Elyn Saks Delusions

The book “The center cannot hold: My Journey Through Madness” written by Elyn Saks is a gripping and eye opening story about her personal battle with the lifetime sentence of Schizophrenia. The book starts out by telling about her childhood in Miami Florida. She lived a normal life, for the most part, with a normal family who loved and supported her. Though even from an early age she knew something was off. She was a quirky, paranoid girl who almost seemed at times to have obsessive-compulsive disorder. She often thought people were outside her house waiting to come in and abduct her.

Before I continue with Saks story let me take a moment to try and explain what this mental disorder is call chronic schizophrenia. First of all let’s see what the difference between schizophrenia and chronic schizophrenia is.

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.

The author speaks of her experiences as a person that suffered from schizophrenia. The statement by Saks that says, “I fell ill with schizophrenia”, proves that she should know what is best for someone that may suffer from a mental illness. It is used to change how the audience feels in the sense that she should know the experiences a mental illness went through and what could better themselves. She speaks of how the forced medication was difficult for her to go through, and how hard she had to fight just to get off of the medication when she says, “I made multiple attempts to get off the medication”. The audience feels a sense of sadness as they feel that she went through a hard time that could have been made much easier if the system used by hospitals was finally updated to be much better than it currently is. It would also bring about a feeling of sympathy and it may even bring about a small sense of empathy towards some. The audience would be feeling sorry for here because of how the difficult time she spent trying to get off the medication could have been much easier if only the system treated the patients they are trying to heal better.

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,

Elyn Saks’ memoir, The Center Cannot Hold, tells an eye-opening story of her lifetime journey filled with achievements despite suffering from schizophrenia. Although it took a while for Saks to fully accept her diagnosis, she never sold herself short of what she was able to accomplish. Saks shows the reader that determination, perseverance, and knowledge can bring refugee to anyone suffering from a mental illness. There is no doubt that Saks led a remarkable battle against her illness while continuing to pursue her passions, but her message stands clear that anyone who suffers an inner demon has the ability to overcome it if they find a life through which they can accept it, learn to cope with it, and find happiness in it.

M.’s wife, the college dean, hospital staff and even her roommate were dangerous threats to her mission of saving the world. Janet’s struggle to “save the world” can equate to her hope of being saved herself. These persecutory delusions helped Janet endure her extreme anxiety. Hallucinations, which include hearing voices and seeing things that are not real, are a positive symptom of schizophrenia. Janet experienced auditory hallucinations when she felt thwarted in her delusion that she and Dr. M. must save the world. She was unable to rescue herself from the stress that brought about the delusion formation; this stress and anxiety left her vulnerable to hallucinations. In addition, her paranoia led her to accept the hallucinations as proof of the threats against her plan for world salvation. The command hallucinations Janet heard placed her in danger of performing violent behavior that could harm herself or

In the biography of Elyn Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold, she describes a lot of her symptoms that lead to her final diagnosis of schizophrenia. These symptoms include, disorganized speech, delusions, hallucinations, grossly disorganized, catatonic behavior and a few of negative symptoms.

For this literature review, I decided to read an autobiographical novel called “The Center Cannot Hold” at the suggestion of my individual supervisor at Sharp Mesa Vista, who said it was the best first-hand account of schizophrenia that she had ever read. The novel tells the story of Elyn Saks’ lifelong struggle with schizophrenia.

After numerous essays about light topics she moves on to a serious topic. After talking about leaving notes for herself at night, she explains how her experience with mental illness by saying, “Mentally ill. It’s a phrase that once scared me, but now I wear it like an old jacket, comfortable but ugly. It keeps me warm when people look at me as if I’ve lost my mind… I know that when my anxiety attacks hit, my body isn’t actually going to kill me, in spite of how it feels.

Dr. Saks challenges the stereotypes associated with schizophrenia by her success. Earlier when she was diagnosed, she was told that she wouldn’t be able to achieve the success that she had. Just because you have schizophrenia does not mean that you have to accept a certain fate.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is characterized by a variety of symptoms and the disorganization of feeling and thought. It is an incurable disease whose causes are unknown, yet whose effects are mind and body crippling. (Young, 1988, p.13-14) This topic was chosen because it is interesting to study a disorder that worldwide, is viewed as a classic example of madness and insanity. Another reason of interest is because unlike many illnesses, schizophrenia doesn't have a noticeable pattern and its difficulty to be diagnosed as a disease makes the collection of statistics difficult. It is important to learn more about schizophrenia because a significant numbr of people are affected everyday

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.

Just like in reality, this movie does not identify any causal factors associated with schizophrenia, but its treatment and management are portrayed to work effectively with antipsychotic/ psychotropic medications and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that makes the affected individual “to understand and appreciate his condition” (A beautiful Mind). Several inaccurate characterizations of schizophrenia in this movie relates to the fact that this condition does not affect males only but also females are affected, and apart from the positive symptoms of schizophrenia that are highlighted, the patient may also exhibit negative symptoms. It is also not advisable to keep or incarcerate the affected individuals in the hospital since the condition can easily be managed at home with adequate contribution of the family members (A beautiful Mind).