So--what do you guys think of Schizophrenia? If you need the definition, here it is: "Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it hard to: Tell the difference between what is real and not real."
That depends on what it is you're asking. If you're asking whether I think it's a good thing or bad thing then i'll tell you that I feel bad for the people who are diagnosed with this disorder. However many can lead pretty average lives. With today's modern medicine people diagnosed with Schizophrenia can live basically like you or me. However, sadly there is no cure. My heart goes out to all the people who face hardships because of this disorder. I can't really see any other possible way that this question would've been directed. There's not much else to say. EDIT: Fixed an error on my part.
I met a schizophrenic once, he was convinced he worked for the NASA. In southern France. Sure. It was disturbing on too many levels for me to count. Funny conversation though. For those of you who wonder, I hadn' t watched A Beautiful Mind yet. Good movie.
Depends on the severity of Schizophrenia. Thoughts on it? Like a number of other mental illnesses it has perks and problems with having it. It gives you an almost unlimited creativity boundary with the world you see and the one you make for in your mind. The biggest problem is the inability to control it and, initially, the inability to realise you even have it. Once you've realised what you have, tangibly, you begin questioning everything. Am I real? Are my memories not mine, are these words mine? Do these people around me exist? Are these voices real or not? And these aren't just some metaphysical questions, these are genuine concerns, you're in an identity crisis that can not be reasoned with. Your tether to reality is completely destroyed for life. No matter hoe down to earth or recovered you become, there will always be the thought that this isn't real. However, I've seen the most deep, complex and expressive work come from people with it, and they create it with the greatest of ease, a natural extension of their minds. You live and die with it. Recovering from it is never full, you can still relapse. But without specifics, not sure what else to say on this.
Like most other common mental disorders (if that's the right term for it, I don't mean to be offensive), it can be dangerous in extreme cases or if left untreated. But there are a number of people who lead happy lives with it, and as others have said, it can give birth to a creative, philosophical mind. It's all a matter of learning how to live with it, and us not writing people off who suffer from it as 'crazy.' I firmly believe things like schizophrenia, depression, etc., while potentially dangerous, are nothing to be feared. There are huge numbers of people who live with them and so long as we provide them the care and understanding they require, those people can have 'normal' lives.
Like for every disorder/illness/disease there will always be some form of medication for something. The most common case of Schizophrenia that we see is Paranoid Schizophrenia, which is where they think people are out to get them, they're being watched, and they have delusions and hallucinations. It's the most common one. The other three subtypes are rather rare. From what I have read, the brain releases high levels dopamine. Dopamine is in charge of movement, thought and emotion. So autopsies of schizophrenics show there are high levels of dopamine. Antipsychotic medications are used to lower those high levels of dopamine, so basically it is what schizophrenics need to take so they don't relapse. I think the most common thing people think about schizophrenics is that they are crazy and belong in a mental institute. I, sadly, at one point thought this is what it simply was. A person being crazy. But there's always a cause of these kinds of things. Twins are apparently at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia and genetics and the environment can be factors as to why a person became schizophrenic. Childhood head injuries can cause it, viral infections of the brain can cause it, pregnancy complications, even an excessive amount of stress increases the risk in genetically predisposed individuals. Medication is possibly the only thing that can help to maintain schizophrenia. The only problem is that those that have it usually have a hard time taking care of themselves because of the disorder so they would need someone else to be caring for them. However, people tend to distance themselves because there is always the risk of a schizophrenic being violent and dangerous. The person with schizophrenia might not even realize they have it because of all the delusions and hallucinations they start having.
I am diagnosed with Schizophrenia and I live a normal life, while taking medicine of course. Before I was diagnosed, I went through a major depression where I went down to 100 or 99 lbs. and I had trouble deciphering what was real and what was not. I would also hear disturbing thoughts to kill myself and to hurt others and I had mental breakdowns constantly. It took forever to find out what I had and I went through several medications and seizures until we found out the best one. In all, Schizophrenia is not to be taken lightly. It endangers you and the people around you and your mental state; it can make you literally numb and exhausted. It's something that is battled with everyday and people should be careful when they call others "crazy" because people with Schizophrenia or other mental illnesses become very hurt when others say that and the exact thoughts that follows, well for me, are, "Maybe I am really crazy? I can never be accepted as normal...." It just really hurts when people call us "crazy" or "insane," because it is something we can't help.... I don't want anyone to experience what I've gone through. Ever. Also, when I'm not on my medicine, the voices and thoughts of derealization come back. :/ I have to always be on medicine. Forever.
Out of curiosity (if you don't mind speaking about it, of course), would you say the medication has any negative side effects for you? Like I know people who have been on anti-depressives or anti-anxiety medication (not sure what kind) that stopped taking them because they felt the meds dulled their emotional capacity. They would rather deal with the disorder themselves, through more natural remedies. This of course relies on how serious their case is and probably just case-by-case in general, I'm just curious. Again, if you don't want to talk about it I totally understand.
With a family member with it and a blood line with many disorders in general I've always been afraid of having it. As I've shown signs, though that could just be a form of overthinking about it, and in every instance I've heard about it, the thing can turn on like a switch late in life. Not sure how to handle it, but I already question what is real and what is not. Probably unrelated I know, but still. Just a thing I happened to type out. I feel sorry for the people with it in the case that everyone labels it as crazy and think they should be locked up. Most don't even realize that there's varying levels. (Everyone in here has though, thankfully, but in media they show it so stereotypically most of the time. Granted I think how it's represented is improving. Still in my school I once heard a conversation where someone mentioned crazy people and this was their first thought. Like instant example of insane.) Though it's also bad when it causes daily life to be so hard to get through which is another reason to wish others better. However with meds it's...like a double-edged sword in my opinion. Like above, it changes people. But it could also be helpful. To me, I think the way it effects someone's mind isn't worth it, though this would of course vary on the case and person's own personal opinion.
Mine was a serious case, although I never hurt anyone, I was on the verge of hurting myself and almost committing suicide. The medicine does make me kind of dull to emotion and it does mellow me out but I still feel happiness and other feelings, but I'm just not all over the place anymore than when I was not on medicine. The medicine balances me out but the only side effect I've had from the medication is weight gain and a little of dull emotions sometimes (but rarely.) Also, when you first start taking anti-depressants it makes the suicidal urges stronger before your body gets used to the medication, so that is why some people stop taking it right away without waiting it out. :/
I really don't have any opinion on it. At times, I suspect that I have a mild form of schizophrenia, but even if I'm right, it's not invasive enough in my life to look into it, so I figure it's best to leave it alone until it starts really screwing things up. It's not a disease. At worst, it is a disability and most of the time it's merely a disorder. Diseases are physical in nature.
Could Schizophrenia happen when you take drugs? I'm just asking because some people who take drugs see things that are out of the ordinary.
That's actually a very interesting thought, not many people think of drugs and schizophrenia as being linked. But yes, there is a link between the two. Studies show that increased drug abuse - especially of the hallucinogenic variety - increases the risk of developing schizophrenia later in life. It's worse for those with a genetic predispostion of schizophrenia, they are at an even higher risk. This article explains just how connected the two are: http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/streetdrugs.html It says that as little as 5 instances of drug abuse can cause a significcant increase in developing schizophrenia later in life. This is especially true of marijuana. Basically avoid or use as little of street drugs as you can, being processed in unsafe environments can mean they have any potential substances in them.
Oh--so drugs can cause Schizophrenia also. I thought only quiet a few people have that illness but drugs can cause it...
Not the cause of it, because if it was the cause then everyone who takes drugs would develop schizophrenia, which is not true. It just means the higher chances of suffering from it at some point. 1 in 100 people will at some point in their life develop schizophrenia. That's around 70 million people in the world that at some point will develop it, making it quiet a common problem.
Actually, angel dust can directly cause schizophrenic symptoms, and overindulging in it can cause prolonged psychotic states. It's only a hypothesis as of yet, but it is plausible that the underlying mechanisms (blocked/malfunctioning glutamate receptors) are the same. Genetics seem to support this: people with a mutated variant of glutamate receptor genes suffer a higher risk of developing schizophrenia. That, and drugs like amphetamine can cause schizophrenia-like symptoms as well (the so-called amphetamine psychosis) by promoting the release of dopamine. Whether this can actually be called schizophrenia is debatable, because the relation between dopamine and schizophrenia is more complex than was first assumed. That being said, schizophrenia is said to develop during puberty and adolescence and schizophrenics have distinct brain morphologies so whatever those drugs cause might not be true schizophrenia. Whether the difference is relevant is another can of worms: the right narcoleptics can relieve symptoms, be they natural or drug-induced. So yes, drugs can cause schizophrenia in a way. Source: Biological Psychology by S. Breedlove et al. (4th Edition, 2005)
Done a bit of research and sounds plausible to be a nother cause of schizophrenia. But to say you get schizophrenia because you have schizophrenic symtpoms doesn't necessarily mean that. Schizophrenic symptoms likely occur in everyone's lives at various points from emotional stress, sudden mild hallucination, brief catatonic states, falt emotional states and so on. But it doesn't mean these people have schizophrenia. To have schizophrenia, you have to have these symptoms over a continual period of months. You could hypothetically, force yourself to become schizophrenic legally speaking if you continaully take PCP over a length of time. EDIT: And you've edited your post I see. Yes in a way it can cause it for sure. Not the typical cause, and likely not going to be in most cases, but always good to expand knowledge on it. Schizophrenia is never clear cut.
