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ABOUT SCHIZOPHRENIA - Clinical Picture | ||||||||||||||
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Schizophrenia: multiform and misunderstood
Schizophrenia is as common as diabetes: about 1 person in 100 is affected by the disease. In every neighborhood there is someone suffering from it. Up until now, schizophrenia has been a misunderstood mental illness; and through a lack of knowledge, comes fear. The illnesses' manifestations are wide-ranging: they can be mild or intense, acute and traumatic or furtive and for outsiders hardly perceptible. It can be a one-time occurrence or can reoccur in sometimes longer, sometimes shorter intervals; it can be completely healed or lead to disability. Lay persons are often at a loss as to how to react to the illness, which leads to prejudices. Schizophrenia, it is said is an incurable dysfunction or that the afflicted is not actually ill but behaves in such a way in order to get attention. This is wrong. Schizophrenia is a serious, although as a rule treatable, illness and it can affect anyone. How does someone who is suffering from schizophrenia change? he ultimate cause of the illness precedes an early stage in which the afflicted later demonstrates gradual changes. He or she gets caught up in an advanced disquietude of his/her thinking and feeling, becomes more sensitive and vulnerable. Not until the acute stage of the psychosis do the symptoms become conspicuous. The social circle of a person who is beginning to suffer from schizophrenia may notice two types of changes. On the one hand, so-called 'productive' or 'positive' symptoms can occur (delusions, hallucinations, disruptions in thinking or speaking) on the other hand, the afflicted may demonstrate 'negative' or 'deficit' symptoms (lack of drive, social isolation, apathy and lack of emotional receptiveness). The intellectual capabilities and the clarity of consciousness are, as a rule, not impaired; as time goes on though, cognitive deficits may develop. Cognitive deficits are understood as reductions in brain performance functions such as memory, and the ability to remember, thinking and judging, perception and the ability to pay attention and to concentrate. The afflicted perceives his or her surroundings in a changed manner. For example, that changed manner can include external perceptions and optical or acoustical hallucinations and the afflicted may overreact to noises, smells, and tastes; even his or her sense of time can change. It is also possible that the entire world takes on such a personal relevance to the afflicted that every occurrence seems especially pertinent to the afflicted and has a special meaning for him or her. He or she may have the feeling the others are able to read his most personal thoughts or feelings and even influence them. It is easy to understand why the patient calls upon all his or her cultural background, experiences and familiar explanations in order to render these changes intelligible. These things can include hypnosis, telepathy, radio waves, or other 'powers'. Often acoustic or (less frequently) visual hallucinations arise: things are seen or voices are heard that are not really there. Usually, these voices give orders or comment on the actions or thoughts of the person. Similarly to a depressive disorder, schizophrenics have the feeling of "not having feelings anymore"; in many cases, his or her voice comes across undifferentiated and monotone. This explains the occasional inappropriate emotional reaction (for example laughing on a sad occasion) and the impression of emotional non-responsiveness. Composed by the Anti-Stigma-Workgroup of the LMU in association with BASTA - the association for the mentally ill. |
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| © 2006 BASTA | |