[orionblastar]

In my case I had panic attacks due to stress of being picked on, was told to 'snap out of it' and couldn't.

Most thought I was autistic and not schizophrenic, but schizoaffective disorder is rare and like a combo of bipolar and schizophrenia. It is not as bad as schizophrenia, and you have some schizophrenics who are in a mental hospital for life because they can't cope with it.

I used to earn a good salary as a programmer, but management didn't want someone sick with a mental illness working for them. I had worked so hard and stressed myself out that I developed the mental illness and ended up on short-term disability. When I returned two weeks later I was fired for having a panic attack and not snapping out of it. After that my career was over and it was hard finding work that wouldn't give me a hard time for being mentally ill.