Why Schizo affective diagnosis over Bi polar diagnosis ?

[stormbear]

I'm not sure , i could be right , or i could be wrong but this is my opinion .

my worst symptom's are paranoia (delusions) it seems to be always there ,and relating to other people , i get extremely irritated and the voice's come and go but i do hear them daily just some day's (worse ) more then others , and when it comes to moods they are unpredictable for example , i can be happy manic for like half hour to an hour then feel normal  for a little while then i can go into depression for a few hours then i could get paranoid and this could last day's then i could swing back into happy productive mode and then paranoid for a few day's , there's no time frame when this happens my moods are all over the place , but i do know people , negativity and stress are trigger's for me . From what i know Bi polar moods are more predictable and last longer and Schizo affective psychosis is more frequent , but that's my understanding . like i said i could be right , i could be wrong .

[stormbear]

Yeah i know what your saying about people following and judging you i get that all the time every where i go and laughter i alway's think it's at me and people trying to read my thought's also .But yeah the psychosis is more the issue with me even when my moods are stable i still hear voice's and have disturbance's in my thinking .
Before i was diagnosed with schizo which was not to long ago i was diagnosed with Bi polar 2 and social phobia , and when i opened up more and became honest about the voice's and visual hallucinations i sometimes have it changed to schizo affective bi polar type is what they call it because i get depressed and hypo manic .and i do also isolate which can become very destructive in itself .

[johnnyky]

I have wondered about this also. I always thought schizo was more in the realm of psychosis, and bipolar was more extended periods of pronounced mood shifts. I have mania when I go days in a row feeling very "high" and unstable, like I can't turn my brain off, being on edge, having sudden violent thoughts, blurting out curse words for no reason, talking to myself on occasion. But I never heard voices or hallucinate. I do have paranoia when I am out sometimes I think people are following me or judging me. I tend to get manic periods of days in a row, and have lots of avoidance, and self imposed isolation, thought I don't ever feel depressed to the point of suicidal. So I'm not sure if this is bipolar but I think it may be. If it is, maybe it's bipolar I because I don't tend to have much depressive periods which I hear is characteristic of bipolar II. There's also so much co-morbidity with these disorders, they are so hard to pin down.

[stormbear]

Yes, my moods are unpredictable also, , My psychiatrist said to me that my psychosis can trigger my moods and my moods can trigger psychosis , i just got to be careful of exterior stimuli that may trigger something off in me , I don't what happened but i have not been able to leave the house or talk with friends for like almost 2 week's because i'm extremely paranoid , I just hope my thoughts come ok again so i can walk my dog .

[Crystal413]

I have Bipolar and I do not get paranoid or hear voices. Others may, I don't know. But I can tell you that I can experience what you described, except the paranoia, in a given day. My bipolar is extremely unpredictable and the length of time varies.