How is AS mistaken for schizophrenia?

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Technically the schism in schizophrenia is between the schizophrenic and reality. In that my reality departs from that of most people am I not a schizophrenic? Further, the very notion of 'reality" brings a democratic effect into the calculations. Whose reality will we use as a standard, and how much departure is allowed as a matter of being an individual outside of which we think of abnormality?
anyone who buys a new car because the commercials have convinced him that the car will make him cool and get him hot babes is schizophrenic.

I program computers. I don't want to get too specific about what I do now, but computers used to be an "interest" for me, so I could literally write volumes on it. It was about the 3rd big interest I had, and lasted until perhaps 10 years ago. I almost wish it was still an interest. Oddly, for me, people communicate with me with every avenue. Sometimes, like now, there is someone there to "help" me, and they end up trying to do everything I did up to that point "to help me". INVARIABLY, I find they don't even know the basics and I end up teaching them, and struggling to do everything MYSELF with LESS time. I'm going to have to tell him FORGET IT tomorrow. 8-/ I wonder how my boss will react! I should stop listening to people offering help on a one person project. 8-(

Steve

Well, I only generally have three realities, dream, this one which I figure can't be a dream, and what I imagine while awake. I can keep them all separate. Wikipedia seems to indicate that schizophrenia is characterised by someone blending their imagination into reality and not knowing the difference. Unless there are ghosts or similar creatures that the schizophrenic sees, there is no way it could be misdiagnosed if the person has a history of it, is drug free, and there is good communication.

I guess you DO have to be CLEAR with questions though. HEY I as a kid, like most kids, imagined that shadows in the dark were all sorts of things. Could that be considered schizophrenic? It wasn't a TRUE delusion, as I didn't imagine it moving or talking and, when the lights came on or my eyes adjusted, I saw it for what it was.

BTW even TODAY I hear vague questions with NO purpose specified, and interpret them differently from how the person wanted. THEN they sometimes reveal the purpose, and I have to recant.

Steve

Well, I can't take 5-HTP for reasons I explained in that other thread where you and I discussed it. It makes all sorts of bad things happen to me. Anything that stimulates the production of serotonin seems to have that same effect on me. My only other choice is to eat turkey sandwiches for lunch everyday, I guess.

I don't go out with them now, I just attend his "family functions," like Xmas, Easter, 4th of July, birthdays, etc. It's gotten a little easier lately because my 4 year old newphew (child of my husband's sister) was just diagnosed with PDD-NOS, so a lot of his family is now learning about sensory sensitivities and all that.

EDIT: I forgot to answer your question in your other post. I'm probably a little shy of two hours from the Virginia line.

Well, right now I don't do any work (aside from keeping house and all that entails). I used to do computer-related stuff. I did tech support for a while. I also did a lot of Q.A. or "testing" jobs.

At my last job, we tried to get them to allow me to work from home (since we were set up in a way that was conducive to working from home), and they wouldn't go for it. I don't know why, because we had a guy from another state who had Tourettes, and he worked from home except for one day a week when he would come in. I'm pretty sure they were just giving me a hard time, and one of my psychologists said I should take them to court over it, but I had JUST gotten out of a mental hospital and was in no way up to handling a legal battle.

Well, if you want to go back, here's how you handle it: you get your job description (legally the boss MUST provide it) and take that to your doctor. The doctor looks it over and sends a letter to the boss saying here are the limitations and suggested ways to accomodate. The law says that the employer must make reasonable accomodations (which by the way is defined by level of job/pay and the amount of money the accomodations cost). Working at home would be in line with reasonable.


The other option is to get into something with less people contact. Support and QA still involves quite a bit of people contact. That's much more than I could handle. I also can't handle managing. I'll do it, but it ruins my life outside of work so eventually I either walk in and say I'm going back to just being a writer (that's happened) or I quit (that's also happened). I have to stick to a job where I have almost no human contact except through email. I don't even care for conference calls and feelers are the epitome of useless conference call organizers.


You might want to look more at coding or writing as an outlet for work. Just a thought. You could also do something completely different. Epidemiologists can do research for Pharmaceutical companies from home. Medical transcribers often work from home. There are different things you can check out where the normal person couldn't do the job because of lack of contact.

I have AS with OCD and Psychoses, I have never been given the label of Schizophenia, I suppose it depends on your doctors understanding of mental disorders, my Psychoses mainly cause most problems at night when I want to sleep, it is horrible when your brain will not let you sleep, I get prescribed Amitriptyline and Prochorperazine which works very well, I like it better than Risperidone.
Simon

Yeah, see we did that. The doctor wrote a letter saying specifically that I was asking for accommodations under the ADA. We even had 3 or 4 possible "accommodation" scenarios, only one of which involved me working from home. Another was me working 4 days a week, 10 hour days.

They claimed every single one of our suggestions would place "undue hardship" on them as a company and refused to make any accommodations. That's why the doctor was saying that I should take them to court, since they're technically breaking the law by doing that.

wow i never knew this! i though i had these effects from drugs not my AS. good thing i randomly read this thread, cuz i had given up drugs. what a stupid decision!

And he's exactly right. I've been a manager for 12 years. I had an employee with MS and the company tried to pull this. Not a chance. The law says that it must be a financial undue hardship or an undue hardship on the business and that must be proven, not speculated. If it happens again, you reply to your boss in writing (no verbal conversations ever!) that the company is required to respond in writing. That will get their attention. They tell you this because over 99% of people back down if confronted. If you stand up, they will back down.

Again, we covered that. The refusal came in the form of a letter from the company's legal department.

ZanneMarie IS right, but they DO have you in a bad position. To fight back means they can confront, which is what you would be fighting to avoid. So it is a catch 22 situation. 8-(

Steve