Schizophrenia is a mental illness often characterized by psychosis, although it can take many shapes.
It affects about 1% of the world population and usually appears in the late teen years or around 20.
A lot of different symptoms can be linked to Schizophrenia. The main symptoms are the following :
- Dissociation on several aspects :
- Thought : abnormal thought patterns, bizarre thoughts, lack of concentration…
- Language : disorganized speech, use of figures of speech, loss of speech (mutism)…
- Affects : extreme detachment, lack of empathy, abnormal emotional reactions to everyday events
- Body : catatonic behavior, confused gestures, …
- Paranoïd delusions (and hallucinations in some cases) about recurring themes :
- Persecution (ex:people wanting to harm the sufferer, talking badly about them, …)
- Conspiracy (ex: the government watching the sufferer, …)
- Megalomania (ex: the sufferer might believe they are someone extremely famous, powerful, or wealthy, or even God himself)
- Supernatural Beliefs (ex: the sufferer might believe they have supernatural powers or believe in an alien invasion)
- Spiritual Delusion (ex: they might believe they were sent by God to deliver a message to humanity, or that the Devil is after them …)
Schizophrenia is usually employed as a plural (Schizophrenias), because it used to be classified in different subtypes (now those subtypes are called spectrum) :
- Paranoïd Schizophrenia
The most common type of schizophrenia. The main symptoms are delusions of persecution, hallucinations, …
- Catatonic Schizophrenia
This type of schizophrenia is linked to motor disturbances (odd or unusual postures, mutism, …)
- Disorganized Schizophrenia (also known as hebephrenic schizophrenia)
The predominant feature of disorganized schizophrenia is disorganization of the thought process, which results in incoherent speech (word salad), thoughts or behaviors.
- Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
This diagnosis is given when the sufferer exhibits varied symptoms of the spectrum of schizophrenia with no predominance of a type.
- Residual Schizophrenia
A person can be diagnosed with residual schizophrenia when their symptoms are less severe (after an acute psychotic episode, for example), but they still experience clear manifestations of schizophrenia symptoms.
Hope in Mind – Resources for mental illness sufferers and their families
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