psychotic symptoms?

When I was in my early teens I clearly remember having some weird thoughts that could probably be classified as psychotic, or at least very close to that. I felt like people (including my family) watched me all the time, or maybe like some supernatural entity watched me at night. I had thoughts about the possibility of cameras watching me and I actually used to check my house like behind curtains or in hidden places, making sure no cameras were there.
To be honest, sometimes I still get feelings like that but they're not as severe and frequent as they used to be when I was in my early teens. Now I can easily say to myself that it's all in my head, like I just stop and think "ok, this is not happening for real" and anxiety and paranoia end without too many problems. I also remember thinking that some people could read my thoughts, especially when I thought about embarassing stuff.
Then there are other things I'm not sure how to define them, like I can't really figure out if I just had a mind or it was actually real. Like one night I woke up and then started to hear noises of something hitting a wall, like someone punching a wall real hard but it was actually much worse than that and it all ended when I turned the light on. One night I woke up and smelled something burning and it was an extremely strong smell in my nose but nothing was burning, so I just turned the light on and tried to calm down and it all went away.
I also used to mistake noises for something else, for example entities or just human people trying to get in the house and kill me, but then again, I'm not sure how to classify these things because I strongly believe in the paranormal so I can't really draw the line between personal beliefs and delusions.

I was wondering whether to tell my pdoc about this or not. I don't feel like I need antipsychotics because I'm not like that now, I mean sometimes I get weird paranoid thoughts but they're not so severe and sometimes they're based on real events, I also have OCD and of course, bipolar disorder. I'm being treated for BD right now but didn't talk about those experiences to my psychiatrist. I know that psychotic symptoms can be frequent in bipolar disorder especially type 1 (although I don't get mania, but hypomania and pdoc mentioned it).

So, really...that's one thing that is confusing me. And how is it possible that severe symptoms like that disappeared like that or just became much less severe?

Not sure why they are better now than they were - maybe you are just in a better place now compared to when you were younger.

I recognise a lot of what you say as things I have when psychotic. I think it would be def worth letting your psych know as a heads up and also so they have a more complete picture of you and symptoms you have had.

I am glad they are better than they were

Cracked

Just to put a slightly different perspective on it... It's technically feasible that it's linked to the OCD. (i.e. Obsessive thoughts of being watched with a checking compulsion) Your doctor is the most qualified to make that distinction.

One way I've used to express those kinds of thoughts to my doctor that are kind of low level is to describe them as paranoid ideation rather than paranoid delusions. The difference being is that I could maintain the ability to consider evidence to the contrary.

As far as how can those symptoms become less severe? Who's to say? Mental illness as a science is still in it's infancy. There are lots of things that we just don't know yet. Maybe the things that triggered those thoughts before are no longer there. Maybe you just developed better coping mechanisms.

Thank you Cracked, I will definitely talk to the doctor about this.

Exiled, very good perspective. I was thinking about that too, because I actually have OCD. My OCD symptoms include repeatedly wash my hands, lining up objects, switching lights on and off repeatedly, making sure some doors are closed and yeah even checking if someone can see what I do during the day.
But I also had feelings that I was controlled by some kind of external entity inserting thoughts in my mind and taking control of my actions. I don't know if this was just a very creative and unusual imagination or an actual psychotic symptom. I can't see how this one can be related to OCD. Or maybe it was just a "creative" and unusual way to describe that confusion I had about myself? Was I a bad or good person? This is what I was worried about, so maybe my mind rejected I could have negative feelings and projected it to a fictional entity inside my mind that was responsible of all those unwanted thoughts and actions. Almost like blaming someone else for my mistakes.
Worrying about family finding out my private stuff on the computer is a rational fear I guess, so I make sure things are protected and yeah this could be OCD.
The feeling that some supernatural entity was watching me, the thought mirrors could insert nightmares in my head are probably more difficult to explain. I think they have a lot to do with my own personal beliefs, as I am a very spiritual person.

So I could talk about that and give my own interpretations to make my doctor understand better. I don't think I am psychotic, at least not now, so I want to make sure I perfectly understand what's going on in my mind. I don't want to be misdiagnosed and treated with antipsychotics. She's already aware of my bipolar disorder of course...took 1 session to figure it out as I explained the situation very clearly. I'm on medication for that and I'm positive about an improvement.