Edge Of Insanity: My Schizophrenic Childhood

These symptoms are grouped into three categories positive, negative, and psychomotor (Comer 2016). Positive symptoms are pathological excesses and they include hallucinations and disorganized thinking and speech (Comer 2016). Whereas negative symptoms are pathological deficits which include loss of violation and social withdrawal (Comer 2016). Psychomotor symptoms are awkward moments and odd gestures that people suffering with schizophrenia sometimes experience (Comer 2016).

My patient’s name is Nicole Glover. She is a young adult in college, and had shown no previous signs of illness. Nicole’s symptoms make it very clear what our diagnosis should be: Schizophrenia. By speaking to her parents, Lynn and Dave Glover, we were able to determine that Dave had an aunt that was mentally ill. His aunt is the likely source of the disorder because it is a disease that is usually passed through genetics.

Felicia Allen is a 32 year old woman, who was initially brought into therapy after an attempt to steal a bus. Due to her reported “emotionally disturbed” nature, this consult became a priority. The police report states that Ms. Allen pulled out a knife, and threatened the driver after the driver declined her dollar bills. She then took control of the bus, and crashed it across the street. Upon our meeting, Ms. Allen was fidgety, and swayed back and forth all the while mumbling to herself. If she were questioned, she would look up and say “Sorry, sorry.” As far as patient history goes, Ms. Allen started hearing voices when she was 5 years old. These auditory hallucinations were mostly composed of critical, disparaging voices that made comments on her actions and behaviors. Her severe symptoms led her to be hospitalized fairly consistently since she was 11. Ever since she was young, she has been driven to please, and has a strong desire to be independent. Felicia has been prescribed clozapine for 1 calendar year, which helped her auditory hallucinations a great deal. Given the above symptoms and information, I have diagnosed Felicia Allen with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder. It is also quite a complex illness that affects daily functioning of those who suffer from it. Professionals across several fields who treat schizophrenics do not share a consensus regarding the cause of schizophrenia, though there are a few theories regarding potential and definitive causes. The on-set of schizophrenia often takes place in adolescence and adulthood, but there are cases when there is childhood on-set schizophrenia. Schizophrenia in children will be the focus of this paper. Children who show signs of schizophrenia may begin doing so at around age five.

Schizophrenia falls into three broad categories positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in healthy people. People who have these symptoms often lose touch with reality and these symptoms can be and ongoing thing. Hallucinations are things a person sees, hears,

Schizophrenia, an uncontrollable psychotic illness, is a disorder characterized by the disturbance of thinking. Those afflicted with this thought disorder have a keen focus on information that is irrelevant or peripheral to the situation and topic currently at hand. A schizophrenic person has difficulties making sense of the world and differentiating their thoughts from reality; schizophrenia is rooted in the definition “shattered or fragmented personality”. The main character in Benny and Joon, Juniper Pearl, “Joon”, is a young schizophrenic woman exhibits all three of the essential features of schizophrenia: incoherent thoughts, linguistic problems and a distortion from reality, and an irregular display of emotion and/or

Living in a world that is cold and cruel, full of lies and false ghouls- a child’s imagination turned into an inescapable reality. This is the world of a childhood schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is noted as “a severe brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally,” and the disorder’s name is derived from the words “‘split mind,’ [which] refers to a disruption of the usual balance of emotions and thinking,” (Mayo). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders characterizes schizophrenia “by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, and other symptoms that cause social or occupational dysfunction,” (American). The usual onset of schizophrenia is between the ages of 17-45, but “there is Childhood-onset

Before my husband died, our daughter, Veronica, was diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia. We brought her to countless specialists and nearly all of them came to the same conclusion. The condition is rare, but certainly not unheard of. We were devastated. The doctors suggested that we not start her on medication right away. They were concerned the chemicals might interfere with the development of her brain. At five years old, when proper brain development is critical, they didn’t want to chance it. Only if the hallucinations became severe would they prescribe antipsychotics.

It has been said that people with Schizophrenia have hallucinations and Delusions. “Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way the person acts, thinks, and sees the world” (“Schizophrenia” 1). This disease makes the person live in fear and horror from how much it controls the person’s head. There are many signs and symptoms of Schizophrenia. The five signs of Schizophrenia are: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and the negative symptoms. There are also different types of Schizophrenia. The three types are: Paranoid Schizophrenia, disorganized Schizophrenia, and Catatonic Schizophrenia. Each of these different kinds of Schizophrenia has a different affect on people and each one has a different explanation.

Schizophrenia is a split from reality (Myers, 2013, 657). People with schizophrenia experience all kinds of symptoms. They experience “disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking and inappropriate emotions” (Myers, 2013, 657). They began having hallucinations. They see things and hear things that aren’t really there or real. They can imagine touch and sensation too. For example, one young woman sees cars’ headlights while driving and believes they are eyes and are trying to harm her (Standen, 2014, 1). These hallucinations can result in a person harming themselves. Sometimes these voices tell them to burn themselves (Myers, 2013, 658). This is one of the reasons that everyone fears schizophrenia because it can be harmful or in some cases even fatal to the people diagnosed with it if it’s not treated and just ignored.

Childhood schizophrenia is a rare disease and it has become a big mystery in today’s medicine, bringing up several challenges. There are few official diagnoses of children with this disorder, and the case of January Schofield is one of the most studied ones. It is in essence the same as adult schizophrenia, but it appears early in life with a huge impact on child’s development. The identification of the symptoms and causes is vital, for the prevention and control, as well as following the right treatment. This complex disease requires a lifelong treatment, and doing this as soon as possible may significantly improve the individual’s quality life. The early

Schizophrenia is a mental illness which affects millions of people throughout the world. Scientists have begun to understand more and more about the possible causes, predisposing factors, types, and possible treatments for schizophrenia. (Torrey, 1995) It is very rare for schizophrenic symptoms to appear before the age of 12 but it does occur. Recently, there has been a growing interest in childhood schizophrenia. It is less than one-sixtieth as common as the adult-onset type but the characteristics are very similar. Childhood schizophrenia also tends to be harder to treat and to have a worse prognosis than the adult-onset form. (Rapoport, 1997)

Children may exhibit gradual changes, such as becoming shyer or withdrawn or they may have an acute onset marked by fearful delusions that people can read their minds or are plotting against them. Affected children will often laugh at sad events, show little body language and have muted facial expressions. Other symptoms of mental illness include speech impairment, poor memory, difficulty paying attention and hallucinations.

Schizophrenia comes with many symptoms with different levels of severity. One of these symptoms is hallucination, or sensing something that isn’t actually happening. The most common form of hallucination in schizophrenics is hearing voices in their heads. There can be one voice talking to the person or there can be many voices talking to the person and/or each other. Other hallucinations such as seeing things, smelling things, and hearing things that aren’t actually there are also present in some schizophrenics. For example, a young girl named Jani suffers from schizophrenia and when she was asked about it in an interview with Oprah, she described “her imaginary world [Calalini] and her secret language” (Oprah: Understanding child Schizophrenia Video). Some schizophrenics are

A diagnosis of childhood onset schizophrenia (COS) is rare. Exactly how rare is unknown as the rate of prevalence has been reported from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 40,00 (Sood & Kattimani, 2008; Gochman, Miller, & Rapaport, 2011). Regardless of the disorder's prevalence, witnessing a child battle the inner demons that are frightening even for adults is disturbing. The only distinguishing factor between COS and schizophrenia is age of onset. If individuals are 18 or younger when they display symptoms, they will be diagnosed with COS. When someone is so young at age of onset their disorder will be more severe and will have worse long-term outcomes (Mash & Wolfe, 2016). When a child is diagnosed with an uncommon disease like COS it is typically reported in the news. This is the case with Gianni Cristini who is haunted by scary voices and suicidal thoughts, and has been since he was younger than 4 years old. Because his symptoms were so severe and rare, he was diagnosed with an array of disorders including autism, depression, and attention deficit disorder. Gianni's diagnosis at the time of the article was bipolar schizophrenic affective disorder.