schizoaffective disorder

[Wakeboarder24]

It’s hard having a diagnosis like this because it’s hard to explain to people. For people to understand. I was at Walmart Pharmacy picking up my antipsychotic and it had schizoaffective on the bottle. Out in the open for Walmart to see. It was embarrassing because for that moment I was just a label. Just a big bodied male who had some disorder no one could pronounce. I could have been a monster. All the people I have touched and been nice to in my life didn’t matter for the moment.

[Fedupfemale1]

Hi Wakeboarder24, I empathize with having a diagnosis written on the label of your medication of such nature to cause possible distress, worry and concern. I work in pharmacy in the UK so I'm not sure if my suggestion would be applicable to your current pharmacy supplier however I know here the only legal requirements to be printed on a drug label in UK are drug name, strength, dose, form, directions of administration, date, patient name and address of supplier. So maybe next time you can have a private word to get the 'schizoeffective' wording removed off the printed label? As diagnosis or reason for use of medication isn't required legally and also poses a possible GDPR issue if readable by other person's posing negative consequences for the patient.Hope this helps somehow as I know it can be a sensitive topic to discuss.

Happy to help with any other topics.

[Wakeboarder24 in reply to Fedupfemale1]

Thanks! It was an embarrassing moment, but part of it that I want to talk about is the shame mentally Ill people have to endure. I want more understanding of schizo- type disorders.

[Downinil]

My late husband was diagnosed with Schzoaffectiive disorder so I’m fairly familiar with the symptoms. He sometimes saw beams of light flashing.

[Wakeboarder24 in reply to Downinil]

That hasn’t been my experience

[Downinil in reply to Wakeboarder24]

I don’t know all possible symptoms but that’s what I remember from his experience.

[Cherryfizz34]

Get a bag next time. I have schizo affective . It’s a tough label. But the label doesn’t define you. It’s just like diabetes. It’s just something you have.

[Mumbutterfly]

You’re right that people need to understand that we all have mental health issues and need to be understanding of the struggles of others. There’s an author who writes fiction and has a series whose characters struggle with mental health. One of the main characters has anxiety and depression. One of the others has, not is, what you have ( can’t spell it right and I’m pretty sure it’s what she has). You may not enjoy reading or listening to books and may not be interested in reading his series but he has a huge fan base and all of these people are reading about all of these mental health issues and how they affect people. Word is getting out in more ways than we may be aware of and more focus is being placed on mental health and how we all deal with it in some way. There is hope for more understanding in the near future

[Wakeboarder24 in reply to Mumbutterfly]

I hope you’re right. It’s getting better.