What is Schizophrenia ? Common Signs, Symptoms and Video

World Schizophrenia Day is celebrated on the 24th of May. The day honours Dr Phillippe Pinel from France who did a lot  for the treatment and management of this mental illness.

The day is an opportunity to become more aware of schizophrenia, an illness that involves a level of psychosis.

Issues like anxiety and depression can be perhaps handled by a clinical psychologist but schizophrenia can severely affect the day-to-day functioning of an individual.

It was around 1862 that Dr Pinel said that mental illness is a product of exposure to social and psychological stressors. A landmark in the history of psychiatry, Pinel’s Medico-Philosophical Treatise on Mental Alienation or Mania called for a more humane approach to the treatment of mental illness. Remember, before this, mental illness or any kind of madness was considered as a punishment of God. And people were subjected to a lot of harsh punishment in asylums.

What is Schizophrenia?

The word schizophrenia comes from the Greek words schizo meaning split, and phrene meaning mind, to describe fragmented thinking. Schizophrenia involves a psychosis, a type of mental illness in which a person can’t tell what’s real from what’s imagined. At times, patients can lose touch with reality.

The world may seem like a jumble of confusing thoughts, images, and sounds.  As per webmd, “their behavior may be very strange and even shocking. A sudden change in personality and behavior, which happens when people who have it lose touch with reality, is called a psychotic episode.

Though schizophrenia isn’t as common as other major mental illnesses, it can be the most chronic and disabling.

Some common symptoms are

• Hallucination:Imagining things, voices, smells or people that aren’t actually there

• Delusion:Believing things that are not true, like thinking that your television set is sending you messages

• Disorganized Speech and Behaviour : The psychotically disorganized speech, words are not linked together based on the normal rules of language.Psychotically disorganized speech which sounds abnormal and behaviors which are not goal-directed.

The medical community still doesn’t know what causes schizophrenia in an individual. Many believe that it is a combination of genetic factors and social environment. However, an exact cause for the mental illness has not been found. This also means that preventing it or identifying at-risk individuals is not easy, affecting timely diagnosis.

The onset of symptoms tends to be gradual, building in severity over time. This slow progression of symptoms can also make it difficult to know if what you, or someone you love, is experiencing is to be of concern. When should you consult a doctor?  When  social and work  functioning is impaired it may be helpful to consult with a doctor.

It is through education that we can start to eradicate the negative stigma that shrouds this illness.  A greater understanding of schizophrenia has opened up multiple avenues for treatment. A broad range of medicines, psychological, and social interventions have been scientifically proven to work.

Thanks to fast paced on-going medical research a breakthrough medications and treatments are increasingly likely. Today, those diagnosed and living with schizophrenia have a better chance than at any other time in history of leading a normal life.

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Adrian Swancar