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Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia in the media is depicted with a negative light; it creates a deception of a mad and horrifying patient. The schizophrenic portrayed is one who resembles a psychopath, a killer and ultimately a bad person. This is not the case in real life. A Schizophrenic is simply a patient with a mental illness that has its symptoms, causes and treatments. The goal of this essay is to inform others about what Schizophrenia really is by giving light to The causes of schizophrenia, how people with schizophrenia perceive reality, have trouble managing emotions and relating to others. The hardships that it causes the individual and family alike and what the road to recovery is like. Just like many others I approached the topic of schizophrenia knowing very little but with the desire to learn more about it.
What is Schizophrenia?
In an article by Smith and Segal (2014) it is stated that “Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way a person acts, thinks, and sees the world.” Individuals with schizophrenia have a hard time determining what is real and what is not and this is due to the fact that they are usually affected by hallucinations. People with schizophrenia tend to see and hear things that are not there in real life but that appear real to them. They suffer from extreme distrust in people and usually believe that everyone is out to hurt them. This physiological damage makes it extremely difficult to carry out an ordinary life due to the loss to determine what reality is and what is imaginary.
Causes
Schizophrenia just like every other mental disorder does not have a specific know cause for it and its widely unknown to all medical researchers. A lot of theories exist as to why an individual suffers f...
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...the first year out of hospital. Supportive family therapy can reduce this rate by 10%." This shows how important it is for families to help and be supportive to the patient. Once again, medication helps but therapy is a great part of the treatment process as well.
CONCLUSION
When I started my research about schizophrenia the only thing I knew about it was that my uncle had suffered from this mental disorder and had ultimately died from it. In the process of researching this topic it helped me understand a lot about the way my uncle saw the world. I now know that for a person with schizophrenia the most normal of situations can be anything but normal. It is hard for them to keep up with the real world when they are trying to distinguish what is real and what their minds are making up. People with schizophrenia need support and patience to be able to overcome the
Tsuang, M. T., Faraone, S. V., & Glatt, S. J. (2011). Schizophrenia. New York: Oxford University Press.
Schizophrenia: From Mind to Molecule. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Kalat, J. (2004). Biological Psychology.
In Me, Myself and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person’s Experience with Schizophrenia (2007), Kurt Snyder provides his personal narrative of living with Schizophrenia with Dr. Raquel Gur and Linda Andrews offering professional insight into the disease. This book gives remarkable insight into the terrifying world of acute psychosis, where reality cannot be distinguished from delusion and recovery is grueling. However, Snyder’s account does offer hope that one may live a content and functional life despite a debilitating, enduring disease.
According to (Barlow, 2001), Schizophrenia is a psychological or mental disorder that makes the patient recognize real things and to have abnormal social behavior. Schizophrenia is characterized by symptoms such as confused thinking, hallucinations, false beliefs, demotivation, reduced social interaction and emotional expressions (Linkov, 2008). Diagnosis of this disorder is done through observation of patient’s behavior, and previously reported experiences (Mothersill, 2007). In this paper, therefore, my primary goal is to discuss Schizophrenia and how this condition is diagnosed and treated.
Coined by Eugen Bleuler in 1950, the term ‘Schizophrenia’ refers to a group of mental disorders with heterogeneous outcomes. The most prevalent subtype of schizophrenia is the paranoid subtype. Typically, this disorder is characterized by psychosis, in which the patient suffers from altered perceptions of reality. According to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM – V), the typical subtypes – paranoid, catatonic and disorganized, among others have been eliminated, although the general definition of the disorder remains unchanged. These changes were made due to the clinically diverse prognosis, pathophysiology and etiology of the disorder, which add to its heterogeneity1, 2. In addition, sex of the patient and age of onset of the disorder also contribute to schizophrenia’s diverse effects. The age of onset and sex of the patient heavily influence the demographics and course of paranoid schizophrenia, and in turn are also affected by the patients ethnicity and any premorbid conditions the patient may have suffered1, 3...
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arasse, Daniel. Complete Guide to Mental Health. Allen Lane Press,New York, 1989. Gingerich, Susan. Coping With Schizophrenia. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, 1994. Kass, Stephen. Schizophrenia: The Facts. Oxford University Press. New York, 1997. Muesen, Kim. “Schizophrenia”. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1998. Young, Patrick. The Encyclopedia od Health, Psychological Disorders and Their Treatment. Herrington Publications. New York, 1991.
There are so many types of mental illnesses that affect people every day. When some people think of mental illnesses they think of the ones that would cause people to have physical symptoms as well, but that’s untrue, there are many more that you would never know anyone has if you were to see them on the street. As defined by the 2008 encyclopedia “a mental illness is any disease of the mind or brain that seriously affects a person’s ability or behavior. Symptoms of a mental illness may include extreme moods, such as excessive sadness or anxiety, or a decreased ability to think clearly or remember well.” A mentally ill person has severe symptoms that damage the person’s ability to function in everyday activities and situations. Every nation and every economic level can be affected by a mental illness. In the United States alone about 3% of the population has severe mental illness and to add to that number about 40% of people will experience a type of mental illness at least once in their lives. Some cases of mental illnesses can go away on their own, but some cases are so severe that they require professional treatment. There is so much more available to help people recover from their symptoms than in the past.
What is Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is brain disorder that makes it hard to see the difference between reality and imagination, have normal emotional responses, and act normal in social situations. Schizophrenia is relatively young, it has only been around for less than 100 years. It was first discovered by Dr. Emile Kraeplin in 1887. He believed it was a mental illness. A few documents take Schizophrenia’s origins back to Egypt during the Pharaoh’s rule around 1550 B.C. People originally thought schizophrenia was simply madness, and usually associated it with madness, even though it is quite different from madness. Symptoms of this disease include Positive symptoms, which are: hallucinations, or things that someone can see, feel, smell, or hear that do not really exist. Many people hear voices inside their heads, see people that are not there, or smell odors no one else smells. Delusions are another symptom, also known as bizarre beliefs, these may include paranoid delusions also, which are delusions that tell the person that others are trying to hurt them. Thought Disorders are a symptom in which the person thinks unusually or dysfunctionally. Movement disorders may be present in schizophrenic people, they may seem like twitches or small, sharp, and sudden movements. Schizophrenia’s “negative symptoms” are harder to recognize. These include the flat affect, in which the persons face doesn’t move and the voice is droning. The lack of pleasure in life is another once, along with the lack of ability to start and sustain activities, and little speech. These symptoms prevent or block the person from living a normal life because they cause social, physical, and emotional, and mental problems. This may lead to psychosis, insanity, or ...
Schizophrenia is a devastating mental disorder that strikes teens and young adults crippling their brain and fragmenting their mind. Victims of schizophrenia remain in endless mental agony constantly confused and in terror. They suffer constantly from hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. Approximately 1% of the world population live with this disorder making it one of the most common mental disorders in the world. Despite the numbers, there is no known cause or cure for schizophrenia. So what is the disorder, why is it so hard to eliminate, and why do so many people fall victim to the fragmented mind?
Walker, E., Kestler, L., Bollini, A., & Hochman, K. M. (2004). Schizophrenia: Etiology and course. Annual Review of Psychology, 55(1), 401-430. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141950
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, schizophrenia is characterized by the development of two or more symptoms in a one-month period. At least one of the two symptoms must be delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech. Schizophrenia has always been a disorder shrouded in mystery. There have been many hypotheses from varying perspectives offering up causation for it and some have research, while some lack support. It is important when trying to comprehend and appreciate the disorder that its history is taken into consideration. This way the full extinct to which each branch of the disorder has developed can be absolutely understood. Learning from the past is the only way to proceed towards the future. With schizophrenia, it starts in the dark and works it ways towards the light.
Schizophrenia can be described by a wide-ranging spectrum of emotional and cognitive dysfunctions. These can include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior, as well as inappropriate emotions. Consequently, this disease can affect people from all walks of life. Since schizophrenia is such a complex disorder it can ultimately affect a person’s entire existence and their struggle to function daily. With a chronic disease like this, most people have a difficult time functioning in society. This can make it hard for someone who is schizophrenic to relate to others as well as maintain significant relationships. Life expectancy for those who suffer this illness tend to be shorter than average. This is due to the higher rate of accident and suicide. The symptoms of schizophrenia can be broken down into different categories: positive, negative and disorganized. Positive symptoms include hallucinations and delusions. These tend to be the more obvious signs of psychosis. On the other hand negative symptoms indicate deficits or absence of normal behavior which can affect sp...
Mental illnesses are diseases that plague a being’s mind and corrupts one’s thoughts and feelings. Schizophrenia is one of the many disastrous illnesses that consume one’s life, is known as a real disease that deserves much attention. Experts believe that what causes the illness is a defect in the gene’s of the brain, and little signs of schizophrenia are shown until about one’s early adult years. Some effects of schizophrenia can either be negative or positive, but even if the effects could be either one, people should still be aware that there is something puzzling and alarming happening in the mind of a schizophrenic patient.
The causes of schizophrenia and the related psychotic illness have been the subject of much
Mental health refers to the state of individuals psychologically, emotionally and socially. Mental health affects a person’s emotions, feelings, thoughts, and sections when exposed to different situations. Furthermore, mental health is responsible for a person’s reaction to stress and other social conditions. Generally, mental health affects how a person relates to others and their ability to understand and interact with them. Therefore, problems that affect a person’s mental health affect the abilities to socialize, their feelings, moods, reaction to situations. The person experiencing mental health problem may portray different behaviors when confronted with different issues. Mental health issues have several