Things to consider when trying to figure out your mental illness symptoms
There seems to be a lot of confusion online about the causes of various symptoms of mental illness. I personally made this post because until recently I was very confused as to why my schizoaffective symptoms seemed to be presenting like OCD symptoms. Then I found out OCD-like symptoms are actually very common in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. (fun!)
I strongly recommend doing research on your symptoms even if they aren’t mentioned in this post. There is a huge amount of symptom overlap among many different disorders. This is especially important to know about if you intend on self diagnosing with anything, as otherwise you might self-dx with several different mental illnesses whose symptoms can actually be explained by just one.
Here are some symptoms whose exact cause is often difficult to figure out. OC and psychotic symptoms are frequently associated with just a few specific disorders when, in actuality, they have a very wide range of causes.
Obsessive/compulsive symptoms, while obviously most strongly associated with OCD, also appear in:
Schizophrenia and related disorders (source, source) Post-traumatic stress disorder (source, source) Autism* (source, source, source)
*note that while autism and OCD have high rates of comorbidity, autistic traits such as restricted & repetitive behavior should not be automatically considered OC symptoms on their own. Repetitive behavior in OCD is associated with anxiety and dysfunction; repetitive behavior in autism is not inherently a sign of distress or anxiety. The sources I gave might explain this better
Psychotic symptoms may not indicate a full blown psychotic disorder--they also appear in:
Borderline personality disorder (source, source) Personality disorders in general, especially Cluster A disorders (source) Dissociative disorders, particularly DID (source) Mood disorders such as bipolar disorder & major depression (source, source) OCD (source) Post-traumatic stress disorder (source)
Also, psychotic symptoms may not be indicative of chronic mental illness at all. Especially if the onset is sudden or the symptoms last for a brief period of time, they may be due to extreme stress, grief, sleep deprivation, use of psychoactive drugs, or physical illness.
This post is not 100% done--more information will be added as needed.
