Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. The symptoms can be very disabling.
Schizophrenia is a mental illness which occurs when the parts of the brain responsible for emotion and sensation stop working properly. This may happen slowly over a period of time and may result in a person withdrawing from people, losing interest in things, and possibly having angry outbursts.
Schizophrenia often develops during late adolescence, and behaviour like this may seem like part of a ‘phase’. It is often only when the more severe symptoms of schizophrenia, like hallucinations or delusions (hearing, seeing, feeling things that are not there) appear, that a mental illness might be recognised.
Schizophrenia can present in different ways, such as with really disruptive behaviour, difficulty in "thinking straight", abrupt changes in emotions.
In some cases, the disruptive behaviour can be called psychotic and it is not generally seen in healthy people. They may have seemed to have 'lost touch with reality'. This can be seen when the person interacts with things that are not there - hallucinations or delusions, they demonstrate dis-organised thinking and they can show agitated body movements.
In other cases, the symptoms can be similar to how depression presents, as they are related to emotions. They may seem 'flat' and unable to show emotion in their faces or voices, their daily lives are less enjoyable than usual, they have problems with motivation to either begin or complete an activity.
Other people may show cognitive symptoms which means they have trouble with the way they are able to think. They may find it difficult to understand information and using it to make decisions, have trouble paying attention, seem easily distracted and not able to retain information.
Schizophrenia is a treatable serious mental illness that effects a person's thoughts, feelings and general functioning. A combination of genetic and environmental factors is responsible for the development of the condition. Treatment can involve a variety of strategies to reduce symptoms, and medication needs to be taken daily to be effective. Therapy or counselling is often a very important part of the treatment, as the person may need help coping with the challenges of living with a chronic mental health condition. Family therapy may be also recommended.
If you or someone you know are experiencing any combination of the above symptoms or are concerned that you may suffer from Schizophrenia, please seek professional mental health support, as this condition needs to be diagnosed and medical treatment needs to be tailored to your specific situation.