Are schizophrenia and bi polar close to the same thing?

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality and by significant social or occupational dysfunction. A person experiencing untreated schizophrenia is typically characterized as demonstrating disorganized thinking, and as experiencing delusions or auditory hallucinations. Although the disorder is primarily thought to affect cognition, it can also contribute to chronic problems with behavior and emotion. Due to the many possible combinations of symptoms, there is ongoing and heated debate about whether the diagnosis necessarily or adequately describes a disorder, or alternatively whether it might represent a number of disorders. For this reason, Eugen Bleuler deliberately called the disease "the schizophrenias", plural, when he coined the present name.

Bipolar disorder (previously known as manic depression) is a diagnostic category describing a class of mood disorders where the person experiences states or episodes of depression and/or mania, hypomania, and/or mixed states. It is considered to be a disability. The difference between bipolar disorder and unipolar disorder (also called major depression), for the purpose of this introduction, is that bipolar disorder involves "energized" or "activated" mood states in addition to depressed mood states. The duration and intensity of these mood states varies widely among people with the illness. The fluctuating component of this illness is called "cycling" from one mood state to another at varying rates. Cycling, another word for mood swings, causes varying levels of impairment. For most individuals with bipolar disorder, the condition is disabling and the individual has some difficulty functioning. Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/schizophren...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bi-polar...

no...not even close
I am a nurse practitioner. No, these 2 disorders are very different in nature and how they affect the person.
no schizophrenia is split personality -two people in one.
bi -polar is going from one extreme mood(mania)and then sinking to the other mood which is depression.Its like being on an elevator that only goes to the top floor and the bottom floor -there is no in between
No. Schizophrenics are detatched from reality while bipolars overreact to it.
With schizophrenia, people hear voices. With bi-polar, they have mood swings, very high to very low.