Mental Disorders: Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

People all over the world suffer from this dreadful disease, but you may be wondering what it is, what causes it, and if there are treatments? All these questions and more with be answered, but first of all, what is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by irrational thought processes. A person dealing with this debilitating illness may think that people are going to kill them, or kidnap them. Some Schizophrenics often have “voices” in their heads telling them what to do. In some cases this has caused people to take their lives or try to.

There are many symptoms that can come with schizophrenia. So people can see and some people are not able to see. The mind of the person can be very different than what we might think is going on. The difference between inward and outward signs can be difficult for a person to notice. Even when looking at brain scans you may not be able to see what is going on in the mind and what might be wrong. The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three categories; positive, negative and cognitive.

Schizophrenia has many different behaviors and moods with disorders of thoughts and movement (Nimh.nih.gov, 2016). Schizophrenia has three classifications of symptoms, positive, negative, and cognitive. Positive symptoms are psychotic symptoms, usually auditory hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior (Frankenburg, 2015). Other positive symptoms are dysfunctional ways of thinking and disturbed body movements. Negative symptoms are expressed primarily through emotions and behaviors. Negative

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 is a severe mental disorder of the brain. Schizophrenia also has the most negative stigma attached to it as well. People who view schizophrenia in a negative aspect, tend to think that schizophrenic people are all violent and unpredictable (The Leap Institute, 2013). This is not always accurate because schizophrenic symptoms vary in drastic ways. The common symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations, hearing voices, paranoid thoughts, anosognosia (poor insight), confusion, forgetfullness, unfocused, and isolation/withdraw from others. The more negative symptoms are a decreased motivation,  lack of energy,  and lack of facial expressions (The Leap Institute, 2013).

The symptoms for schizophrenia vary significantly – from positive (meaning that the patient is experiencing a presence of aberrant behavior) to negative (there is a noticeable absence of normal functioning) (Sue, et al., 2013). Positive symptoms are categorized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thought and speech, and grossly abnormal psychomotor behavior (also called catatonia), (Sue, et al., 2013). Negative symptoms include such things as avolition (an inability to take action or focus on goals), alogia (a lack of meaningful speech), asociality (minimal interest in social relationships), and restricted affect (little or no emotion in situations in which emotional reactions are expected), (Sue, et al., 2013, p. 354). I will later

Schizophrenia usually starts with a high-risk period of thought disturbances or unusual ideas. Along with that, individuals experience negative symptoms such as social withdrawal, anhedonia, and low mood (Pringle, 2013, p. 505). These negative symptoms can lead to poor quality of life and are difficult to treat. In the acute phase, which begins up to two years later, positive symptoms of schizophrenia are “hallucinations (changes in perception involving any of the five sensory modalities) and delusions (unusual thoughts or beliefs)” (Pringle, 2013, p. 505). Along with positive and negative symptoms, there are cognitive symptoms and first rank symptoms. Cognitive symptoms include deficits in attention, verbal and visual learning, executive function, social cognition, processing speed, and working memory. First-rank symptoms include somatic passivity, delusional perceptions, voices commenting on the patient’s action, audible thought, withdrawal thought, voices arguing, and passivity of impulse, volition, and affect (Giannopoulos, Carroll, Ebmeier, 2014, p. 12). These symptoms help diagnose schizophrenia. For some individuals antipsychotic medications were needed and for others, symptoms resolved quickly.

Schizophrenia is a major mental illness where the human brain can create multiple personas which cause hallucinations, confused thinking,abnormal behaviour and negative symptoms.

Schizophrenia is described by the National Institute of Mental Health as “a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history” (n.d.). The most recognizable symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations involve experiencing sensory stimulation (hearing, seeing, feeling, etc.) when there is no stimulus present. Delusions are false beliefs. Common types of delusions experienced by people with schizophrenia are delusions of persecution, delusions of grandeur, delusions of reference, and delusions of control (Smith & Segal, 2014). Delusions of persecution involve the belief that a person or someone they love is in grave danger, or someone is out to get them. Delusions of grandeur are beliefs that someone is famous or highly important, or they possess unique powers. Delusions of reference are characterized by the belief that mundane occurrences such as a commercial or dogs barking carry a special message meant for them. Delusions of control are beliefs that a person’s thoughts or behavior are being controlled by outside sources. Other symptoms of schizophrenia include disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and a variety of negative symptoms (Smith & Segal, 2014). Disorganized speech includes loose associations (each thought only slightly related to the next, if at all), neologisms (made-up words), clanging (unnecessary use of rhyming), and word salad (jumbled speech without an organizational pattern). Signs

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that consists of hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and thought. “Schizo” if Greek for Split while “phrene” means mind; schizophrenia literally translates to split mind (Burton, 2012). Why is schizophrenia considered to be split minded? According to Khouzam, 2012 split mind is used to describe the disruption within the thought process Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that has subcategories that include paranoia, catatonia, disorganized, residual and undifferentiated type. This is partially what makes schizophrenia terrifying because each subtype needs to be treated differently due to a different combination of behavior/symptomology. This fact is why psychologists must ensure proper

Symptoms of schizophrenia may vary, but they typically involve cognitive problems and issues with behaviors and emotions. A variety of symptoms are associated with schizophrenia. Delusions, false beliefs that are not based on reality, occur in as many as 4 out of 5 people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

It can also be scary and upsetting to the people around them. Families and society are both impacted positively and negatively by schizophrenia. Positive symptoms are usually the symptoms that are not found in healthy people and can either come and go or will just stay stable over the span of the time they are diagnosed. Some examples of positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders. Negative symptoms are those that are harder to identify and recognize as part of the disorder or another separate condition. Examples of these negative symptoms are reduced speaking, difficulty beginning and continuing activities, reduced feelings of pleasure in everyday life, and activities they used to enjoy doing, and lastly having “flat affect” which is reduced expression of emotions by facial expression or the tone of voice. The last form of symptoms the individual diagnosed can have is cognitive symptoms. These symptoms are subtle, but are difficult to notice like the negative symptoms. Example of cognitive symptoms is poor “executive functioning” (the ability to understand information and use it to make decisions), trouble focusing or paying attention, and problems with “working memory” (the ability to use information immediately after learning

The first choice in treating schizophrenia is medication, the majority of patients can be relieved of many symptoms by medication alone however, almost always receive other treatments alongside. The medications used in treating schizophrenia are antipsychotics. Antipsychotics have been around and in use since 1950. Some of the earliest antipsychotics are still widely used for treatment today. They work by blocking the dopamine receptor. With blocking the release of dopamine the prolactin hormone is able to increase (Patterson, A., McCahill, A., & Margaret, E. 2010).

Positive symptoms are when symptoms of schizophrenia are bizarre additions to an individual’s behavior, such as delusions, disorganized thinking and speech, hallucinations, and inappropriate affect. Delusions, or incorrect thoughts, occur in various ways but the most popular is persecution, when the individual feels like everyone is out to get them, following delusions of grandeur, or feeling like they are of higher power such as being the Queen of England, when they clearly are not. Another symptom is disorganized thinking and speech that can include loose associations in which the conversation is all over the place, neologisms which is making up words, or the individual with schizophrenia will talk in clang or repeated rhymes. Third, is hallucinations

The characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia, according to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), first require that at least two symptoms from the following list are pointedly exhibited within a month: delusions, hallucinations, disordered speech, catatonic behavior, and other negative symptoms such as a lack of emotional expressiveness known as affective flattening, a deficiency of speech known as alogia, or a general lack of drive known as avolition. However, if the delusions or hallucinations are extreme, only one of these symptoms is required. These symptoms are mainly behavioral core symptoms. Moreover, affective core symptoms of schizophrenia include paranoia. Secondly, the patient must experience social and/or occupational dysfunction. The patient noticeably begins to perform insufficiently in these major areas of functioning. This traces to cognitive core symptoms in the sense of mental impairments. For example, schizophrenic patients often believe that they hear voices, feel paranoid and threatened without reason, and cannot grasp social cues or functions. Third, duration is a key aspect of the symptoms that characterize