Breaking the Spectrum: Schizoaffective Disorder and What I Have in Common with an Autistic 15 Year Old
I am a 26 year old man living with schizoaffective disorder. I have a 15 year old cousin named Tate who has autism. Even though there is an age difference and two different diagnosis between us, new scientific research has emerged that we might have more in common than most people may realize.
Schizoaffective Disorder and Autism
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness which has both symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar depression. There is a “cycle” of mood swings with psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.
According to Sane.org, they estimate schizoaffective disorder to affect only between 0.3–1.1% of people and is about as common as schizophrenia. It is often misdiagnosed as either bipolar disorder with psychotic Features or schizophrenia, but it differs in how it manifests. Schizoaffective disorder has psychosis whether or not you’re having mood swings. With bipolar disorder with psychotic features, when there is a mood change, psychosis can worsen. With schizophrenia though, psychotic symptoms stay consistent even when a person is or isn’t showing mood symptoms
Autism spectrum disorder, or autism, is a range of conditions characterized by problems with social skills, repetitive behaviors, and problems with speech and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects about 1 in 59 children in the United States today.
A Link
Emerging study results suggest that there are both clinical and biological links between autism and schizophrenia. Gene expression patterns in people with autism also have some same patterns as those with schizoaffective, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Much like with autism, schizoaffective and schizophrenic individuals have a high level of social withdrawal, trouble with communicating, high levels of anxiety. In fact, childhood onset schizophrenia has many of the features of autism. It is important to know also that adult autism is also sometimes misdiagnosed, vice versa, as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Same but Different
Although my cousin and I have a lot in common, at the same time we are very different individuals with different needs. Whereas my cousin has more of a problem with communicating and expressing himself, I am expressive but have more problems controlling my emotions. I hope that further research will be conducted into the link between the connections between the two, and that it might help when dealing with individuals who would get misdiagnosed.
References
https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism
https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-conditions/schizoaffective-disorder
https://www.verywellmind.com/schizophrenia-versus-schizoaffective-disorder-2953129
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obFgFDI62pU
https://www.mhanational.org/conditions/schizoaffective-disorder
