What is Schizophrenia?
Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health
The mind of someone with schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a common chronic mental illness. Most people with Schizophrenia are on medication for the symptoms they are experiencing such as, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, abnormal behavior, and negative thoughts.
The causes of Schizophrenia are unknown. Research shows that it is combined with physical, genetic, environmental factors. These causes can also make it way more likely that a person can develop Schizophrenia. A stressful or emotional moment in their life may even trigger a psychotic episode. The causes are not entirely known but it is still being researched.
Schizophrenia affects approximately 24 million people, or you can also look at it as 1 in 300 worldwide. Although it’s not as common as other mental illnesses. The amount of teenagers that have Schizophrenia usually ranges through the ages of 13 and 18.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia include anxiety, overwhelming fear, substance abuse, inability to keep jobs, homelessness, self harming behavior, suicidal thoughts, financial difficulties, or isolation. Schizophrenia requires a diagnosis to confirm if you have thoughts or symptoms of Schizophrenia. Many people are unaware that they even have symptoms of schizophrenia.
Substance abuse is a common problem in people with Schizophrenia, including tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, and many more substances. Persons with Schizophrenia turn to these bad addictions assuming that they will be able to self medicate. Instead of that outcome it just adds to the spiral they are slowly falling into. At times drugs or medication do not help in all aspects of this mental illness.
People with Schizophrenia need a life long treatment. Early treatment can help get symptoms under control before serious complications develop and may help the long term outcome. 50% of people with Schizophrenia may recover or improve to where they can work and have normal lives. 25% of people with Schizophrenia get better but do need stronger support.
It’s better to be aware of what you could possibly have than to be completely unaware. Schizophrenia can be diagnosed if you have been experiencing these symptoms for more than a month. Like in the video, Interview: Catatonic Schizophrenic, it shows when the man says, “I’m not completely like other people” in response to the question “why are you in the hospital?” This shows that people with schizophrenia feel different to other people.
Treatments include medications, like antipsychotic and anti- Tremor. Another treatment is therapy, support groups, rehabilitation, cognitive therapy, psycho-education, family therapy, behavior therapy, and group psychotherapy.
One way you can tell if someone is Schizophrenic is when they are having delusions and hallucinations/seeing or hearing things that aren’t really there. Many people speak to things that aren’t really there and that makes them seem crazy.
So in conclusion, Schizophrenia is a common chronic mental illness. It results in substance abuse, psychotic episodes, and many more things. People do have the ability to get better, they just need to reach out for help. They have opportunities to ask for help but sometimes they cannot, some people can’t afford the treatment.
I have gotten all this information from:
Aracely Ramirez • Jan 5, 2023 at 2:08 pm
I learned Schizophrenia is a mental illness that will make a person delusional.