Is this a misdiagnosis?

Hi I am wondering if I got misdiagnosed because the dr I had was a teledoctor and I am not sure he understood me.

OK I dont have a manic episode very often but when I do its a doozy. I hallucinate all kinds of stuff (mostly religious stuff) audio and visual and have bipolar delusions and it usually gets bad enough that I have to be hospitalized. I was diagnosed as bipolar type one but this doctor seemed to think I was schitzoaffective bipolar type because of the hallucinations.

Normally one most days I am just depressed and I stay that way. I cant take any antidepressants because they throw me into mania. I dont normally halucinate unless I am in an manic episode. This is not an everyday thing.

So did this dr just misunderstand me and I am just bipolar 1 or am in really schizoaffective? I have a feeling he didn't understand. He was foreign with a heavy accent and it was a teledoctor because where I live thats all there is.

I wonder if you can get a second teledoctor opinion.

Also wonder if any self-assessments would do any good in helping you to understand if you really do have Schizoaffective traits.

Thats a good idea. I will be seeing a new one in a week because my old dr left. I just want to know for sure what I have. I read schitzoaffective people hear voices? I dont hear anything unless I am manic then I hear all kinds of stuff. Like once I heard the hooves of the 4 horsemen's horses. My bathroom faucet was whispering stuff to me too. Saw stuff too.

On a normal day though I dont hear anything. I am mainly just depressed and it goes on like that for years and years until I have another episode. It also takes a while until the episode is truly over. I still believe alot of it for a while until my head is together enough to determine its not real.

It might take a while between episodes because I am pretty settled in my meds. I have been on the same meds for close to 15 years except for a short while during covid when they couldnt get them. That was a disaster I about lost my mind on the new stuff. I was so glad once I could get my medicine again.

Anyway thanks for your post. I am going to ask this new dr because I want to know what I have.

I don't remember the exact psychological context, but I seem to recall seeing some diagnosis here in PF that included psychosis when manic. But I don't know which forum it would have been mentioned in.

We're not allowed to diagnose you, even if we could, but I'm going to place my bet on Bipolar 1.

You're describing precisely what I'm going through and that's what my GP is going to look at with me. Psychosis (delusions and/or hallucinations) are what marks the difference between mania and hypomania, which marks the difference between bipolar 1 and bipolar 2.

So @snaga I'm guessing you'd find that under mood disorders > bipolar

Teledoctor might not have been the most reliable sort.

Thanks for the replies. Well I asked this latest dr what i have and she said likely bipolar 1 with psychotic symptoms so I guess I am in the wrong forum. It was kind of upsetting because she did not seem overly concerned because she just wrote it off to saying, "whatever it is the medicine is exactly the same." Which I wanted to know exactly what it is that I have. So I guess if I post I will post in the bipolar forum. Thanks again