Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Introduction

Like any other mental disorder, schizophrenia is a mental disorder with specific symptoms. Often, schizophrenics are misunderstood by society as being violent and dangerous, partly because of how media portrays them. This, of course, does not give society the right to discriminate all schizophrenics as violent. Hence, all schizophrenics are not violent however, some are violent due to various reasons such as people with criminal record before schizophrenia, substance abusers and paranoid schizophrenics.

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder. In Greek, schizo means 'splitting' and phrenia means 'of the mind.' It is a mental condition that is difficult for an individual to distinguish between reality and imagination. Schizophrenia has no bound in choosing its victims and it is not preventable. Life of a schizophrenic is terrifying because for them, reality and fantasy constantly merge.

What is schizophrenia not?

Many people baffle split mind with personality. Schizophrenia is not split or multiple personality. It is not caused by parents or how someone is brought up. It is not untreatable and definitely not a guarantee that a person will be violent or be in a hospital for life.

Symptoms

The symptoms of schizophrenia fulfil clearly specified criteria. They are divided into two major categories: positive and negative. Sometimes there are also cognitive symptoms

1. Positive

Positive symptoms are usually acute or initial phase of schizophrenia. In this stage the changes in a person are easily noticeable. Patients usually hallucinate. They may see, hear, feel, taste and smell something that no one else does. For example, they may hear voices that may order them to do things or talk to each other (usually unpleasant things about the patient). Patients may also have false beliefs known as delusions that cannot be argued by any logical point. They may feel that they are being watched, followed or blamed for everything that goes wrong. The dark side of delusion is paranoia where the schizophrenic thinks that others are cheating, harassing, poisoning or spying on them. Furthermore, patients may have thought disorders and rapid mood swings. For instance, a patient may be saying something and stops abruptly in the middle of a thought, unable to complete it. This is known as thought blocking. Also, often, schizophrenics have movement disorder, that is, they are clumsy and uncoordinated. In some extreme cases, immobility and unresponsiveness.

2. Negative

Negative symptoms are usually known as long-term phases. It results in reduction in normal emotions and behaviour in schizophrenics. Patients lack in pleasure in life, flat affects and they neglect basic hygiene. The ominous part is that these schizophrenics are often mistaken by people to be lazy and unwilling to improve their lives.

3. Cognitive

Cognitive symptoms are only detected when neuropsychological tests are done. The results found that schizophrenics have poor executive functioning, poor memory and poor attention.

Who has it and how common is it?

The patterns of symptoms and degree of severity vary among different. It affects both male and female equally and it has been observed in people of different country, culture, social class and race. About 1% of all people get schizophrenia. The chances of developing are 10-15 % for people with 1st degree relatives with schizophrenia. 40% chances for 2 parents with schizophrenia. Men get schizophrenia between the ages 15 to 35 with high risk at 20s. Women get it in their mid 20s and early 30s with the high risk at 20s but not as intense as men. Of course, this does not mean that women are on the safer side because for women schizophrenia does not reduce quickly after 20s.

How do individuals feel?

Schizophrenics often do not understand that they are ill. Like said before, reality and fantasy are constantly merging in their mind. This causes them to have so many different emotions at once. They feel confused, fearful and extremely agitated. To deal with their problem, they often withdraw from society which results in isolation and loneliness. Often, because of what people say about them, schizophrenics feel that they are a burden on families and society and have a sense of worthlessness.

What about suicide?

When it comes to suicide, schizophrenics attempt suicide more often than general people. About 40-50% of schizophrenics attempt suicide.