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What causes schizophrenia essay
An essay on mental illness
Effects of mental health illness on society
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Schizophrenia is found in one percent of the popluation. The most prolific impairment caused by schizophrenia is the affect it has on a peson's mind. Both environmentally and socially schizophrenia disrupts thought processes, making it difficult for a person suffering from the disorder to rationalize. Common symptoms of schizophrenia include: delusions, inconsistent interpretation of reality, and altered perception. Being diagnosed with schizophrenia increases the likelihood of suicide. Individuals also will often suffer from depression. People suffering from schizophrenia find it difficult to make good judgements.
Most researchers agree that schizophrenia is a brain disorder. The main reason the attitude of scientists has changed their opinions
According to the DSM-IV, schizophrenia is classified under the section of “Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders”. Schizophrenia is one of the most serious major chronic brain disorders in the field of mental health; it is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of the human brain. People living with this incapacitating illness can experience multiple symptoms that will cause extreme strain in their own and their families and friends life. The individual can lose reality, unable to work, have delusions and hallucinations, may have disorganized speech and thought processes, will withdraw from people and activities, they may become suspicious and paranoid, may behave inappropriately in every day social situations. They may neglect personal hygiene and dress improperly, use excessive make-up; every day life is becoming chaotic for everyone involved.
Schizophrenia can affect one's everyday life by the way they take care of themselves and relying on others more frequently. People with schizophrenia may find it difficult to keep an everyday job. It is easy for them to become distracted as they are dealing with the voice in their head that is accompanied by schizophrenia. The individual may also become paranoid and proceed to believe that they are being followed or spied on by something or someone. They will also spend a long time worrying about what others are thinking or doing to them. Another serious symptom of schizophrenia is the lack of interest and pleasure the person shows in everyday life. They may find it difficult to complete a certain task or follow through with plans or activities.
Schizophrenia: A guide to the New Research on Causes and Treatments. New York: Macmillan, 1994.
There are many disorders throughout the world that affect people on a daily basis. They are life altering and life changing. They affect how a person can function on a normal level of life. This, in itself, is an interesting way of viewing the disorder, but it truly is the way that schizophrenia is viewed. The term normal is in its self a complex concept, but to understand that for the purpose of schizophrenia; normal is anything that deviates from the socially accepted way of conducting one’s self. The person affected by this disorder is drifting away from reality and, at the same time, drifting away from who they have been their whole life.
In 1887 Dr. Emile Kraepelin identified schizophrenia for the first time in history. Dr. Kraepelin used the term "dementia praecox” which means “early dementia,” separating it from other forms of dementia usually occurring later in life. Kraepelin believed that “dementia praecox” was primarily a disease of the brain. In 1911, a Swiss psychiatrist by the name of Eugene Bleuler, was the first to use the term “schizophrenia” and the first to describe the symptoms as “negative” or “positive.” Bleuler believed that the name given by Kreapelin was misleading, since the disease was not part of dementia since it did not lead to mental deterioration in all cases and it could occur in young age as well as in old age. Since Bleuler specified the term five types of schizophrenia were identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders –III (DSM), these include: disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, residual and undifferentiated. In the present DSM IV these defined terms are still being used, yet more and more people are turning to use their own methods of identifying the disease rather than focusing on the given DSM terms.
I will first talk about the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. One of the most occurring positive symptoms is hallucinations. Hallucinations are false perceptions, inaccuracies that affect a person's senses and cause us to hear, see, taste, touch, or smell what others do not. Some people with schizophrenia will hear voices that can be reassuring and yet they can be very menacing. Allot of times these voices lead people to hurt themselves or just do abnormal things. Hallucinations, usually the same ones over and over, take control of a person and leave them feeling victimized.
Schizophrenia is a type of psychological disorder that affects a person’s brain and affects how they think and act on a daily bases. The disorder is known to be one of the most disabling and puzzling psychological disorder. People that suffer from this disorder have stated experiences that it is almost like a break from reality. It seems that schizophrenia in the past years has become a larger issue in our society. Moreover, people who develop the disorder seem to be disengaged from the common things in our lives such as working a job and having a relationship with others. There are many reasons why schizophrenia is one of the most bizarre and disabling types of mental disorders.
Schizophrenia includes several symptoms. One common symptom is delusions, which are false beliefs that the person holds and that tend to remain fixed and unshakable even in the face of evidence that disproves the delusions (Cicarelli, p. 557).
There are a number of ways that schizophrenia can develop through a person. There can be even more factors that contribute to the development of the disorder. Scientists are still observing and researching anything they could possibly find out, whether that is gene related or environment related. It is still a disorder that confuses everyone in our society today.
Schizophrenia is defined as a severe disabling mental illness. A person with this illness may be completely out of touch with what is going on around them. For example, the individual suffering from Schizophrenia may hear voices, see people who are not there (ghost in other words), and or feel bugs crawling on their skin when in actuality there are now. They may also have disorganized speech and behavior, physically rigid, emotionless, and delusions. The type of delusions where they believe that people are reading their minds, have control over their thoughts, and or plotting to hurt them. They have difficulty holding jobs and taking care of themselves.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2009) (as cited in Regier et al, 1993), “Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history and about 1 percent of Americans have this illness” (p. 85-94).
When people think about mental illness they think about people with mental voices or psychopathic killers like Michael Myers from the movie Halloween , but not all mental illnesses or disorders are so not visible or easily distinguished. Psychological disorders can vary from as minor as drinking problems to as severe as depression and anxiety. Though all mental illnesses are severe and harmful in many ways psychiatrist and doctors still are yet to find permanent cures. There is research linked to genes, hormone problems, brain development, and environment that trigger mental disorders but no research yet indicates the true cause.
...elation between biological factors and behavior. However, the two main brain imaging technologies used when dealing with the neural defect of schizophrenia, are MRI and PET scans. These instruments are quite useful in the fact that they help identify potential cases of a person being diagnosed with a mental illness like schizophrenia and the causes of such a condition. Both have a good number of both advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the situation, the drawbacks of the technology may be higher than the benefits or vice versa. Hence, not one particular brain imaging technology is superior over the other. As a matter of fact, all the instruments combined could create the ideal brain imaging technology that can be applied to the general public in all circumstances when investigating the link between behavior and biological factors in terms of schizophrenia.
The causes of schizophrenia and the related psychotic illness have been the subject of much
Schizophrenia is an illness. The symptoms of schizophrenia usually last a lifetime. Persons suffering from schizophrenia have a distorted perception of reality which includes hallucinations and delusions affecting their thinking. They also have what are called negative symptoms; these include social withdrawal and blunted affect. Along with the thought and affect, there is also cognitive dysfunction. Symptoms of cognitive dysfunction are attention, memory, and learning difficulties. Although genetic vulnerabilities for schizophrenia are believed to exist, they have yet to identify a single genetic determinant (Tamminga, 2003). Earlier studies of interventions for schizophrenia were almost entirely biological. These studies called controlled clinical trials were not successful; the sample sizes were too small and did not provide useful data. Researchers knew the studies designs and reporting of the results studies needed to be improved. However, the studies did conclude, one very important aspect in the treatment of schizophrenia had been left out. Researchers needed to include the evaluation of psychosocial treatments of schizophrenia in order to show a complete picture (Wahlbeck, Adams, & Thornley, 2000).