Mental Disorders: The Three Stages Of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that usually shows up in adolescence or young adulthood but can be seen in children as young as eight years old. It is a long term mental disorder characterized by a faulty perception of reality, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. It typically involves the breakdown of a person’s relationship between thought, emotion, and behavior. Currently, there are five subtypes of schizophrenia included in the DSM-5; paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual. Each subtype is characterized by their most prominent symptom. For instance, paranoid schizophrenia is a subtype in which a person experiences

Schizophrenia occurs in people from all cultures and from all walks of life. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects a small portion of the population in the world. When schizophrenia is active there are many different symptoms that can appear. Some symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. When these symptoms are treated, most people with schizophrenia will improve over time with treatment. With the different studies we are able to see how schizophrenia works in different ways. The different ways being what is happening in the brain when a person has schizophrenia. Along with the different treatments from counseling to medication what works better.

First off I would like to tell you what exactly schizophrenia is. Schizophrenia is a brain disease, with concrete and specific symptoms due to physical and biochemical changes in the brain. This illness strikes young people in their prime age usually between 16 and 25. Schizophrenia is almost always treatable with medication. Contrary to what most think schizophrenia is not a "split personality", or caused by childhood trauma, bad parenting, or poverty, and not the result of any action or personal failure by the individual.(3)

According to NAMI (), schizophrenia is a long term mental illness that interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, make decisions, and relate to others, impairing a person from functioning to their full potential when left untreated. For these persons affected, it is many times difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not. “Unfortunately, no single simple course of treatment exists.” Research has linked schizophrenia to a multitude of possible causes” (NAMI).

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that inhibits a person’s ability to think clearly, manage their emotions, make their own decisions, and associate with others. It is a complicated, long term illness that affects one percent of Americans. Even though Schizophrenia can occur at any age, it is more common for men in their early twenties and early twenties to late thirties in women. It is possible to lead a happy, fulfilling life with Schizophrenia. (Nami 2016)

In this essay I will try to explain schizophrenia and talk about the main biological and psychological explanations, also showing how similar and different they are. Schizophrenia is defined in the oxford dictionary as 'a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. '1 schizophrenia has positive and negative symptoms, the positive being delusions, hallucinations and disordered thoughts whereas negative symptoms consist of expressionless faces, poverty of speech and lack of motivation.2 The

Schizophrenia is a brain disease; Schizophrenia’s main problem is with insanity. What is Insanity? Webster’s dictionary states it as “A deranged state of the mind occurring as a specific disorder (as Schizophrenia) (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 646).” The definition of insanity is closely related to schizophrenia described as a disorder. When having schizophrenia one's behavior and thinking change dramatically. One’s behavior might contain several signs as loss of personal contact, social withdrawal, diminution of appetite, depletion of hygiene, delusions and hallucinations are just to name a few. Individuals with schizophrenia many times have no outward appearance of looking ill. In another case, a paranoid schizophrenic would

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects an estimated 3.2 million people in America alone (Nemade). Often, people have scattered reactions when they hear the word “schizophrenia.” Some may associate this word with uncontrollable actions that could potentially cause harm to those around them. People may think of serial killers, rapists, or any form of negative archetype seen in the the media. According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), schizophrenia is characterized by a patient experiencing delusions, hallucinations, and/or disorganized speech for more than a month. Delusions include, but are not limited to, the belief one is going to be harassed or harmed, environmental cues are directed at oneself,

Schizophrenia, it’s a long and confusing word. It can be quite a puzzling disorder to most as well. It has been called madness, hysteria, and even paranoia in the past but that is not the case today. However, Schizophrenia has many meanings, for there is not a specific definition. One of those meaning states it is a “chronic (long-lasting) brain disorder, affecting 1 in every 100 people worldwide” (Schizophrenia, 2013). What exactly is schizophrenia though? What are the symptoms of schizophrenia? What can I do treatment wise? These are common questions every person has when discovering and being diagnosed with a disorder. These questions are very significant and need to be answered.

Schizophrenia is an extremely complex mental disorder that has yet to be fully understood. This particular disorder has affected much of the population today, causing many different emotional, physical, and psychological problems in every affected individual. These symptoms include: “distorted thoughts, hallucinations, and feelings of fright and paranoia. Psychiatrists evaluate symptoms, tests, and medical history, and prescribe medications and psychotherapy for treatment” (Kirkpatrick). Schizophrenia affects approximately 2.4 million adults in the United States today (We Live With...). Schizophrenia should be thought of as a neurological disorder with emotional and cognitive symptoms, rather than pure insanity.

Schizophrenia usually strikes in late adolescence or in early adulthood. In some cases it can affect a person in middle age or even later and in rare cases it affects children. In general, the earlier this disease onsets, the more severe it gets as time goes by. Usually, the onset of this illness is gradual with subtle warning signs, but sometimes symptoms can appear all of a sudden and without warning. In initial phases people suffering from schizophrenia seem disconnected and isolated, emotionless, eccentric and reclusive. They begin to show an indifference to life and they stop caring about the way they appear. They stop doing things they once liked doing and the quality of work at school or work starts to

Dan Hoeweler a schizophrenic poet writes in his poem “Blast off to Insanity”, “They say I am mad/ that I am evil/ and creepy/ that my genes are corrupted/ and my brain is deformed/ that my actions are freaky/ that my behavior is not the norm…” Dementia Praecox: a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of one’s personality. What we know as schizophrenia today has been around for at least two centuries, but not named until the early 1900’s by Kraepelin. In order to fully understand this disease you need to know the types and symptoms, the causes, and the treatment and recovery.

Schizophrenia is an illness that affects the brain chemistry and structure in such a way that they experience changes in how they think, manage emotions, make decisions, and relate to others. An individual with schizophrenia may experience psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized sleep, flat affect, loss of interest in life and activities, trouble organizing thoughts and remembering things, etc. Current treatment options may include medication, therapy, and psychosocial rehabilitation. (NAMI, 2015)

Schizophrenia is a common neurobiological disorder, striking approximately 1–2% of the world's population, with the average age of onset between 21 and 27 years (Keefe 2). The term schizophrenia refers to an individual split off from the environment, not to be confused with the splitting of an individual's personality into parts (as with multiple or split personality disorder). Clear definitions in psychology, however, are hardly possible; likewise, one for schizophrenia has been difficult to arrive at because of the fact that there is no single symptom or set of symptoms that

A mental disorder characterized by abnormal social behaviour and a failure to understand what is real. Considered as a severe long-term mental health condition. Delusions may cause the person to lose touch with reality. Schizophrenia can affect any person from any social class. A patient will exhibit the following key features: • Hearing voices; often this will be two or more separate voices that might argue or describe the individual in a derogatory way.