Psychotic-Like Experiences Paper

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder of the brain, which is incurable but treatable to live a close to a normal life. There are different types of schizophrenia and they each have different symptoms and affect a person's life in different ways.

Schizophrenia is a severe, disabling and chronic disorder that affects people. Schizophrenia is diagnosed as a psychotic disorder. This is because a person suffering from schizophrenia cannot tell their own thoughts, perceptions, ideas, and imaginations from the reality. There is continuing debate and research as to whether schizophrenia is one condition or a combination of more than one syndrome that have related features. People suffering from schizophrenia may seem perfectly fine until the time they talk actually talk about they are thinking. People with schizophrenia rely on others for help since they cannot care for themselves of hold a job. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there is treatment that relieves some of the symptoms. People having the disorder will cope with the symptoms all their lives. There have been cases of people suffering from schizophrenia leading meaningful and rewarding lives. There are five types of schizophrenia namely paranoid, disorganized, residual, undifferentiated, and catatonic schizophrenia. This paper will discuss paranoid schizophrenia.

Valerie believes that the last four years of her marriage are what brought about her development of paranoid schizophrenia. During her last four years of marriage Valerie experienced a great deal of stress and strain to keep her marriage together. Because Valerie did not believe in divorce she turned to her religion and became deeply involved in her church. Her first delusion began during this period when she believed bad people were infiltrating her church and trying to destroy the

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It can have a devastating impact on one’s emotion, physical, occupation and social life. While it occasionally can be seen in the clinical setting as a primary diagnosis, it most often presents as a comorbidity to a medical or psychiatric issue;

Anomalous self-experiences (ASEs) are among the first symptoms to appear in the prodrome, predict the development of psychosis over and above clinical symptoms, and are common in people with schizophrenia. Although there are well-validated phenomenological interviews for assessing ASEs, there are no self-report measures. The current research describes four studies designed to develop and validate a new scale to assess ASEs, the Inventory of Psychotic-Like Anomalous Self-Experience (IPLASE). In Study 1, an over-inclusive item pool was generated based on phenomenological descriptions of ASEs, and items were kept or discarded based on factor loadings in an exploratory factor analysis. Five factors were extracted

Did you know one percent of our population is schizophrenic? Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling psychiatric disorder that commonly presents during late adolescent and early adulthood (Javitt, Daniel C). Schizophrenia is illustrated by an incapacity to differentiate what is real from what is not. The way they live can affect their brain functions causing relationships to end because of the symptoms schizophrenia produce in them, but there are treatments and support that can help with the symptoms.

Therapy for psychosis often works best when combined with medication, although this is not always

Sleep deprivation is a serious concern among college students, who are "among the most sleep-deprived age group in the United States," (Central Michigan University, 2008). It is important to study the causes of sleep deprivation, or sleep disorders, among college students. According to Park (2009), "dozens of studies have linked an increase in nightly sleep to better cognition and alertness." A study by Central Michigan University (2008) found that sleep deprivation can lead to poor academic performance, impaired driving, depression, and behavioral problems. There are several variables that may affect sleeping patterns among college students. One is genetics or biological issues. It is highly

Schizophreniform is a very complex mental disorder that is developed from Schizophrenia. The duration of Schizophreniform is what sets this disorder apart from Schizophrenia. While Schizophreniform is a breakdown of Schizophrenia, Schizophreniform typically lasts between 1-6 months. Similar to Schizophrenia, Schizophreniform is characterized as a form of “psychosis” as to where an individual is unable to convey what is genuine from what is envisioned. It additionally influences how individuals think, act, express feelings, and social participation. If the diagnosis proceeds longer than 6 months, the individual has Schizophrenia rather than Schizophreniform. The ratio of Schizophreniform

The sleep cycle is often the first symptom to pre-schizophrenia. "Infants were reported to ‘sleep almost constantly' during the first few months, yet by the age of six months, they refuse to sleep at all". (Cantor, 1988) Severe nightmares are very common in the first two years of life, where the child is unable to be awoken, or the child wakes spontaneously, vomits, and falls back asleep. (Cantor, ‘88) By the time the child is three or four, serious sleep disorders begin to develop. "The child just can't fall asleep, and it seems like they just can't relax". (Cantor, ‘88) These children are more likely to sleep walk, and have no fear in doing anything while in this state. "Both sleep behavior and understanding of danger improve as the child matures; in fact, schizophrenic children become cautious and fearful as the awareness of their alien world

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. It is a condition that requires lifelong treatment for people with schizophrenia. It is a serious condition when a person loses touch with reality with friends and family. Things for them that are imagining starts to become more real to them. They have problems concentrating, having memory, and lack of emotion. Doctors do not completely know the causes of this disorder, researchers are still on the job trying to find out. Many people with this disorder live in a private inner world with their own imagination. It is know to be called a “split mind” which means multiple personality split but the mind suffered a split from reality. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most common type. It is when a person loses touch of reality, their ability to function and think normally daily is altered more than other

In 1908, a Swiss psychiatrist by the name of Paul Eugen Blueler made history when he coined a new term for a disease that had long been thought of as Acute Dementia. By careful observation he collected information on his patients and discovered that this disease was distinct from the normal symptoms of dementia, and claimed instead that it was a “splitting of the psychic functioning”. His new phrase became the clinical diagnosis we now have become to know as “Schizophrenia”. Bleuler derived this term from the Greek verb schizen, which means ‘split’, and the Greek noun, phren, which originally meant ‘diaphragm’ or ‘heart’, but was later understood to mean “soul, spirit, or mind’, (Ashok).

"For years, Lisa Halpern says she was able to explain away and conceal the early warning signs of psychosis. When she hid in her college dorm room with towels stuffed under the door and black paper over the peephole, she was just "antisocial." Later, when she was a Harvard graduate student who became unable to read, shower or leave her apartment, she thought she might have a brain tumor."("Treating Psychosis Without Delay" Painter, Kim). There are many other people that are experiencing psychosis just like Lisa. Psychosis is defined as a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality. The topic of psychosis possess a multitude of causes, which negatively impacts the victim, his

Hallucinations are also present in individuals who suffer from migraines. Visual hallucinations are likely to reflect neurological conditions. About 15 percent of migraine sufferers experience visual aura, which can range from vision loss, to simple hallucinations like seeing linear lines. Auras are mild seizures in a specific part in the brain that are usually followed by epileptic fits. Some people may experience vision distortions in association with migraine as well. The hallucinations in this cases are related to change in blood flow from the migraine.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is diagnosed in 0.5%-1% of the population in their lifetime (van Os et al, 2010). Its literal translation is ‘split-brain’, though it does not refer to multiple personality disorder, but rather a split from reality characterized by its disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking and inappropriate emotions (Myers, 2010). Much research has been carried out to gain a better understanding of the causes of this serious disorder. A popular theory is the diathesis-stress model. This theory of schizophrenia proposes that stress can elicit a pre-existing vulnerability to the disorder (Jones & Fernyhough, 2007). This model focuses on the interaction between genetic heritability of the disorder, and the environments interaction