What is the difference between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder- bipolar disorder is a mood disorder. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia share some symptoms, but in reality are very different. When my ex partner Ivan got extremely sick in 1994 and was committed to the hospital in a manic/psychotic episode, the first step was to rule out schizophrenia as they look so similar when the symptoms are full blown. Schizophrenia is characterized by chronic psychotic symptoms whereas the psychosis in bipolar disorder is episodic.
Of course the duration of psychosis can vary in both. When a person has bipolar disorder along with chronic, stand alone psychosis, the illness is called schizoaffective disorder. Psychosis comes in two basic forms- hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations include seeing, feeling, smelling or hearing something that isn’t there. I’ve had a lot of hallucinations over the years to seeing rats run around chairs, hearing voices that tell [ Read More ]
I have bipolar 1 + schizoeffective disorder. I am taking Resperidone 1 mg twice a day and Lamictal 50mg at night, which has somewhat worked to help stop my delusions about being a secret agent, cops spying on me bugging the house, but i almost to the point where the medicine isn’t going to keep on working at this dosage. I am already slowed down enough during my day because of the medicine. But I am still hearing things and smelling and seeing things that aren’t there. For instance the other night I swore I had seen a cat outside and I took a second look and there was no cat. I heard someone or thing banging on my window, but there was no one there. I am wondering if I should just get a higher dosage of Resperidone or go to something else.
I recently added more information to my bipolarhappens.com website. One topic is the difference between Bipolar I and Bipolar II. Everyone affected by the illness needs to know the difference as their treatments are very different! Do you know your correct diagnosis or if you love someone with the illness, do you know their correct diagnosis? You can find more info on the web page.
Click here to read (and listen!) more about bipolar i and bipolar ii.
I recorded a great podcast on this topic- you will find it midway down the bipolarhappens.com web page.
julie
Feel free to send the podcast to family and friends- it’s not easy to understand the differences between the two bipolar diagnoses! It can be confusing for family members.
I just received the following question from Kimbriel,
Julie, I thought that people w/ Bipolar II don’t get psychotic? Or did you have a psychotic depression?
Hi Kimbriel,
Believe it or not, I’m writing an article on psychosis right now. People with bipolar II can defintely get psychotic. I’ve had psychotic symptoms since age 19. Mine are always with depression – as it’s rare for someone with bipolar II to have psychosis with hypomania.
The difference is in intensity- people with bipolar I have full blown psychosis – usually with mania. In fact, 70% of people with full blown mania have full blown psychosis at the same time. This is when most people have to go to the hopsital and often have to be committed by a family member!
I will let everyone know when the psychosis article is ready. It’s for healthyplace.com.
Recently, my daughter switched from Risperdal to Abilify. I am hoping Abilify will be good for her, contrary to what I have heard. Do you have any information regarding the success of bipolar people on Abilify? T.
Hi T.
Risperdal and Abilify are anti psychotic drugs. They are often used in the treatment of bipolar disorder. If a person is really manic or psychotic and has to go to the hospital, anti psychotic are often use to get the person to come down from the mania and psychosis. The dose is often very high. When my partner Ivan was so sick in 1994, he was immediately put on anti psychotics and mood stabilizers just to get him out of the mania, so this is common.
What a person takes depends on their symptoms. Many people with bipolar disorder do well on a mood stabilizer such as Lithium. I do well on a depression, [ Read More ]
“He blew a glass jacket. The walls were mayo and I was chewing all of the dirt off of the vegetables.”
The above is known as a word salad ( no pun intended!) – the sayings are close enough for us to understand them – but overall, they just make no sense.
A psychotic friend of mine said the above during an episode.
Psychosis is a fascinating topic- it’s horrible to experience and horrific to see someone go through it- I have been through both. But after it is over, you can certainly be fascinated by what was said.
The health information contained herein is provided for general education purposes only. This site should not be seen as a substitute for an official diagnosis or for professional health care.
