schizoaffective?

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any schizoaffective aspergers people?

What exactly is schizoaffective? What kind of symptoms do you have with it?
Just wondering...
Thanks

it's a mixture between having bipolar and schizophrenia. sometimes my condition lean toward one of them. But schizoaffective is more intense when having pyschosis(schizo) and depress/angry(bipolar) in one.
it's extremely rare: 1 in 1000 are said to have it.

Schizoaffective disorder is midway between schizophrenia and one of the mood disorders with psychotic features. That is, it is considered a more severe psychiatric disorder than bipolar disorder but less severe than schizophrenia typically. In schizoaffective disorder, psychotic features outlast mood symptoms. Schizoaffective disorder comes in bipolar and depressive types.

In bipolar disorder, the psychotic features are concurrent with the mood symptoms and resolve along with the mood symptoms. In pure schizophrenia, subclinical depression or even major depressive episodes are not atypical. The diagnostic difference is mainly one of timing of the psychotic and mood symptoms.

I wouldn't necessarily say that schizoaffective is "mid way" - I think it is more accurate it is a combination of schizophrenia symptoms and a mood disorders. You do have to qualify for some of the criteria for schizophrenia. It's a bit of a mish-mash dx, anyways - there was talk at one point of getting rid of schizoaffective already in the DSM 5 but it was later decided to retain it, but to tighten the criteria.

To answer the OP - yes, I'm a schizoaffective Aspie. I have the bipolar type.

It's midway in that the typical severity of the disorder is midway between bipolar and schizophrenia. Also, some researchers and theorists speculate that there is a "spectrum" between affective illness and psychosis. Affective instability and positive symptoms of psychosis are thought to be two axes of illness.

Yes, I have schizoaffective disorder and high functioning autism but I don't have Asperger's Syndrome. Sometimes the schizoaffective is more of a problem and other times its the autism. I always have symptoms of autism since I was born. As an adult its much more mild and I am higher functioning. As a child, I was on the lower functioning side. For the schizoaffective disorder my main problem according to people are the delusions rather than voices and hallucinations. Last episode in May I did have the voices but even then it wasn't loud and constant. Just softer and mild but at the same time scary because they were threatening to kill me. I would never hurt someone even in the middle of a psychotic break and still can talk to people and in this way I am very different than the "typical" schizophrenic.

I have a few friends but all of them have some mental illnesses. One of them has schizoaffective and just like me it is impossible to tell he even has a mental illness. He seems perfectly normal to me. Even in the middle of an episode he didn't scare me. He is very funny and I enjoy talking to him. When people first meet me they think I am perfectly normal as well. Its when they get to know me more deeply that problems start to show both the autism and schizoaffective disorder. I am very good at hiding my problems. But when I am having a psychotic break I am very weird and am not even coherent all the time like I am now. 99% of the time I speak very well actually better than my annoying brother. I don't understand a word he says! He claims he speaks fluent English but I surely don't understand him! In fact I am highly rated at autism conferences. When I was young I didn't really have language maybe at the most 1-2 words and when I was 7 is when I finally developed real language.

I also have severe generalized anxiety disorder which I think my dad also has. My dad also has Asperger's but doesn't post on this site. He hasn't been formally diagnosed with it but its clear and that is where I got the autism from.

To Emtyeye the symptoms of schizoaffective are delusions (which can be classified as either bizarre or non-bizarre) hallucinations with the most common being hearing voices, sometimes disorganized speech or incoherence, catatonia (that means being frozen in place for very long periods of time) and what is referred to as 'negative symptoms' which are things like having a flat affect and not having motivation to do anything. Schizoaffective like most people on here is also has a mood disorder component. It can be the depressive type or the bipolar type. I have the bipolar type but other times I think I am more on the depressive type because I hardly ever get truly manic. Maybe just a little overspending and grandiose delusions and hyper energy. It is very rare with me. The overspending is not what is typical where people spend every cent they have sometimes I spend hundreds that I still have on random stuff that I never use or won't use at that time.

I was diagnosed autie as a child, schizoaffective within the last two years. The pdoc who diagnosed Schizoaffective disorder described me as having "autistic symptoms," but seemed to suggest that I'd learned to compensate for the autism over the years. She did acknowledge that the "auty" aspects of my diagnoses caused me problems at work, and socially. I'm not sure what causes the most trouble. Over the last few years I suppose the scizoaffective... I've been used to the auty for most of my life. But the schizoaffective, which has been grumbling away for twenty years started to get really bad a couple of years ago. Meds have helped.

Now I hate most psychiatrists to the core because a dear friend of mine was diagnosed with Aspegers when he was little, and at 14 they changed it to schizo affective because of behavioral problems. We met online through a mental health board, because before I got my Aspie Dx I was scared that I was schizo affective like my grandpa. So we were talking about our symptoms and I eventually realized that even though we had a lot of the same symptoms he didn't actually hear voices and his manic miss behavior was more so sensory overload. So I pushed him to get another Aspergers diagnosis through a specialist. He did and now his Dx is changed back to Aspergers with no bipolar or schizophrenia. I also got my Aspie Dx but I've been purposely avoiding pursuing a schizo affective DX. I've been recovering from depression and I don't have a lot faith in the mental health system because of the stories my grandpa told me and because of the bad things that happened to my friend. My Schizo affective symptoms are very mild and manageable right now. I don't have entirely conscious hallucinations I do have Hypnagogic hallucinations they usually happen when I wake up or before I fall asleep. So at night I sometimes hear voices. I have hypo mania from time to time magical thinking, depression, and sometimes sever depression. I do my best to manage on my own. My aspergers symptoms greatly influence the severity. I wont resort to meds unless I become completely incapacitated or a threat to myself or others which hasn't been a problem. If it's progressive and gets worse and debilitating I'll suck it up and take meds.

I don't really have faith in the mental health system either because its on the payroll of pharmaceutical companies try telling them about how the diagnosis overlap and they just laugh and write you another script for some other anti psychotic that not only poisons your body but just suppresses the symptoms. I have been told that people with aspergers can transition into schizo effective (which is my diagnosis & aspergers)

Yeah I'm pretty disgusted with the doctor's I've talked to. If your willing to pay for an Aspergers Dx they'll give you one but they wont for free. For free you can get BP, schiz or both, a bottle of pills, a bunch of rules, and no sympathy or real help towards your learning disabilities or social difficulties. When I got my Aspergers diagnosis and found other people who understood it to help me my suicidal thoughts flew out the window and I was able to keep a job. I had to fight for the help that really helped me. Not just for myself but for my friend as well.

That must be very difficult combination to cope with

Ya tell me about. The few times I've been hospitalized over it just seemed like a big joke and waste of time no real therapy it's talk to your doctor about meds, and thats the extent of your stay. I also noticed that pills they give you for the schizo aspects make the learning disabilities and problems a lot worse but thats just from my perspective. Take care

I might have it.

My psychiatrist didn't diagnose me with it until now and just has suspiciouns about me.
In addition to autistic tendencies I might have Bipolar II with either schizotypal (traits) or Schizoaffective.

For me the term schizoaffective is just a mish mash anyway, that's why I don't like it too much.
I wish they would have gotten rid of this diagnostic lable, but unfurtunately the didn't.

out of politeness and simplicity, i would need to state that schizoaffective disorder is more than one type of hypnosis in many a manic physcotic episode, and would therefore be deemed to correction as having bi-polar 11 as bipolar in its root cause; bipolar 1, is more serious as on the same scale as schizophrenics within having high pschycotic mood swings. my distant cousin has it and he has been hospitalised several times although he was never on drugs but he did have alot of paranoia and build-up of symptoms of his belated childhood which led him to falsely believe in his own abandonment and very low opinion of himself. Of course many of my family believe that if he had had cognital behavioural therapy as a child he may have gotten past some of these misconceptions. point is that he got help, is on meds and, is now working late shifts he can cope although he doesn't like people getting too close or certain things being said, which is very understandable.
If people think that having an enhanced but disruptive state of mind is genetic or is someone elses fault they are being grossly mislead.

schizotypal pd
http://www.ptypes.com/schizotypalpd.html#life_story

schizoaffective
http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a- ... e_disorder
http://www.rethink.org/about_mental_ill ... e_disorder

I have Schizophrenia and Aspeger's

My husband is also an Aspie and my Sister was Schizophrenic and Dyslexic and highly suicidal

I have been told on this forum that schizophrenia or schizoaffective are not possible diagnoses for people with Asperger's / Autism

It is scary to want to fight my own corner on this one so i don't know really

I am 38 - always been an Aspie

Age 16 i went full blown schizophrenic with the possibility that the trigger was Drugs
My sister also went schizophrenic full blown a few months before me - also possibly triggered by drugs

I stim, i talk non stop about a special interest
i played alone as a child
i was envious of people who could be more social
I am clumsy and wasn't a huggy baby i'd arch my back
I have huge problems socialising i talk my thoughts out loud and don't enquire ie when what how why?

I have problems where i am honest like not saying "oh you look great too!!" when someone clearly doesn't
i am abrupt , also selectively mute
I have touch and sound sensitivities
my visual memory is very screwy

i dont know if I'm trying to prove something, writing this in a post but here goes

age 16 i started getting very paranoid
i thought that my friends were sitting outside in a car most nights taunting me via telepathy
i thought there were secret cameras in my room and that the government was keeping an eye on me
Later after hospital and more hospitalisations my illness got a lot worse
i started getting violent command delusions, thought i was going into hospital to get my ovaries taken out
thought that colourful demons were shooting out of my and other's feet which were sexual demons and people were basically shooting these demons at everyone else and having sex, which i had tactile delusions of sex with that
I thought i was married to 4 different men in the hospital,
i absconded with no clothes but a t shirt and tracksuit bottoms, no underwear or shoes or money etc and smoked and drank with rough sleepers and others and basically passed out infront of a shop from lack of sleep
i thought i was dying of cancer and was drinking and eating only small ammounts of liquid like mouthwash because i thought that my stomach had split from my oesophagus and stank
i thought that i had to drink water excessively and played games with it and got to the point that i was throwing up and shaking all over
that is something called psychogenic polydipsia and can be fatal
I wet my jacket in the middle of winter to prolong my life and had 3 half hour long cold showers a day and wet my clothes and blankets to the peoint of on and off for a few weeks mild and at times moderate hypothermia
i thought death tapped me on the shoulder
i thought i was being asked to be the mother to the second coming of christ
i believed Christ was putting me down when i saw him
I thought that i was talking to ex boyfriends and others through soul exchange
and that people were trying to take my powers
i left the hospital on leave to have my hair done and walked around with just a top on - nothing but knickers on my bottom half
i stalked one of the staff members who was a freind of a friend a while before thinking he wanted me to
I made a move towards a woman when she was sleeping to try and touch her because i thought she had asked me to come over into her bed - she woke up to me masturbating

some of these things went on for weeks or months other things were one offs
it's too much detail to go into which is which out of that lot