Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder in which people interpret reality in an abnormal way. Schizophrenia may result in a group of hallucinations, delusions, and severe disturbances in thinking and behaviour, which impede the performance of daily functions, and may cause disability.
People with schizophrenia need life-long treatment. Early treatment can help or control symptoms before serious symptoms appear and improve appearance in the long term.
Symptoms may include:
1. Delusions:
There are false beliefs that are not related to reality. For example, if you think that you are being hurt or harassed, certain gestures or comments are directed at you, or that you have superpower or fame, someone else loves you, or a major disaster is about to happen. Delusions occur in most people with schizophrenia.
2. Hallucinations:
Hallucinations usually involve seeing or hearing things that are not real. Except that, for a schizophrenic patient, these hallucinations have full force and effect, just like the features of normal experiences. Hallucinations can affect any of the senses, but hearing voices is the most common hallucination.
3. Disorganised (talk) thinking:
Disorganised thinking is inferred from unstructured speech. Effective communication can be impaired, and answers may not be fully or partly relevant to the questions. In rare cases, speech may involve putting together meaningless words that cannot be comprehended, sometimes known as word authority.
4. Abnormal or very disorganised movement behaviour:
This manifests itself in a number of ways, ranging from childish clumsiness to unpredictable emotion. Behaviour that is not focused on goals. Therefore, the tasks are difficult to do. Behaviour can include resistance to instructions, strange or inappropriate posture, completely unresponsive, or an excessive, useless movement.
5. Negative symptoms:
This indicates a diminished or loss of ability to function normally. For example, the person may neglect personal hygiene or appear emotionless (he does not make eye contact, his facial expressions do not change, or he speaks in a steady tone). Also, the person may lose interest in daily activities, socially withdraw, or lose the ability to have fun.
Reasons behind schizophrenia:
The cause of schizophrenia is unknown, but researchers believe that a combination of genetic, environmental, and other factors related to brain chemistry contribute to the disorder.
Problems with certain naturally occurring brain chemicals, including neurotransmitters called dopamine and glutamate, may contribute to schizophrenia. Neuroimaging studies show changes to the brain structure and central nervous system of people with schizophrenia. Researchers suggest that schizophrenia is a brain disease, although they are unsure about the significance of these changes.
People with schizophrenia usually lack awareness that the difficulties they face are caused by a mental disorder that requires medical attention, so it is often the responsibility of family or friends to help and encourage them to see a psychiatrist if they notice any strange, abnormal symptoms, and that’s when your part comes in!
* The author is a consultant in Public Relations and Personality Types. Instagram: @Tipsbyhalahill
Hala Bader al-Humaidhi
