Schizophrenia Informative Speech

Be honest- How many of you in my audience today still think or once thought that Schizophrenic disorder is characterized by a split or multiple personalities? This is not an uncommon misbelief at all. Many mistaken split personality, or dissociative identity disorder, for schizophrenia. However, it’s important to distinguish the two mental disorders in order to understand the other. Today I am going to tell you the truth about Schizophrenia, along with the symptoms, causes, and treatments of this illness.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects the way people affected by it think, act, and feel. A rare one at that. Schizophrenia affects one percent of the world’s population, although, many suffer in silence. People with schizophrenia

These are known as hallucinations. Hallucinations are the most profound symptom of one suffering from schizophrenia. How many of you had an imaginary friend growing up?.... People with schizophrenia may see people and hear voices that do not exist, though they are convinced they are real. These misconceptions of reality are known as delusions; persistent false beliefs that a schizophrenic may believe to be true, though proven to be false. For example, they may think someone is out to get them or is spying on them. Someone suffering from schizophrenia may also be very hostile. They have an offensive manner and may act inappropriately aggressive, or socially withdrawn. Other less obvious symptoms of schizophrenia include disorganized behavior, speech difficulty, lack of interest in the world, and lack of emotional expression. In order for schizophrenia to be clinically diagnosed, the patient must have at least of these symptoms for at least 30 days, significant problems functioning at work, school, and taking care of themselves, consistent signs for 6 months, every other psychotic/mood disorder ruled out and that no medical condition nor substance is