Is there a link between bipolar and schizophrenia?

I have bipolar disorder and am not taking any meds, and I get really depressed sometimes although I can basically still function in life (I still go to work, school, pay my bills, etc).

I know that schizophrenia runs in my family, and I am afraid that in the future I will become schizophrenic (I'm 25 now). I have never had any hallicinations or heard voices, but sometimes when I get really depressed I feel like I'm losing my mind and myself.

What is the likelihood that I could become schizophrenic later in life?

Please read about both here, and see if it helps you to understand!

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bipolar...

Bipolar disorder
Introduction
From high to low. From euphoria to depression. From recklessness to listlessness. These are the extremes associated with bipolar disorder, which can be a serious and disabling mental illness. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depression or manic-depressive illness 鈥?manic behavior is one extreme of this disorder and depression is the other.
Bipolar disorder often begins in adolescence or early adulthood and may persist throughout life. The causes of bipolar disorder are elusive, and there's no cure.
The flares of bipolar disorder may last for weeks or months, causing great disturbances in the lives of those affected, their friends and their families. Left untreated, the condition usually worsens. But bipolar disorder can be managed with medications and other therapies.
Signs and symptoms
Bipolar disorder is characterized by an alternating pattern of emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression). The intensity of the associated signs and symptoms varies. Bipolar disorder can range from a mild condition to a severe condition, and there may be periods of normal behavior.
Manic phase
For many people, signs and symptoms in the manic phase may include:
路Feelings of euphoria, extreme optimism and inflated self-esteem
路Rapid speech, racing thoughts, agitation and increased physical activity
路Poor judgment
路Recklessness or taking chances not normally taken
路Difficulty sleeping
路Tendency to be easily distracted
路Inability to concentrate
路Aggressive behavior
Depressive phase
In the depressive phase, signs and symptoms include:
路Persistent feelings of sadness, anxiety, guilt or hopelessness
路Disturbances in sleep and appetite
路Fatigue and loss of interest in daily activities
路Problems concentrating
路Irritability
路Chronic pain without a known cause
路Recurring thoughts of suicide
Causes
Doctors and researchers don't know exactly what causes bipolar disorde. But a variety of biologic, genetic and environmental factors seem to be involved in causing and triggering episodes of this illness.
Evidence indicates that differences in the chemical messengers brain (neurotransmitters) occur in people who have bipolar disorder. In many cases, people with a bipolar disorder may have a genetic disposition for the disorder. The abnormality may be in genes that regulate neurotransmitters. However, not everyone with a family member who has bipolar disorder will develop the disease.
Factors that may contribute to or trigger episodes of bipolar disorder include drug abuse and stressful or psychologically traumatic events.
Risk factors
Bipolar disorder tends to run in families. A family history of depression appears to exist in 80 percent to 90 percent of cases of bipolar disorder. Researchers are attempting to identify genes that may make people susceptible to bipolar disorder.
When to seek medical advice
People with bipolar disorder often don't recognize how impaired they are when experiencing a mood episode and how greatly the disorder is affecting their lives and the lives of others. Friends, family and primary care physicians are all important in recognizing possible signs of bipolar disorder and urging the person to seek professional help.
If a family member or friend shows signs of bipolar disorder, encourage that person to seek the care of a psychiatrist.
Screening and diagnosis
Your doctor may ask you or a family member who has accompanied you about your signs and symptoms and to describe apparent episodes of mania and depression. Diagnosis also involves ruling out other mental health conditions that may produce some symptoms similar to bipolar disorder. These may include other mood disorders, sometimes schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivit... disorder or borderline personality disorder.
You may also undergo tests to see if your mood swings are due to physical causes, such as:
路Substance abuse. Abuse of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine may affect your moods.
路Thyroid disorders. A blood test for thyroid function can determine whether you have a thyroid disorder, such as an underactive thyroid.
Your doctor may also ask about your use of medications, alcohol and recreational drugs and about your diet. Certain medications including corticosteroids, such as prednisone, and medications used to treat depression, anxiety and Parkinson's disease can cause mood swings. Abuse of alcohol and recreational drugs also can cause mood swings. Deficiency of vitamin B-12 may alter moods as well.
Complications
Other problems, such as anxiety disorder or alcoholism, may affect people with bipolar disorder. The length, severity and frequency of mood swings vary from person to person. In some people with bipolar disorder, there is rapid cycling with more frequent and shorter periods of mood disturbance.
It's also possible for mania and depression to be present at the same time. In this mixed state, people experience combinations of agitation, disturbances in sleep and appetite, suicidal thoughts and psychosis. Psychosis is a major mental disorder in which the personality is disorganized and contact with reality is impaired, often including auditory hallucinations and delusions 鈥?firmly held erroneous beliefs.
Bipolar disorder can have devastating effects on relationships as well as finances stemming from spending sprees during a manic episode or nearly complete isolation and withdrawal during a depressive phase.
Treatment
Medication and psychotherapy are the main treatments for bipolar disorder. Occasionally, doctors use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Medications
Most people with bipolar disorder take medication to regulate their moods. Lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid) has been widely used as a mood stabilizer and is generally the first line of treatment for manic episodes.
Anti-seizure medications, such as valproic acid (Depakene), divalproex (Depakote) and lamotrigine (Lamictal) are also widely used as mood regulators. Topiramate (Topamax), another anti-seizure medication, also is sometimes used to stabilize mood.
Sometimes, doctors also use antidepressant medications to treat the depression associated with bipolar disorder. These may include paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), sertraline (Zoloft) or bupropion (Wellbutrin), among others. In other circumstances, doctors may use antipsychotic medications such as risperidone (Risperdal), olanzapine (Zyprexa) or quetiapine (Seroquel), among others.
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), certain antipsychotic drugs may increase the risk of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Therefore, the ADA recommends that doctors screen and regularly monitor people who take Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa for bipolar disorder.
You may need to take medications for several weeks before they reach their full effect.
Psychotherapy
This approach is often used simultaneously with medication. Your therapist will help you detect patterns leading up to episodes of bipolar disorder, trying to identify triggers for these episodes. These patterns might include your use of medications or anything that happens to you physically or emotionally. Psychotherapy helps provide strategies for managing stress and coping with uncertainties. This, along with basic education about the nature of the disorder, helps you understand why you may well need to keep taking medication over many years.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Doctors use this form of treatment mainly in people who have episodes of major depression associated with suicidal tendencies or in people whose medication has proved to be ineffective. In this treatment, electrodes are taped to your head. Then, while you're anesthetized and after you've received a muscle relaxant, a small amount of electrical current is passed through your brain for less than a second. This current produces a brain seizure, but because of the muscle relaxant, your body remains calm.
ECT profoundly affects brain metabolism and blood flow to various areas of the brain. How that correlates to easing depression remains unknown, but this therapy is often highly effective.
Self-care
Bipolar disorder isn't an illness that you can treat on your own. But you can do some things for yourself that will bolster your treatment program:
路Take your medications. Even if you're feeling well, resist the temptation to skip your medications. If you stop, signs and symptoms of the disorder may recur.
路Pay attention to warning signs. You and your caregivers may have identified a pattern to your episodes of bipolar disorder and what triggers them. Call your doctor if you feel you're facing an episode. Involve family members or friends in watching for warning signs.
路Avoid drugs and alcohol. Drugs, especially stimulants including diet drugs, and alcohol may be part of what triggers episodes of bipolar disorder.
路Check first before taking other medications. Call the doctor who's treating you for bipolar disorder before you take medications prescribed by another doctor. Sometimes other medications trigger episodes of bipolar disorder or may interact with medications you're taking to treat bipolar disorder.
Coping skills
Coping with bipolar disorder can be difficult. Support groups can be a valuable part of a wider network of social support that includes health care professionals, family, friends and religious worship communities.
Various support groups bring together people, family and friends who are coping with any of a wide variety of physical or mental health problems. Support groups for bipolar disorder provide a setting in which people can share their common problems and provide ongoing support to one another.
Ask your doctor about self-help groups that may exist in your community. Your local health department, public library, telephone book and the Internet also may be good sources to locate a support group in your area.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformatio...

http://www.bipolar.com/

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How do you know you have bipolar? Did some doctor tell you that? Don't let anyone brain wash you, we all get a depressed sometimes. Is something going on when you get really depressed, or is your depression out of no reason at all. If the depression is when something happens, face the something, do something about it...
well being schizophrenic my self for 10yrs im on medications,im no better.you could be depressed. i would say if your moody it could be leading to bipolar .especially the mood swings see your doctor.
mental health.com
Don't you love cut and paste responses?

Anyhow, I'm assuming you have been diagnosed with bipolar, although you don't say which flavor or what meds you were on. Certainly brain imaging has shown the same pattern of enlarged ventricles in both bipolar and schizophrenia, both respond to antipsychotics and the extreme end of mania can lead to psychosis, so it's a reasonable assumption that there is some underlying link.

There is also a condition called schizoaffective disorder, which is sometimes referred to as the bastard child of bipolar and schizophrenia, so you may be lucky enough to develop that ;-)

The honest answer is that I'm not aware that anyone knows what starts schizophrenia, any more than they know what starts bipolar. You could be 'lucky' and got bipolar instead of schizophrenia.

Seriously, though, no meds is not smart. Untreated, your bipolar will only get worse over time.
bipolar myself
http://www.crazyboards.org
The Clinical answer is already there but as a non-clinician let me suggest that there is a helpful way of looking at this. All Illnesses classed as Organic Mental Illness have similarities in their presentation. The cause is a chemical malfunction in the brains internal communication system that cause messages to become either garbled and hard for the system to translate or make the forebrain, consciousness, aware of things normally kept as subconscious process. This can lead to Mood swings; delusional thinking; excess paranoia, cos remember that paranoia is a survival characteristic so common to us all; hallucinations or any of the other symptoms associated with Mental Disorder. If you see it as a spectrum then it is really all the same illness just a different set of symptoms. Which means, of course that if you have developed a specific set of symptoms called BP then it is unlikely that you will develop another set called SZ. If you ever want to ask a doctor how they diagnose MD, if they are really honest they will admit that although they can quite accurately diagnose, the real test is what medication works, mood stabiliser or anti-psychotic, which defines formal diagnosis. It sounds to me as though having been found so young you can look forward to a stable life with need for meds and precautions only as nuisance level as Diabetes, you are lucky, go forth and enjoy life! Good Luck