The Mental Illness Of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is characterized as a psychotic disease that dramatically affects one 's nervous system to a point of where every day basic functions can be inhibited. It is defined as the loss of contact with the external environment the person is in due to delusional thoughts and hallucinations. Perception and behavior of someone plagued with this disease is notably altered and their actions can become a concern of the people around them. Like many other diseases that affect the nervous system it is not curable at the current time but it can be treated to lessen the signs and symptoms of the disease.

Schizophrenia is a long-term psychological disorder characterized by a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior. The disease corrupts the biological functions in the brain pathways, thus causing phenotypic symptoms to occur. Diminished and or immobile facial expression, flat or inappropriate,

Many people today believe they are experts on schizophrenia due to hollywood titles such as 1948 blockbuster The Snake Pit or the 2001 hit A Beautiful Mind. However, many people do not know the cause, the symptoms, or the experiences people who suffer from schizophrenia face. Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder characterized by a split between thought and emotion where a person has difficulty distinguishing whether altered thoughts, perceptions, & conscious experiences are real versus imagined (Grison, Heatherton, and Gazzaniga, 2015, p. 518).

Many individuals in United States have been diagnosed with a mental disorder of some type. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) about 1% of the American people have been diagnosed with the devastating mental disorder called schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that deeply affects the everyday life of not only the patient but their family and friends as well. Although there are many people who suffer from this demoralizing mental illness, experts say one thing they are sure on is that there’s a lot they don’t know about the disorder.

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

Socially the term Schizophrenia has a certain caricature about it that society has turned into a very serious social stigma. Many associate the disorder with criminals, nut houses, and extreme uncontrollable violence. Schizophrenia is portrayed in literature, and in movies so horrendously negative that those who experience symptoms of this very serious mental disorder can be in a stage of denial that can ultimately cause them to go undiagnosed, that is until something goes wrong. In spite of myths and portrayals in pop culture schizophrenia is sometimes viewed as split personality, but the root of the word comes from the Greek word schizo and phrene which loosely translates into split mind (Internet Mental Health Initiative 2010).

While some may understand the concept of not having control over a specific disorder, fewer are able to imagine living with a disorder in which an altered perception of reality is created. “Schizophrenia is, in fact, a class of disorders that causes a distortion of reality to occur to its patients and effects the lives of many individuals to this day (Feldman, 2013). While this may fall into the large mix of other mental disorders, it is truly unlike any other because of the creation of an altered reality. Being the complex disorder that schizophrenia is, it is faced with having much controversy, including gender, and creating the necessary treatments used on its patients to help overcome such a mental disorder.

Schizophrenia is a disorder that is characterized by incredibly impaired cognitive processes, personality disintegration, mood disturbances, and a withdrawal from society (Sue et al., 2014). There are many different causes for this disorder, and research has been done to support these claims over time.

The intent of this paper is to take an in depth look at the mental disorder known as schizophrenia. This disorder is relatively new and has only been recognized by psychologists since the late 1880’s. Since its discovery there have been many researchers who have attempted to define what causes the disorder, however there is still no concrete evidence of its origin. It has been widely accepted that schizophrenia has roots in genetics, however there is also a growing amount of evidence to suggest environmental factors as well. Research on epigenetics has shown that subtle mutations of DNA can be associated with the onset of schizophrenia. It also has been presented that specific single nucleotide polymorphs can be directly

A common mistaken belief is that people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. Many people confuse schizophrenia with 'split personality' or 'multiple personality disorder' (Lilienfeld et al, 2010). The misunderstanding stems from the meaning of the word schizophrenia, as in Greek it means 'split mind' (Boruck, 2008). In 1990, Carlson proposed “schizophrenia is probably the most misused psychological term in existence” . Vaughan (1977), performed a study which found that 77% of students who registered for introductory psychology classes supported the myth about schizophrenics having a split personality. Although, more recent studies have suggested lower support for the myth as 50% of college students, 40% of police officers and almost 50% of those in the community agreed with the myth (Stuart & Arboleda-Florez, 2001; Wahl, 1987). Not only does this belief occur among the general population but it is also present in scientific journals. For example, Drummer's (2003) medical journal subtitled "The dermatologist's schizophrenic attitude towards pigmented lesions". As well as this, Shastry (1999) wrote in a journal schizophrenia is also known as split personality. Therefore terminological confusion seems to be one reason for this myth being common.

Schizophreniais one of the most commonly known psychological disorders found in humans. It is commonly mistaken for “multiple personality” or “split personality” due to the Greek origin of its name skhizein and phren, meaning “to split” and “mind” respectively. However, the more common symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thought. This paper will discuss the causes, symptoms, and treatments of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is “A serious disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts” (Mentalhealthamerica.net). Schizophrenia is a disorder distinguished by disturbances in thoughts, behavior, and emotion. Though it is not common and affects a clear minority of 1%. It is a disorder that occurs to all ages and can develop anywhere between their lifetimes. The disorder allows a person to feel their reality as being unrecognizable and confusing. The cognitive issues of the individual

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 mental disorder that affects many elements of the body and mind. This mental illness causes people to lose touch with reality Schizophrenia (2016). People with this illness suffer from hallucinations, paranoia, hearing voices, fear and persecutory delusion, which affects a person’s ability to think, feels, and behaves clearly. Most people with thinks illness are usually between the ages 16 and 30. Researchers have not found an exact cause of this disease but rather it is genetically passed down. Using drugs as well as the environment of the person has a lot to do with developing schizophrenia. There is no cure for this disease but it is very important to take an antipsychotic medication to help manage or decrease the unwanted behaviors of this mental illness. There are many other treatments people can use to minimize the illness. Some of these things include therapy; self-help groups, mental homes, and even exercise, which we will talk about later on in the paper. It is important in trying to manage a healthy life with schizophrenia that the person is being the healthiest person possible in order to overcome this illness or at least have some control over it, which is possible.

Schizophrenia: a form of psychosis in which a person experiences some psychotic symptoms for at least six months, with a substantial decline in the person's ability to function. The symptoms and length of the illness differ from person