Schizophrenia

is a complicated mental health condition that is often related to psychosis. There’s lots of misconceptions about it, the illness is still very much misunderstood and has a lot of stigmas attached to it. However, 1 in every 100 people get this diagnosis at some point in their life. Despite advances in treatment, complete recovery from schizophrenia is rare.
The history of schizophrenia includes the early writings of John Haslam in 1809 and those of Philippe Pinel in France at about the same time. Some 50 years later another physician, Benedict Morel, used the French term démence.

1. Emil Kraepelin built on the work of Haslam, Pinel, and Morel to provide the most enduring description of schizophrenia. Two of Kraepelin’s accomplishments stand out: First, he combined catatonia (i.e., alternating immobility and excited agitation), hebephrenia (i.e., silly, and immature emotionality), and paranoia (i.e., delusions of grandeur and persecution) and labelled. them as falling under the heading dementia praecox. Second, Kraepelin distinguished dementia praecox from manic depressive illness by emphasizing onset and outcome.
2. Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, was the first to introduce the term schizophrenia: a term derived from the Greek words for split (schizont) and mind (phren). Unlike Kraepelin, Bleuler believed that the core of schizophrenia rests in an associative splitting of basic personality functions. This concept emphasized the following:
   “Breaking of associative threads,” or the breakdown of forces that connect one function to the next. Bleuler also believed that an inability to keep a constant train of thought was characteristic of all persons with schizophrenia. A common misconception is that the term “split mind” has been used to imply that schizophrenia is synonymous with multiple personality.
   common myths about schizophrenia.
   The only symptom is psychosis/hearing voices. Although this is a common symptom it’s by far not the only one – people with schizophrenia often also experience low mood; trouble with processing information or thoughts; find it hard to concentrate; sleeping issues; loss of interest/joy in things; wanting to isolate themselves from others and a lack of energy. Many of the same symptoms as depression but people are much more accepting of that!

People with schizophrenia are violent. People with a severe mental health issue are much more likely to be a victim of crime than the general population. It means someone has ‘multiple personalities’ – this isn’t true. As above, there are many symptoms, and everyone’s experience of the condition will be different. People can never get well – This is untrue, most people can and do live well and fulfilling lives with schizophrenia. Although people may have times when it is more difficult than others, 4 out of 5 people with the diagnosis will be able to manage it most of the time and live a fulfilling life.

Clinical Description, Symptoms:-

A. The term psychotic behaviours are often used to characterize unusual symptoms, but it really refers to either delusions or hallucinations. The textbook illustrates the symptom clusters associated with schizophrenia with the case of Arthur.

B. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia refer to active manifestations of abnormal behaviour or an excess or distortion of normal behaviours. Examples include delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech.
Delusions refer to a belief that would be seen by most members of society as a misrepresentation of reality; often referred to as a disorder of thought content.

Delusions are often called the basic characteristic of madness. Two types of theories are used to explain delusions: motivational theories see delusions as a means of dealing with anxiety and stress, or a way of making sense of the world; deficit theories see brain dysfunction as the cause of delusions.

Hallucinations refer to the experience of sensory events without any input from the surrounding environment. Hallucinations can involve any of the senses; though auditory hallucinations (i.e., hearing things that are not there) are most common in persons with schizophrenia. Hallucinations are related to the concept of metacognition or thinking about one’s thinking. Auditory hallucinations are thought by some to be intrusive thoughts, which are perceived as coming from someone else. They then worry about these thoughts.

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia indicate the absence or insufficiency of normal behaviour and include emotional or social withdrawal, apathy, and poverty of thought or speech. Approximately 25% of people with schizophrenia experience these symptoms.

Avolition or apathy refers to the inability to initiate and persist in activities. Persons with this feature show little interest in performing even the most basic daily functions, such as personal hygiene.
Alogia refers to the relative absence of speech. This feature may manifest as brief replies to questions with little content, delayed comments or slowed responses to questions, or as disinterest in conversation.

support friends and family with schizophrenia
Focus on feelings, not experiences. You might feel unsure what to say or do when someone sees or believes something you don’t – but it’s important to remember that their experiences feel real to them.
It can help if you focus on how they are feeling, rather than talking about what is real or true. Instead of denying their experience it can help to say something like “That sounds really frightening, is there somebody you could talk to about it?”

 

living with schizophrenia
It’s different realistic – the stereotypical version you often see portrayed in the media or films is not realistic and people face a lot of stigma and judgement because of it.

For most people who have schizophrenia, they have periods when things might be difficult and periods when things are manageable – just like most people and most mental health issues! Not every difficult day is because of psychosis/voices – our service users who have schizophrenia tell us it can be difficult for them to find people to talk to about the emotional and mood impacts of the illness because these are much less recognised.
When they say they are struggling people often assume it’s with psychotic symptoms and focus on that, whereas the low mood, sleep and emotional impacts of the illness can be just as difficult to deal with and when not treated or managed successfully can lead to worsening psychotic symptoms rather than the other way round.

Trinethra wellness provides number of staff, volunteers and service users who have schizophrenia Within peer support, we offer opportunities for people to meet and talk to others who have had their own experiences, which can be invaluable when it comes to mental health issues like schizophrenia which are often misunderstood and can be difficult to people to talk about generally. If you are looking for support, please contact Trinethra wellness