Everything You Need to Know About Schizoaffective & Schizophrenia
Schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia are two of the least talked about mental health disorders. WHY?
What is Schizoaffective Disorder or Schizophrenia?
Schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia are two of the least talked about mental health disorders. WHY?
Well, they’re rare chronic mental health illnesses that occur in about 0.32% of the world population, or 25 million humans out of 7.8 billion.
Schizoaffective disorder is characterized primarily by symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations or delusions, and symptoms of a mood disorder, such as mania and depression.
So basically it’s a curious cocktail of Bipolar I and Schizophrenia. Many people with schizoaffective disorder are often incorrectly diagnosed at first with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
How does someone develop schizoaffective disorder? The exact cause of schizoaffective disorder is unknown. A combination of causes may contribute to the development of schizoaffective disorder.
What Are the Symptoms of Schizoaffective Disorder or Schizophrenia?
As with many mental health illnesses, there are a variety of symptoms that cross over into other disorders and illnesses. For example, many of the symptoms of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder align with Bipolar 1, Dissociative Identity Disorder, ADHD, and PTSD/cPTSD. When you are looking at and seeking to understand the symptoms of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, keep in mind that it is difficult to diagnosis and requires psychiatric evaluation and testing in order to be properly diagnosed.
Misdiagnosis is rampant for those living with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Be sure to write down the exact symptoms you’re experiencing from the list below, and a detailed history of how you’ve experienced these symptoms.
You experience hallucinations - sight, smell, auditory
You have delusions, which are false, fixed beliefs that are held regardless of contradictory evidence.
You have disorganized thinking. Which is switching very quickly from one topic to another or provide answers that are completely unrelated.
You experience long lasting depressive episodes with feelings of sadness, emptiness, feelings of worthlessness or other symptoms of depression. (Depressive type)
You experience times of mania. With feelings of euphoria, racing thoughts, increased risky behavior and other symptoms of mania.
You are apathetic more frequently than not.
Rapid mood transitions
Other symptoms such as headache or stomach-ache, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, loss of appetite, insomnia.
What About Schizophrenic and Schizoaffective Hallucinations? Are They Always Scary?
Are All Schizophrenic Hallucinations Scary? Here’s the reality behind hallucinations for those living with schizoaffective disorder
You can experience auditory hallucinations that sound like someone is talking to you, like the TV is on in the background, doorbells, sirens, and other sounds that might seem totally normal sounds.
Visual hallucinations can occur in a variety of ways ranging from demonic hallucinations to totally weird things.
For example, someone could be seeing sparks occurring outside their window, thinking they’re fireflies, when in reality there’s nothing occurring outside the window. Or someone could be sitting folding their clothes and all of a sudden hear an emergency siren go off with no explanation as to where the sound might be coming from.
Some people might start talking to their hallucinations or simply ignore them. When medicated, hallucinations tend to lessen or go away completely. Talk to your therapist or doctor if you are experiencing hallucinations. They can seem really scary at first, but once you begin to break them down, it becomes easier over time to recognize that you are hallucinating.
How Does Someone Become Schizoaffective?
Here are the four main causes.
Genetics.
Schizoaffective disorder tends to run in families. This does not mean that if a relative has an illness, you will absolutely get it. But it does mean that there is a greater chance of you developing the illness.
Brain chemistry and structure.
Brain function and structure may be different in ways that science is only beginning to understand. Brain scans are helping to advance research in this area.
Stress.
Stressful events such as a death in the family, end of a marriage or loss of a job can trigger symptoms or an onset of the illness.
Drug use.
Psychoactive drugs such as LSD have been linked to the development of schizoaffective disorder.
There are several studies occurring across the globe with regard to schizophrenia and how it comes about in the brain. Most studies have to do with the fact that schizophrenia is a genetic disorder, passed on by a complex set of genes. Other studies focus on the structure of the brain and exactly how certain parts of the brain are stunted in growth. This carries the idea that people who are schizophrenic are born with the mental illness and during puberty, certain parts of the brain are impacted by the effects of puberty and the hormones changing and shaping the body and brain.
Many studies, such as ones from Harvard Health, suggest schizophrenia is activated in the brain between ages 11-20 and 20-40–with environmental experiences also playing a role in activating the mental illness.
How is Someone Diagnosed With Schizoaffective Disorder or Schizophrenia?
Schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia are often and easily misdiagnosed since they overlap with other illnesses and disorders. Receiving a diagnosis for Schizoaffective is often difficult and requires a lot of discovery and testing. For example, in schizoaffectives, psychiatrists may need to look out for the following:
Early adulthood exhibition of symptoms
Watching a moving object is usually difficult for a person with schizoaffective disorder
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep usually occurs abnormally early
Gender plays a role in those who are more susceptible
Physical evaluations are also a part of the diagnostic process. A psychiatrist may want to perform a brain scan or blood testing. Clinical interviews are also an important part of the process. Psychiatrists often look for prolonged mood disorders, typically that means major depressive episodes of mania (and sometimes mixed episodes).
In addition they also look for someone having at least two of the following symptoms in addition to depression or mania:
Delusions
Hallucinations
Disorganized speech
Disorganized or catatonic behavior
Negative psychotic symptoms
According to verywellmind, “In addition, delusions or hallucinations most occur for two or more weeks in the absence of a mood episode. The mood symptoms must also be present for most of the duration of the illness.” Many of the symptoms schizophrenics experience are categorized as positive, negative, or cognitive.
Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech. Negative symptoms include restricted emotions, flat or lacking emotion, and the ability to start or continue productive activity. Cognitive symptoms include problems of intellectual functioning, working memory, and managing their day-to-day life.
Related Conditions & How They Interact With Schizoaffective Disorders and Schizophrenia
Oftentimes, those diagnosed with schizoaffective or schizophrenia (including the various subtypes) will experience other mental health conditions like PTSD/cPTSD, ADHD, anxiety disorders, and potential substance abuse issues.
Co-occurring disorders like those above and exacerbate symptoms and struggles, making it more difficult to follow treatment plans, be consistent with medication routines, and forget therapy sessions–which are vital in ongoing treatment.
ADHD and a schizoaffective/schizophrenia co-occurring diagnosis might mean that one’s ability to concentrate, be presently-minded, attend to task and more, may be an increased struggle compared to those who may have a single diagnosis of ADHD. But outside of these co-occurring diagnoses, there are additional schizoid based conditions and subtypes of schizophrenia.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, “As defined, schizophrenia is the most serious of a group of psychiatric disorders with related symptoms, including schizoid or schizotypal personality and schizophreniform disorder. These schizophrenic spectrum disorders, as they are called, differ from schizophrenia in various ways — briefer duration, less severe symptoms, or the absence of psychotic symptoms. But they occur in the same families as schizophrenia and probably reflect a similar genetic vulnerability.”
As with many mental health illnesses, gene variants play a major role in determining the severity of the illness or co-occurring diagnoses.
There’s No Need to Feel Alone As Someone Living With Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder
Feel like you might be alone in the schizophrenia world? There are approximately 25 million others in the world who are living with mental illness. Some have gone on to be incredibly successful and lead happy, healthy lives. Others have struggled and relied on medical care to help them stay regulated. Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder affect the wealthy, the poor, the homeless, the stable job-holders, and more.
Mental illness does not discriminate. The most famous people in the world also suffer from schizophrenia and its subtypes. Here are 10 historically famous individuals who’ve lived with schizophrenia and other mental health disorders.
First up we have one of the most famous of those diagnosed, Lionel Aldridge. Holding an 11 year career with the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers, Lionel was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after his NFL career in the late 1970’s. His diagnosis led him to become homeless for a time with him regaining control over his mental health. He became an advocate for the mentally ill and homeless until his death in 1998.
Next up we have Zelda Fitzgerald. Yes, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer of the Great Gatsby. Diagnosed schizophrenic in 1930, Zelda spent much of the 1930’s and 40’s in and out of psychiatric clinics due to her illness. She was the face of the jazz age and dubbed “The First Flapper,” by her overbearing husband. In 1970 Nancy Milford released a biography on Zelda that raised her to feminist icon status and revealed the hardships she endured during the later years of her life.
We all know the iconic American band the Beach Boys right? Well the frontman, Brian Wilson is schizoaffective. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential creative forces in popular music by critics and musicians alike. Suffering from massive childhood trauma, during the peak of his career in the 1960’s and 70’s, he began to hear voices, shut himself off in the chauffeur’s quarters for two years and suffered greatly from addiction and his mental illness. He eventually revived his career in the 1990’s and lives on in the rockstar hall of fame.
Across the country we’ve seen Vincent Van Gogh exhibits, experiences, and his famous works of art replicated over and over, being taught in classrooms around the world. We also all know Van Gogh for cutting off his ear and suffering mentally toward the end of his life. What was up with all that suffering? Well, Vincent Van Gogh was also schizophrenic. The artist lived in a time when schizophrenia had not yet been identified as a disorder, but many medical professionals today believe van Gogh suffered from it. His unstable moods and an eccentric personality led 150 doctors to hypothesize a posthumous diagnosis. Had he lived in a different time, he may have continued creating more incredible works of art.
Have you seen the film A Beautiful Mind? The film centers around a man and his incredible mathematical capabilities…as well as schizophrenia. Who is this man? John Nash–an American mathematician working in differential geometry, game theory and partial differential equations. His work has provided insight into the factors that govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems found in daily life. His theories are used in economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, computer science, games of skill, politics and military theory. Nash won several international awards for his work in mathematics and actively worked in the field for quite some time with his diagnosis coming in around 1959 upon his admittance into a mental health facility.
Mary Todd Lincoln, known as Abe Lincoln’s wife and woman who outlived most of her family (minus one of her four sons) Having witnessed the death of her 11 year-old son, President Lincoln’s fatal shooting, and a slew of other traumatic experiences she was diagnosed bipolar and/or schizophrenic in the later years of her life. Today we recognized this as schizoaffective. The First Lady had a history of migraines, mental illness, mood swings, fierce temper, public outbursts throughout Lincoln’s presidency, as well as excessive spending. Key pillars in schizoaffective type symptoms.
Founding member of the hippie movement, Jack Kerouac was diagnosed dementia praecox, the former name for schizophrenia, during his stint in the military. Known for his prolific novels and poetry, which covered a wide range of topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. He became somewhat of a quiet celebrity during his lifetime and is one of the greatest writers of the beat generation. To quiet the voices he heard continuously, he turned to heavy drinking, dying of liver hemorrhage in 1969.
Saturday Night Live was at its peak funniness in the early 2000’s when comedians like Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Amy Pohler, and Darrell Hammond–one of SNL’s longest running cast mates. Hammond was diagnosed during childhood and revealed this information during a CNN interview. Hammond revealed that his mother had brutally abused him throughout his childhood. He stated that this trauma from abuse led to cutting, several hospitalizations due to psychiatric issues, and diagnoses that include bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder. These days you can see him as SNL’s announcer and on the stand-up comic circle in New York.
We’ve all heard of Albert Einstein - but did you know he had two sons? One of those sons was Eduard Einstein, a diagnosed schizophrenic. Eduard was extremely intelligent and a successful student throughout his education. During his youth Eduard wanted to be a psychoanalyst but was began showing signs of schizophrenia by the age of 20. This led to him to be institutionalized several times. He died in an asylum at age 55 and his family lineage has been used to raise public awareness of schizophrenia.
Who could forget trailblazing pinup icon Bettie Page? Vivacious and care-free in her famous pinup photos, Bettie Page constantly heard voices, and in the 1970s, the symptoms of her eventually diagnosed schizophrenia became more apparent. She even had a violent altercation with her landlady in 1982 that led to her being sentenced to a psychiatric hospital for 10 years. During the 1980’s Bettie Page was made to be a villain and while institutionalized worked very hard to improve her mental health and express her remorse for her actions.
Battling Misconceptions Around Those Living With Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder
Unfortunately, Schizoaffective Disorder and Schizophrenia are incredibly stigmatized in social society. Individuals like Aaron Carter and others with substance abuse issues give schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder a bad name. Not by their own doing, but by the exasperated ways in which the media displays these illnesses.
Often, the media highlights homelessness, “dangerous” hallucinations, and reactive behaviors of those living with these two illnesses and does not properly portray the incredible accomplishments of those living with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. In the previous section, I highlighted several individuals who lived exemplary lives with struggles along the way.
Due in part to the massive celebrity and success of some celebrities diagnosed with these illnesses, they are often described as “the genius disorders.” Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are used as a clutch to justify one’s creativity and brilliance–rather than giving credit to the individual for their accomplishments.
Vincent Van Gogh and John Nash were constantly given credit for their work due to their mental illness. This can be frustrating for those looking for stability and healing as it raises concerns that once an individual begins treatment and medications they may lose their ability to create and produce. This is simply a myth produced by the media–your creativity is yours, not your mental illness’.
Sadly, those living with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder are portrayed as either stable geniuses or unstable, homeless, “crazy” people. As with any mental illness, it can be difficult to manage the illness. This struggle does not define you as inherently good or bad, or creative or crazy. We all struggle on some level. And that’s okay.
So, when it comes to managing the misconceptions around schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, it is up to us to help people understand the world through our eyes. Dispelling myths around what hallucinations are actually a key element in highlighting the reality around living with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
Ending the taboos around schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia does not rest solely on the shoulders of those living with the illness–it also relies on advocates in the community, our partners in life, and our close friends and family to help end the stigma. The more neurotypical individuals we have helping to dispel the myths around schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, the less stigma we will see.
Where to Get Support With Your Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Diagnosis
According to Harvard Health Publishing, “Schizophrenia is a lifelong illness. Psychotic symptoms tend to wax and wane, while the negative symptoms and cognitive problems are more persistent. In general, the impact of the illness can be reduced by early and active treatment. There is no way to prevent schizophrenia, but the earlier the illness is detected, the better chance there is to prevent the worst effects of the illness.”
There are so many places you can get support for your diagnosis! Join my Discord channel to have secure, private conversations about your diagnosis. Find me on Instagram or TikTok in my DMs, or join me on ShareWell, where I host free monthly support groups for both Schizoaffective Disorder and ADHD.
Discord: https://discord.gg/aJrMZ2EXtZ
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sarahalpotter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahalpotter
ShareWell: https://www.sharewellnow.com
As new research and information comes up about Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder, I will be sure to update this post with information.
Sources
Shared genes link depression, schizophrenia, and three other mental illnesses, By Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing, Published March 1, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2022. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/shared-genes-link-depression-schizophrenia-and-three-other-mental-illnesses-201303015944
Schizophrenia, Harvard Health Publishing. Published Feb 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2022. https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/schizophrenia-a-to-z
On The Trail of Schizophrenia, Harvard Health Publishing. Published on March 9, 2014. Retrieved on August 1, 2022. https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/On_the_trail_of_schizophrenia
What Is Schizoaffective Disorder? By Arlin Cuncic. Published on March 08, 2022. August 1, 2022.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-schizoaffective-disorder-4171702