therapist in the States is going to take me on if I refuse to take medication. Since I don't have symptoms that would actively derail the therapy sessions themselves, and considering how overworked our American psychiatrists are—seeing fifty or sixty patients a day is not uncommon—I highly doubt anyone would bother talking to me unless I was medicated. I even asked her what kind of prescription she would suggest if I did decide to comply... and she said she wasn't quite sure yet. Well, isn't that just... something.

Can anyone here tell me what kind of medications are typically prescribed for schizotypal disorder? (To add some context: I deal with intrusive thoughts and elements that lean toward cyclothymia... though no hallucinations... if I were to list every single symptom, I'd practically be writing a dissertation 😁.)

And honestly, what on earth... if there is an organic basis for this, I have no way of knowing what it might be since I declined the meds right out of the gate. She simply told me that given the nature of my questions and my intellectual capacity, I could only find the kind of care I'm looking for through private practice—which, unfortunately, is simply not an option for me financially—and then she told me to reach out for a follow-up as needed. A follow-up🙄...

I certainly suspect that functioning properly without medication might be a struggle, but due to certain personal and health-related reasons, I have a massive amount of fear and resistance when it comes to drugs.

So... is there anyone else here living with schizotypal?

Thanks!

My diagnosis kept jumping around—first they said schizotypal, then schizoid, then schizoaffective, and finally they landed on F20 schizophrenia. It felt like they were just throwing darts at a board and didn't know how to handle me. 🤣
I just started taking Olanzapine, and man, it knocked me out so hard I slept until 5 PM. I’m just kind of zombie-walking around right now, so I can't tell you for sure yet if it's actually helping or not. 😍

So, why are we still leaning so hard on lithium for pharmacotherapy? It’s such a classic... Also, schizophrenia usually starts hitting people during those teenage years, right around puberty. Any thoughts on why it kicks off so early? I know there's plenty of medical data backing that up, but I'm curious what you guys think...

crimsonmoose53 said:I’m looking for some clarity here.

Does anyone here have experience interpreting the F23.1 diagnosis? Specifically, I'm looking at "Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with schizophrenic symptoms." My main question is whether this is technically considered a specific subtype of schizophrenia, or if it’s an entirely different mental health condition that just happens to present with similar symptoms.

The situation is a bit confusing because the same individual has been assigned two different codes: F23.1 and F23.0—which is "Acute psychotic disorder without schizophrenic symptoms."

Could someone help me understand the distinction between the two? A little extra context or a deeper explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Well, I can certainly share what I understand about it...
"Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with schizophrenic symptoms" - "acute" means that it's happening right now, or it's a shorter timeframe but with much higher intensity, "polymorphic" means it takes many different forms, meaning the symptoms and behaviors can shift quite a bit, and "psychotic disorder with schizophrenic symptoms" means those core symptoms associated with schizophrenia are present...
As for the other one— "Acute psychotic disorder without schizophrenic symptoms" —things are a bit more straightforward because it also refers to a shorter duration, but it isn't tied to schizophrenia (which is a really positive sign), and since it isn't polymorphic, it's likely easier to manage behavior and stay in sync with everything going on around you...