Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder that changes a person thinks, feels, acts, and perceives reality in comparison to others. Although it is not given much attention and awareness I snot spread about it, it is a very chronic and deadly mental disorder.
What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?
There are a number of symptoms of schizophrenia. Most of them can be identified at an early age. Symptoms are as follows:
1. Hallucinations
Hallucinations usually refer to seeing things or people around you that are not really present in reality. Although, it is not only about seeing imaginary things. It is about a lot of other things such as smelling things- olfactory hallucination, tasting things- gustatory hallucination, hearing sounds- auditory hallucination, and feeling things physically referred to as tactile hallucination.
2. Delusions
Delusions are very similar to hallucinations. A major difference is that a schizophrenic person only feels a lot of things that are not true. It may include the feeling of someone being in love with him or her, comments being directed towards him or her even when they are not, feeling that someone is with them and they often start talking to the imaginary person.
3. Disorganized Speech
Disorganized speech is related to a schizophrenic’s disorganized thinking. The person tends to relate and join words that do not belong to each other and often do not make any sense. They also tend to give extremely unrelated answers to questions that are asked to them. They also might not be able to speak clearly, thus leading to a ‘word salad’.
4. Being Alone
Schizophrenic likes to stay alone and enjoys his or her own company. He or she often stays away from situations where his or her family or friends are. There will not just be a physical withdrawal, but also mental and emotional withdrawal. This would mean that he or she will not share his or her feelings with anyone which can further lead to loneliness and depression.
5. Lack of Motivation
There is a lack of motivation in a schizophrenic’s life. He or she does not wish to work hard towards anything and achieve it, even if it is important. The person will not want to get indulged in most of the activities happening around him or her.
6. Other Symptoms
There are other symptoms as well such as lack of personal hygiene, irritability, lack of emotion, mood swings, under or overeating, etc.
What are the different types of schizophrenia?
1. Paranoid Schizophrenia
This type of schizophrenia is the most common type of all. It is usually characterized by delusions and hallucinations. Most of the people who have this type of schizophrenia feel unsafe around a lot of people and imagine things that do not actually exist in reality. They might also suffer from anxiety issues which may further cause problems in their relationships, etc.
2. Catatonic Schizophrenia
Catatonic schizophrenia is a rare type of mental illness. It is usually characterized by hyper or under activity. A person suffering from catatonic schizophrenia usually tends to mimic certain sounds or actions that are somewhat related to the imaginary things he or she saw or felt.
3. Disorganized Schizophrenia
Disorganized schizophrenia is the only type that has no or very less number of delusions and hallucinations. A disorganized schizophrenic usually suffer from disorganized speech and thoughts. The way that he or she speaks makes it clear enough for a professional to identify the mental illness. There is a ‘word salad’ since most of the words put together or answers to questions are unrelated and often do not match.
4. Residual Schizophrenia
Residual schizophrenia is like the usual schizophrenia characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and other symptoms. The one and only thing that makes this type different is that the person who is diagnosed with schizophrenia has only had one or a maximum of two incidents of schizophrenia in his or her life before and it is not at all recurring.
5. Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
This type of schizophrenia shows more than one type’s characteristics. For example- a person might have delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech as well as catatonic behavior, all at the same time. It is a rare condition.
How can one treat it?
Schizophrenia can definitely be treated. It itself does not have a cure but the mental condition of a schizophrenic can be managed. Usually, it takes a long period of time to treat a person with schizophrenia but the same also depends on the intensity of this mental illness the person is suffering from.
A psychiatrist’s help is taken in most of the cases to cure the illness. But, sometimes if the condition is extremely serious and chronic, hospitalization might be required. The doctor will give his patient the proper medication to cure him. Sometimes, medication is continued even after the patient has stopped showing symptoms.
Written by - Hunnar Kaushal
Edited by - Chhavi Gupta
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