Being Diagnosed With A Mental Disorder

Evidence of Schizophrenia can be found as far back as biblical times. For example, in the old testament, when King Saul became mad when he neglected his duties as king. “But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him” 1 Samuel 16:14 In this time period, ‘madness’ was not thought of as a disease, but as a punishment from God, or demonic possession. It wasn’t until the time of the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC) that madness began to be treated as an illness. Hippocrates believed that madness was caused by an imbalance of four basic bodily fluids, or ‘humors.’ He attempted to treat mental illnesses through means such as forced purging, special diets, and bloodletting. The Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Roman physician Galen both later expanded upon Hippocrates’ theories.

Throughout the many years, there have been many negative public perceptions of Schizophrenia, which is known by majority of the public as an indication of mental illness. This disorder is most of the time perceived by the public as caused by psychological factors. People with this mental illness are considered to be unpredictable and threatening (Angermeyer & Matschinger, 2003, p. 526). Most patients have a behavioural dysfunction. Victims, families and society carry a substantial burden due to this illness (Wood & Freedman, 2003).

In the world today, there are many illnesses and disorders that affect people each and every day. One illness in particular that is very big in the US and all around the world is Schizophrenia. It is also the most researched topic. A person who is diagnosed with Schizophrenia lives a very different lifestyle than someone who is not. Many people would consider a person with schizophrenia to be “crazy.” Sadly enough, people with this illness do posses symptoms that might come off as crazy or insane. There are many different causes that come along with schizophrenia. A person who is diagnosed may not know it at first but they do later realize that they have some interesting thoughts, depending on the type of symptoms they posses while having this illness. Although the symptoms may be very brutal and causes cannot be controlled, there still is hope and treatments for individuals who have schizophrenia.

I chose to write my research paper over Schizophrenia. It is a psychological disorder that I have always found fascinating. Approximately 20% of North Americans will be affected by a mental illness during the course of their lifetime. (MHA, ‘What You Should Know About Mental Illnesses) More specifically, 1 in 100 Americans will suffer from schizophrenia. That means that 300,000 people in America will, at some point in their life, be affected by a very serious and highly misunderstood mental disorder. (Schizophrenia Society of America) It is a serious disorder that consumes a person 's life and is nearly impossible to control. In this paper, I will talk about the definition of Schizophrenia, the symptoms of Schizophrenia,

Schizophrenia has quite a recent history. However, written records show that signs of schizophrenic people have been around for thousands of years, with the earliest coming from old pharaonic Egypt. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, European psychiatrists were studying mental disorders that have unknown causes. German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin coined the term “dementia praecox” (“early dementia”) for mental disorders that start early in life (including what is now known today as schizophrenia). Kraepelin thought that disorders of this type were a form of dementia, but they actually are not. He also made the distinction between dementia praecox

In today’s society, the phenomenon of malingering is not being recognized as a mental illness, but rather an intentional faking of mental illness. Malingering had captured the attention of many forensic psychologists and is now a growing concern due to the potential consequences of misdiagnosis in clinical or correctional setting. Malingering defined as a deliberate act by a person pretending to have some form of physical or psychological symptoms in order to avoid a negative outcome such as a prison sentence, or to gain a positive outcome such as financial compensatory.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 20% of the US population may suffer from a diagnosable mental illness in any given six month period (1991). Obviously the issue of mental health warrants close scrutiny, as such illness can translate into lost work days and lost dollars. From a health care perspective, many of those suffering can be relieved of their symptoms and return to normal life, so to speak. Schizophrenia,

(Szasz,1982, p.4, p.29) In 1900, the term schizophrenia, now used worldwide, was used to describe the condition that one out of every hundred people had. This statistic remains the same today. Through research and years of study, the world has a better understanding of schizophrenia, its forms, characteristics, symptoms, types, possible causes, and treatments, if any. ( Pierce, 1990. p.263 )

Every year, many people around the world suffer from all sorts of mental illnesses. There are many different types of mental health disorders in this world. Mental disorders affect the way a person acts, think, and sees the world. Some are dangerous, cannot be helped, chronic and others could harm and affect your life. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disease that expresses itself in terms of disturbances of thinking, perception and behavior. It is one of the most common serious mental conditions that cause a range of different psychological symptoms. 1 out of 100 people, regardless of race, sex, economic class or culture will fall a victim of this disease. (1) Schizophrenia strikes young men and women most often between the ages of 15 and 35.(2) Even though the exact cause of schizophrenia is still not known, it has different types and

The disease was first discovered to be a discrete mental illness in 1887 by Dr.Emile Kraepelin. Although, it was first discovered in 1887 it is widely believed that schizophrenia has accompanied mankind throughout history. This is showed

Accounts of schizophrenia have been recorded all throughout human history. From Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, Rome and India, all the way through the 15th and 17th centuries (Walker, 2003). It is difficult to truly ascertain whether or not this was schizophrenia or other psychotic illnesses. My guess is it was probably both. Throughout mental health history, theory on schizophrenia has changed in every aspect possible. Etiology, age of onset and even the disorder’s name has been changed, questioned, and changed yet again. The highly insightful

Schizophrenia has been there since old Pharaonic Egypt. A description of an illness resembling schizophrenia was found in the Ebers papyrus which was written in 1550 BC. In Greek and Roman literature, the people were aware of psychotic disorders but there are no descriptions that fit the characteristics of schizophrenia. Old theories considered mental illnesses as the effect of evil possession of the body, and the best treatment is to exorcise the patient by any means – safe methods like exposing the patient to a certain genre of music or deadly methods such as drilling the patient’s skull to release the evil

Schizophrenia is the most common psychiatric disorder worldwide. Affecting less than 1% of individuals (Pinel, 2013), the term we now call schizophrenia was originally classified as “dementia praecox” by Dr. Emile Kraepelin in 1887 (The History of Schizophrenia, 2010). Recent studies have concluded that schizophrenia was identified and can be traced as far back as to old Egypt. These findings have been noted that abnormal psychotic conditions were all treated the same and thought to have been caused by demonic possessions, which led to exorcisms and other atypical methods. Schizophrenia is most prevalently known as a disorder of madness. Kraepelin’s noteworthy discovery found that there was a significant difference between dementia praecox and excited, or manic, depression. However, his findings proved flawed in that his research focused on dementia and deterioration of the brain in young and elderly patients. In 1911, psychiatrist, Eugen Bleuler coined this condition as schizophrenia and continued to make significant advancement by distinguishing symptoms as positive or negative. “The word "schizophrenia" comes from the Greek roots schizo (split) and phrene (mind) to describe the fragmented thinking of people with the disorder”(The History of Schizophrenia, 2010). Continuous research based on clinical indications help to establish distinctive etiologies and causes of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a universal mental illness which is both complex and devastating. Schizophrenia generally begins in the early stages of life and may lead to lifelong disabilities (Moritz, 2010). The context of this paper shall include an introduction on schizophrenia as well as the reasoning this discipline was chosen. It will include a critiqued research study that will explain how the research was presented. The primary focus on the research study will be a literature review, the methods used, the results found, and a presented discussion.

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “Schizophrenia” ? Sadly, most people react with “they’re going to hurt me” or “they’re not normal”. The main cause behind schizophrenia is believed to be that there is two neurotransmitters that have a change in their levels. This causes the person to generally have memory problems, makes them easily agitated, might make them very anxious and they also might not have good emotional responses. The symptoms caused by it are different for everyone, which I will explain later. So today I am going to tell you about Schizophrenia and what it does to people. In my paper, I will enlighten you on the causes of it, the symptoms and the people it affects. I will also tell you how the families