Scared of getting schizophrenia
07 Sep 2012, 10:07 am
it sounds like an anxiety disorder to me. there is a condition called "free floating anxiety", and it attaches itself to the most feared outcome of a persons imagination of where they are headed.
schizophrenia is a scary thing to imagine myself imposed with (i do know about schizophrenia and i have had trips that have enlightened me as to the mechanisms of schizophrenia as well), but i never worry that i will lose my mind, and if i did worry about it i would know it was just anxiety because if i really did lose my mind, i would not know about it (otherwise i could rescue myself).
schizophrenia is what i imagine "hell" to be. i remember thinking on a trip where i was laying on my back in an empty golf course at night looking up at the sky, "if a rope was dangled to me from forever up there, would i take hold of it ?"
that thought caused a psychiatric reaction in me and i can not deduce what it was, but i did not like it. it was like i realized my insignificance in the enormity of what exists, and i felt like i was very vulnerable....
who knows, but when i "came down" i realized that it was not really a psychiatric episode i had, but it was an anxiety attack i had because i had no thoughts that were delusory.
07 Sep 2012, 10:07 am
Schizophrenia indeed can be very detrimental and pervasive to an individual's competency in daily living without sufficient treatment, especially when you account for the fact that individuals with schizophrenia with or without AS are predisposed to a severe deterioration of adaptive behavior; but on the other hand, this would imply to be case for any schizophrenic patient. It can be extremely challenging even for the most professional psychiatrist to clinically diagnose the presence of a co-morbid psychotic illness (with the inclusion of schizophrenia) in an individual with AS, not to mention that the presence of symptoms indicating AS must precede the initial phases of schizophrenia for a dual diagnosis to occur. I think this case also applies to anyone with an ASD pursuing an alternative diagnosis within the "schizophrenia spectrum" like Schizoid or Schizotypal personality disorder, and the clinical disturbance should not be better accounted for an Autism spectrum disorder in accordance with the DSM criteria.
As far as I am aware according to research, there is no general consensus of the precise rates of co-morbidity in Asperger syndrome and schizophrenia as it has yet to be scientifically established. No current literature implies the actual prevalence of Schizophrenia in Asperger syndrome either, but I'm speculating that it's only marginally more common in people with Asperger syndrome compared with the general population. Primarily this is why I'm not apprehensive enough about the prospect of developing any subtype of schizophrenia (e.g. paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated).
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Diagnosed with "Classical" Asperger syndrome in 1998.
AQ: 47/50
Last edited by TheRedPedant93 on 07 Sep 2012, 12:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
07 Sep 2012, 10:19 am
Yes, you need to have the onset of the positive symptoms clearly at a later date, such as puberty or early adulthood, to be diagnosed with a Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorder if you were previously diagnosed with a PDD. Schizoid would probably be out no matter what though, as that's just a less milder form of AS with an onset around puberty or later (as per the description in the DSM-IV-TR).
If you have the positive symptoms as a child with symptoms of a PDD, they just give you Childhood Schizophrenia then.
07 Sep 2012, 11:49 am
I am absolutely fascinated by the clear-cut similarities and clear-cut differences between schizophrenia positive symptoms and pure obsessional OCD. (I am a pure obsessional.) I've heard several times now from real-life accounts of individuals who have had psychosis that, once on medication, the positive symptoms still may occur and be frightening, but the individual tends to now know that the hallucination or delusion isn't real and is irrational and unrealistic. And in pure "O" OCD, we always know that the obsessions are illogical and irrational, which is why OCD isn't a form of psychosis. But we still have that fear that it MIGHT be true, even though we know it's silly. Even some of the bizarre thought content is similar. I sometimes have obsessions that I've said one of my mean-spirited/blasphemous obsessions out loud, even though I know I haven't. And my bff, who is also a pure "O", too, often has obsessions that people can read her thoughts. The difference is that we always know that our brains are generating the thoughts, and that the thoughts are stupid and not real. I just think it is remarkable how a lot of underlying factors are similar between the two, but there is this big gap in severity between having pure "O" OCD and having schizophrenia.
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07 Sep 2012, 12:09 pm
I think I am more afraid of being diagnosed with schizophrenia and having it used to justify institutionalizing me, then actually getting the disorder. I feel I wont be able to help but express a lot of distrust with the system in general when I go to my upcoming appointment and whatever follows that. And to some people(including various mental health professionals I am sure) this sick society is 'reality' and would take my lack of appreciation for it as disconnect from reality.
As a child I was afraid of being put in 'special ed' because I thought that would mark me as 'different' and thus bring the attention of the people who would try to make me normal......then for a while I thought I was dropped off from elsewhere in place of the actual child my parents really had or that maybe the switch was made in the womb and that eventually someone would find out and take me away to be 'studied' I didn't talk to people about any of that because I thought they would think I was insane. My theory is I knew/felt that something was wrong with society and different about me so those are some of the ways I rationalized it as a child.
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07 Sep 2012, 6:02 pm
I have found this:
Barneveld PS, Pieterse J, de Sonneville L, van Rijn S, Lahuis B, van Engeland H, Swaab H.
Source
Leiden University, Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands.
Abstract
This study addresses the unraveling of the relationship between autism spectrum and schizophrenia spectrum traits in a population of adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Recent studies comparing isolated symptoms of both spectrum disorders as well as diagnostic criteria for each (DSM-IV-TR) suggest resemblances in the clinical phenotype. A group of 27 adolescents with ASD (11 to 18 years) and 30 typically developing adolescents, matched for age and gender, participated in this study. Within the ASD group 11 adolescents satisfied DSM-IV-TR criteria for schizotypal personality disorders. Autistic and schizotypal traits were identified by means of well validated questionnaires (Autism Questionnaire, AQ and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Revised, SPQ). Significantly more schizotypal traits in adolescents with ASD were found than in typically developing controls. Besides high levels of negative symptoms, adolescents with ASD also displayed high levels of positive and disorganized symptoms. There appeared to be a relationship between the mean level of autistic symptoms and schizotypal traits, as well as specific associations between autistic symptoms and negative, disorganized and positive schizotypal symptoms within individuals. Schizotypal symptomatology in all sub dimensions that are reflected by the SPQ scores, was most prominently associated with attention switching problems of the autism symptoms from the AQ. These findings indicate that patients diagnosed with an ASD show schizophrenia spectrum traits in adolescence. Although other studies have provided empirical support for this overlap in diagnostic criteria between both spectrum disorders, the present findings add to the literature that behavioral overlap is not limited to negative schizotypal symptoms, but extends to disorganized and positive symptoms as well.
Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20933368
edit: addition: http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2011/05/12/autism-aspergers-and-schizotypal-personality-disorder/
_________________
English is not my native language, so I will very likely do mistakes in writing or understanding. My edits are due to corrections of mistakes, which I sometimes recognize just after submitting a text.
07 Sep 2012, 7:21 pm
I suffered a MAJOR depressive episode in my junior/senior years in HS, caused both by my ASD symptoms & the breaking up of my family, plus my sibling's death all coming in rapid seccesion of eath other. I did have some auditory hallucinations as well as got very hypochondrical ( believing I had Hansen's disease, better known as Leprosy). When I started to come out of this, I had some slight manic mood swings. But this never repeated after that...
I do get some odd visual illusions/perceptions due to sensory sensitivity, but I know other autistics get this, so if that is what your are undergoing, I would not panic over it.
I do not know of very many cases of co-morbidity of ASDs & Schizophrenic illnesses.
Sincerely,
Matthew
08 Sep 2012, 1:34 pm
I think I know what you mean. My pure-o was a major element of why I thought I was schizophrenic. I think I'd trade you though. I'd rather have unbidden mean-spirited comments than unbidden images of violence toward people and animals around me, even the ones I care about. I spent about 10 years thinking I should be locked up for everyone's safety, but too afraid to tell my doctor about it.
Honestly though, the more I find out about schizophrenia, the more I think that if there were such a diagnosis as "just a tiny bit schizophrenic", I'd have it. I seem to have versions of all the significant criteria, but about at an order of magnitude lower or less. And I find it interesting that they all seem to be responding well to risperdal.
08 Sep 2012, 7:09 pm
How would you assess anorexia?
Would you see it as OCD, as for being obsessed with numbers - the number of the weight and the numbers of the calories of food - or as rather psychotic symptoms as the perception of the body gets distorted and the individual has no insight into the irrational and unrealistic perception of her or his body ( meaning a starving body is visually perceived as huge and too big).
Or is it both?
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English is not my native language, so I will very likely do mistakes in writing or understanding. My edits are due to corrections of mistakes, which I sometimes recognize just after submitting a text.
08 Sep 2012, 9:09 pm
That was my biggest pure "O" obsession. When I first noticed the similarity between that obsession and the common delusion of thought broadcasting I got a bit worried. I always prepared in case it was true because of that typical OCD fear that it just "might be true" even though we know it probably isn't. I've actually forced myself to keep thinking of a song over and over again just in case a particular person really was a mind reader. That way if, on the 0.0001% chance that he was the song might distract him a bit from everything else in my mind. I knew he probably wasn't but I felt the need to be safe about it.
09 Sep 2012, 3:18 pm
Anorexia has been connected with OCD and perfectionism many times. I view anorexia as a form of OCSD (Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder). Bulimia tends to be more linked with mood disorders and BPD.
_________________
Helinger: Now, what do you see, John?
Nash: Recognition...
Helinger: Well, try seeing accomplishment!
Nash: Is there a difference?
09 Sep 2012, 3:34 pm
Anorexia has been connected with OCD and perfectionism many times. I view anorexia as a form of OCSD (Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder). Bulimia tends to be more linked with mood disorders and BPD.
Thank you for replying!
_________________
English is not my native language, so I will very likely do mistakes in writing or understanding. My edits are due to corrections of mistakes, which I sometimes recognize just after submitting a text.
