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| A Normal Complaint of Schizophrenics |
It is said that if depression is the common cold of psychological disorders, then chronic schizophrenia is the cancer. Depression, like the common cold, is treatable and does not last for life - unless you have Bipolar Disorder which is a completely different topic. Chronic schizophrenia; however, is very much like cancer in that it is a lifetime disorder and, although there are medicines to help treat it, it cannot be cured.
Every 1 in 100 people develop schizophrenia at some point in their lives. Although schizophrenia can strike at any time and without warning, it typically affects those 17-30. It isn't that you magically stop being schizophrenic after age 30 or cannot develop it after age 30, it is that this is the typical age group for the first onset of symptoms. Men normally have more severe symptoms than women.
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| The Affected Portions of the Brain |
There is no known cause of schizophrenia and it is believed that there may be several factors. The most accepted theory is that schizophrenia is caused by the release of too much dopamine in the brain. There is a lot of evidence to support this theory. Those who have schizophrenia show increased dopamine levels as opposed to those without the disease and the medicine used to treat schizophrenia which blocks the dopamine receptors seem to have the best outcomes.
| A Schizophrenic Brain vs. A Healthy Brain |
Schizophrenia is a genetic psychological disorder. This means that it is known to run in a family. Evidence for this comes in the fact that several members of a family are known to have schizophrenia. For example, if your mother has schizophrenia, than you have a 17% chance of developing the disorder.
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| The Genetic Link of Schizophrenia |
While there is strong evidence that points to schizophrenia being genetic, that is only half the story. It is also environmental. Psychologists know that schizophrenia is environmental because of studies conducted on monozygotic twins. In these studies, although one twin had schizophrenia, the other did not necessarily have the disorder. If schizophrenia were purely genetic, both twins would have the disorder.
Some of the environmental factors that are believed to cause schizophrenia are:
- Family Stress
- Poor Social Interactions
- Traumatic Experiences
- Diseases at an early age
Although most people at some point in their lives will experience one if not more of these factors, it does not mean that they will develop schizophrenia. Keep in mind that schizophrenia only affects about 1% of the population.
There are 5 main symptoms of schizophrenia and I am going to discuss each separately. The first big symptom schizophrenics exhibit are delusions.
Delusions
Delusions are false, often bizarre, beliefs. Schizophrenics suffering from delusions believe that they are completely real and do not understand that whatever they think is false. While sometimes these delusions are paranoid in nature as the media leads us to believe all schizophrenics are, it is not always the case. Paranoid delusions are ones in which a schizophrenic may believe that there is someone spying on them - listening to their conversations, following them, etc. Sometimes, schizophrenics do have genuine paranoia in their delusions, but not always. Sometimes the delusions can be as simple as the schizophrenic believing they are a movie star so to speak and thus everyone should know them.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are when a schizophrenic perceives occurrences in their environment that are not real. There are four areas in which a schizophrenic may experience hallucinations. This four may occur all at once or only one at any given time. The first is auditory. Some schizophrenics believe that they hear voices telling them to do things. The second, visual, is when schizophrenics see lights, people, etc. The third, olfactory, is smelling things that are not there while the fourth, tactile, is the feeling of things that are not there such as being poked.
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| An Example of Auditory Hallucinations |
Disorganized Thinking or Speech
Schizophrenics have different speech patterns than those not affected. Schizophrenics have unusuhere al thoughts, do not speak much, some schizophrenics have disjointed speech patterns, and change topics midway through what they are saying.
Negative Symptoms
Negative symptoms occur when there is an absence of all normal behavior. Negative symptoms are social withdrawal, the absence of emotion and expressions, reduced energy, motivation, and activity.
Catatonia
Catatonia is a negative symptom in which a schizophrenic is unmoving - generally staying in a certain position for a set amount of time.
All of these symptoms do not always occur at the same time and not every schizophrenic exhibits every symptom.
There are medicines that do treat schizophrenia. Many of these medicines do extremely well in reducing the symptoms of those with schizophrenia and help them live normal lives. The biggest problem that occurs with schizophrenics is that sometimes they believe they are doing well enough that they no longer need the medicine so they stop taking it. The second problem is getting a schizophrenic to start taking their medicine if they have paranoia.
Schizophrenic are more likely to live normal, full lives if they are in a loving environment and have support from their friends and family.
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Nice post! You did a great job explaining what schizophrenia is, though I would like to see a post about the different types of schizophrenia. You're learning a lot, kiddo.
ReplyDeleteThank you! That means like omg so much! :) Um...yeah. I can do a post about the types. There's 3 right?
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