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Schizophrenia is a serious but treatable psychological disorder that affects a person across every aspect of their lives. How a person thinks, feels, and behaves are all impaired by schizophrenia. When a person has schizophrenia, their ability to interpret reality is affected, causing disorganized behavior, delusions, and psychosis.
Schizophrenia is unfortunately not rare and affects about 1% of American adults. It’s a dangerous disorder with a high risk of suicide, with a US national rate of 5%, about four times higher than other mental health disorders. People with untreated schizophrenia also have much shorter lifetimes than the average neurotypical population.
Understanding Schizophrenia
The exact causes of schizophrenia remain unknown, although research has made a great deal of progress in teasing the puzzle of schizophrenia apart. It’s believed that schizophrenia is largely due to a combination of genetic factors and stresses a person may experience during their early years.
Early warning signs of schizophrenia
Most people develop the early warning signs and symptoms of schizophrenia between mid-to-late teens and their 30s. For many people with schizophrenia, the puberty onset heralds the onset of schizophrenia.
Men tend to develop schizophrenia earlier in life than women, although the incidence is the same.
The early warning signs of schizophrenia include:
- A significant drop in job performance or grades
- Unusual withdrawal from others or an increase in secretive behaviors
- Losing interest in activities once enjoyed
- A loss of social relationships, including a loss of friends
- Problems communicating (disordered speech)
- Suspiciousness of other people and increased distrust or paranoia
- Decreased attention to one’s hygiene or appearance
- The onset of hallucinations or delusions
The presence of delusions and hallucinations marks the onset of psychosis and schizophrenia. At that point, it’s time to seek professional help.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia has two sets of symptoms: positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia involve behaviors a person performs in addition to typical behaviors.
Delusions
Delusions are firmly held beliefs with no basis or evidence to support them. So it’s not only that a delusional person believes things with no factual backing, but delusions are also plainly, obviously false. Delusions are very common and occur in about 90 percent of those with schizophrenia.
These are two of the most typical types of schizophrenic delusions:
- Delusions of persecution. This is the most common type of delusion in individuals with schizophrenia. It’s the belief that someone or something, often an unspecified “they,” are planning or attempting to harm or harass the sufferer.
- Delusions of control. People may think their thoughts are being sent to others, read by others, or that others are inserting thoughts or images into their consciousness.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations involve hearing or seeing things that aren’t objectively real—they exist only in the mind. Although many of our senses may be subject to hallucinations, auditory and visual hallucinations are the most common in schizophrenia. Schizophrenic auditory hallucinations tend to be abusive, critical, or hostile to the person experiencing them. They may also encourage or command a person to harm themselves or others.
Disorganized thinking (speech)
Schizophrenia interferes with a person’s ability to maintain a train of thought, which carries over into how a person speaks. As a result, an individual with schizophrenia may have speech that is rambling, incoherent, tangential to any topic, or incomprehensible.
Some examples of disorganized speech include:
- Clanging. Schizophrenic clanging is a repetition of rhyming words (“Lots of cots, bots, nots”) without any connection or relationship to a conversational topic.
- Loose associations. A person with loose associations can only remain tangentially connected to an idea and will shift rapidly from topic to topic without any transition or connection between them.
- Neologisms. People with schizophrenia may make up new nonsense words that lack meaning.
Extremely disorganized or abnormal motor behavior
Disordered behavior refers to the following conditions:
- Problems with grooming, even with simple self-care tasks like showering or combing one’s hair.
- Difficulty communicating effectively, such as an inability to use words correctly and in the right order
- Lack of impulse control
- Emotional responses that are inappropriate to the situation or a lack of ability to feel or express emotions
- Psychomotor retardation. A person with abnormal motor behavior may move jerkily or have a very restricted range of movement. They may assume an uncomfortable, statue-like pose and stay there for hours—or days.
Negative symptoms
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia include behaviors or cognitive processes typically present in most people but missing in those with schizophrenia.
They include an impaired ability to perform the activities of daily living, like taking care of one’s hygiene, a greatly reduced range of emotions—or even, at times, the loss of emotions, like the ability to feel pleasure, called anhedonia. People may also lose interest in associating with others and withdraw completely.
When to Seek Treatment
The earlier a person gets treatment for schizophrenia, the more positive the outcomes are. If a person reports hallucinations or develops delusional thinking, seek help immediately. Only a physician, particularly a psychiatrist, can diagnose schizophrenia. The treatment of schizophrenia typically involves medication and psychotherapy.
Contact Absolute Awakenings for Help
Treatment for schizophrenia can give a person their life back. If you are looking for a multi-phased, quality continuum of clinical care, Absolute Awakenings Treatment Center is here to help. To learn more, give us a call today. We look forward to speaking with you soon and getting you started on your recovery journey as quickly as possible.
References
- Patel KR, Cherian J, Gohil K, Atkinson D. Schizophrenia: Overview and Treatment Options. P T. 2014;39(9):638-645.
- Hor K, Taylor M. Suicide and schizophrenia: a systematic review of rates and risk factors. J Psychopharmacol. 2010;24(4_supplement):81-90. doi:10.1177/1359786810385490
- Schizophrenia – Symptoms and causes. Mayo Clinic. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354443
- Schizophrenia. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Accessed January 15, 2023. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/schizophrenia
- Smith M, Robinson L, Segal J. Schizophrenia Symptoms and Coping Tips – HelpGuide.org. https://www.helpguide.org. Published January 10, 2023. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-disorders/schizophrenia-signs-and-symptoms.htm
- Schizophrenia: What It Is, Causes, Symptoms & Treatment. Cleveland Clinic. Published April 11, 2022. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/4568-schizophrenia
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