Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects the functioning of the brain. Someone who suffers from Schizophrenia will experience changes in the way that they feel, act and behave, and their thinking can distort their sense of reality. This is all caused by imbalances in the brain. The word ‘Schizophrenia’ actually means ‘split mind’ or ‘a splitting of the mind’. It comes from the Greek words skhízein (to split) and phren (mind), but Schizophrenia does not mean that the sufferers will have a split personality. Schizophrenia is a psychosis, which is a type of mental illness when a person can’t tell what is real from what is imagined. They can also experience hearing negative voices or have false and sometimes strange beliefs. People with schizophrenia often avoid family and friends, lack motivation and are usually unable to work. They may also believe that people could be plotting against them, controlling their minds and reading their thoughts. Sometimes they can just sit for hours without moving or talking, and feel perfectly fine until they have to talk about what they are thinking. At times, people with psychotic disorders lose touch with reality. During a psychotic episode, Schizophrenic people find themselves mistrusting their family, friends and people in general. They start to believe that everyone is against them, and may even be in on a conspiracy. Common sense goes out the window and sufferers feel scared, confused, manic, and come up with all kinds of scenarios to explain their thoughts.
Signs And Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Some signs and symptoms of Schizophrenia include:
Hallucinations- They can involve hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling or smelling something that does not exist, but the sufferer believes is real.
Delusions- Fake beliefs that is not true or logical.
Thought disorder- Unusual ways of thinking, or “disorganized thinking” when someone has trouble organising their thoughts logically.
Social
Bibliography: http://www.sane.org/information/factsheets-podcasts/187-schizophrenia http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Schizophrenia http://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/default.htm?names-dropdown=OR http://www.helpguide.org/mental/schizophrenia_symptom.htm http://psychcentral.com/disorders/schizophrenia/schizo_treatment.htm http://au.reachout.com/All-about-schizophrenia