Essay, Research Paper: Schizophrenia

Imagen being tormented day and night by voices that argue with you or tell you what 'they' think you should do. Or feeling so withdrawn that you slowly go insane without knowing how to communicate. Or watching everything you know go upside down and inside out while others try to diagnose you, but you can't explain it to them. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects 1% of the world population, or six million people, directly. In some cases it is partially or totally curable, but most patients are admitted to asylums or commit suicide. Physicians are getting better at diagnosing schizophrenia, but it is difficult because the symptoms are so diverse. It is a mentally and physically debilitating condition to have to live with.



The are many warning signs that show schizophrenia is imminent, like completely illogical reasoning, delusions, inability to socially communicate, scrambled words/ phrases, loss of will altogether, suicidal and violent tendencies, hallucinations, irrationality, catatonic behaviour. There are many subcategories, but physicians and therapists tend not to include them in their eventual diagnosis. A common way developing schizophrenia can be detected is if the individual shows signs of withdrawl and loss of interest in normal activities/ hobbies, symptoms wich are also signs of depression. Schizophrenics are for the most part very suspicious, wary, and believe in wild conspiracies against them. Not all cases are like this, but similar behaviour is sometimes connected to the developing of 'voices' some schizophrenics claim to hear.

One thing that is commonly misunderstood about this particular disorder is that it is sometimes associated with multiple personality disorder. Although schizophrenia literally means 'split mind' the two are really quite different. Someone suffering from multiple personality disorder might switch personalities when dealing with different things or communicating, whereas a schizophrenic will jump from idea to idea, sometimes losing themselves or repeating a phrase over and over. There are some similarities between the two, like loss of social skills, but a a multiple personality patient is usually clear as a bell on what 'they' want to say, while a schizophrenic patient seems completely confused. In fact, before schizophrenia was recognized as a mental disorder, some were passed off as possessed!

Schizophrenia is an undiscriminating disease. It can strike anyone at any time, young or old, short or tall, rich or poor. Some studies show, however, that the most often and most severly affected are physically lean and wiry, but there is no reasoning or explanation for this. Children can be and are affected by schizophrenia, but typically won't show symptoms until they are 5 to 6 years of age. It can be identified by difficulty to relate to and communicate with others in their age group, and the child will sometimes have identity problems commonly marked by referring to themselves in the first person. Schizophrenia is not a result of a poor upbringing, but in some circumstances is hereditary.

Treatment for schizophrenia has mixed allegiances among therapists, but some of the methods include drug treatments (tranquilizers, antipsychotic drugs) shock therapy for catatonic, depressed, or mentally lost patients, psychotherapy, and other 'experimental' methods. Certain patients respond immediately, some can take years, some will experience only one case and leave unaffected, but it mostly comes and goes over the years. In the patients that it recurres, the symptoms and results are progressively worse. No method has been proven 'right', and new ways are always being discovered to treat this disease. treatment is difficult because each case is different.



None I know (including myself) has been affected by schizophrenia, which is why I was interested in learning more about it. Before I researched this, I didn't know that so many people were affected by it! I discovered that it doesn't matter who you are or how you were brought up. Schizophrenia is a misunderstood, and indeed terrifying disease for those who suffer from it. Hopefully in the future it will be better understood and more treatments discovered.