I've heard you can hear voices but I jsut wanted to know some other stuff. I don't have it, I'm just curious :) For a first hand personal account read some of the questions relating to schizophrenia in discover on Yahoo! answers. I have answered many and you can look up my answers by going to my profile and/or e-mailing me from there. Type "schizophrenia" into Yahoo! web search for info on symptoms and treatment. Wikipedia has a good summary.
I did hear "voices" and had visual hallucinations which made my young years pretty rough but these have long discontinued. I was never violent; schizophrenics are no more violent than the average "normal" individual. The public understanding of these disorders is abysmally misinformed.
Good luck in your research, good mental health, peace and Love! What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects around 1 in every 100 people. It affects men and women equally and seems to be more common in city areas and in some minority ethnic groups. It is rare before the age of 15, but can start at any time after this, most often between the ages of 15 and 35.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
These are often described in two groups - positive and negative.
"Positive" symptoms:
These unusual experiences are most common in schizophrenia, but can occur in other mental disorders.
Hallucinations
A hallucination happens when you hear, smell, feel or see something - but there isn't anything (or anybody) actually there to account for it. In schizophrenia, the commonest hallucination is that of hearing voices.
What's it like to hear voices?
They sound utterly real. They seem to be coming from outside you, although other people can't hear them. You may hear them in different places or you may hear them coming from a particular object, such as a television. The voices may talk to you directly, or they may talk to each other about you. It can sound as if you are over-hearing a conversation. Voices can be pleasant but are often rude, critical, abusive or just plain irritating.
How do people react to them?
Sometimes you may feel that you have to do what they say, even if they are telling you to harm yourself or to do something you know is wrong. Much of the time you can ignore them. Sometimes they will get you down.
Where do they come from?
Voices are not imaginary, but they are created by the mind. Brain scans have shown that the part of the brain that is active when someone hears voices is the part that is active when they are talking, or forming words in their mind. It is as though the brain mistakes your own thoughts for real voices coming from our surroundings.
Do other people hear voices?
People with other mental disorders, such as severe depression, may also hear voices that talk directly to them. In depression, these voices are critical and repeat the same word or phrase over and over again.
Some people hear voices which do not interfere with their daily life. They may be pleasant, or not very loud, or only happen from time to time. These do not usually need any kind of treatment.
Other kinds of hallucination
Visions and hallucinations of smell, taste or being touched can also happen, but these are less common.
Delusions
A delusion is a belief that you hold with complete conviction, although it seems to be based on a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of situations or events. While you have no doubts, other people see your belief as mistaken, strange or unrealistic. They find that they can't really discuss this belief with you. If they ask you why you believe it, your reasons don't make sense to them, or you can't explain it - you "just know".
How does it start?
You may suddenly start to believe it. This may follow a few weeks or months when you have felt that there has been something strange going on, but that you couldn't explain what it was.
You develop a delusional idea as a way of explaining hallucinations that you are having. For example, if you have been hearing voices commenting on your actions, you may decide that you are being monitored by some government agency.
Paranoid delusions
These are delusional ideas that make you feel persecuted or harassed. They may be:
unusual - you may feel that MI5 or the government is spying on you. You may believe that you are being influenced by neighbours who are using special powers or technology.
everyday - you may start to believe your partner is unfaithful. You do so because of odd details that seem to have nothing to do with sex or infidelity. Other people can see nothing to suggest that this is true.
Delusions of persecution are obviously distressing for you. They can also be upsetting for the people you see as your persecutors, especially if they are close to you, like your family.
Ideas of reference
You start to see special meanings in ordinary, day-to-day events and believe that they are specially connected to you. For example, that radio or TV programmes are about you, or that people are communicating with you in odd ways, such as through the colours of cars passing in the street.
Coping with delusions
Delusions may, or may not, affect the way you behave.
It can be difficult to discuss them with other people because you realise that they won't understand.
If you feel that other people are trying to harm or harass you, you will probably just keep away from them. Occasionally, you may feel so threatened that you want to retaliate.
You may try to escape your feelings of persecution by moving from place to place.
Muddled thinking (or "Thought Disorder")
It becomes harder to concentrate - you probably can't:
finish an article in the newspaper or watch a TV programme to the end
keep up with your studies at college
keep your mind on the job at work.
Your thoughts seem to wander. You drift from idea to idea without any obvious connection between them. After a minute or two, you can't remember what you were originally trying to think about. Some people describe their thoughts as being "misty" or "hazy" when this is happening.
When your ideas are disconnected in this way, it can be hard for other people to understand you.
Feelings of being controlled
You may feel that:
your thoughts are vanishing - as though someone is taking them out of your mind
that the thoughts you are thinking are not yours, but that someone else has put them in your mind
your body is being taken over, or that you are being controlled like a puppet or a robot.
People explain these experiences in different ways. Some people have technological explanations, such as the radio, television or laser beams, or believe that a device has been implanted in them. Other people may blame witchcraft, angry spirits, God or the Devil.
"Negative" symptoms:
These are less obvious than positive symptoms.
Your interest in life, energy, emotions and 'get-up-and-go' just drain away. It's hard to feel excited or enthusiastic about anything.
You can't concentrate. You may not bother to get up or go out of the house.
It can be difficult to wash or tidy up, or to keep your clothes clean.
You may feel uncomfortable with people - that you have nothing to say.
Other people can find it hard to understand that negative symptoms are actually symptoms, and that you aren't just being lazy. This can be upsetting, both for you and your family. Your family feel that you just need to pull yourself together. You can't explain that ... you just can't.
Negative symptoms are much less dramatic than positive symptoms, but they can be just as troublesome.
Does everyone with schizophrenia have all these symptoms?
No. Someone can hear voices without negative symptoms, but may not have thought disorder. Some people with delusional ideas seem to have very few negative symptoms. If someone only has thought disorder and negative symptoms, the problem may not be recognised for years.
Loss of insight
After a while, the symptoms can be so intense that they take over your life. It can feel as though everyone else is wrong, that they just can't understand what you can.
Depression
Before help or treatment, around half of those having schizophrenia for the first time will feel depressed.
Around 1 in 7 people with continuing symptoms will have depression. This may not be recognised because the signs can be mistaken for negative symptoms.
Although antipsychotic medication has been blamed for this in the past, it seems that treatment with medication actually reduces depression in schizophrenia.
If you have schizophrenia and feel depressed, make sure that you tell someone and that they take you seriously. See our leaflet on 'Depression' for further information on signs, symptoms and treatment.
What causes Schizophrenia?
We don't yet know for sure. It is likely to be a combination of several different factors which will be different for different people.
Genes
Genes1 in 10 people with schizophrenia have a parent with the illness. Studies of twins can help to show how much is due to genes and how much to upbringing.
Identical twins have exactly the same genetic make-up as each other, down to the last molecule of DNA. If one identical twin has schizophrenia, their twin has about a 50:50 chance of having it too. Non-identical twins don't have the same genetic make-up as each other. If one of them has schizophrenia, the risk to the other twin is just slightly more than for any other brother or sister.
These findings hold true even if twins are adopted and brought up in different families. This suggests that the difference is truly due to genes rather than upbringing.
Relatives with schizophrenia Chance of developing schizophrenia
None 1 in 100
1 parent 1 in 10
1 identical twin (same genetic make up) 1 in 2
1 non-identical twin (different genetic make up) 1 in 80
Research suggests that genes account for about half of the risk of developing schizophrenia. We don't yet know the combination of genes responsible for this.
Brain damage
Modern brain scans show that, compared with people who don't suffer from the illness, there are differences in the brains of some people with schizophrenia. For some people with schizophrenia, parts of their brain may not have developed normally, because of:
problems during birth that affect the supply of oxygen to the baby's brain
viral infections during the early months of pregnancy.
Street drugs and alc I believe at points you can be in an totally alternate world of your imagination. You could also believe you are another person. interesting question - i would also like to know the answer There are different symptoms. Some people have delusions such as that the TV is sending them special messages that nobody else gets, some people hear voices, some people have other hallucinations, some people have racing thoughts or disconnected thoughts and speech (example: they start saying something about a car but then suddenly they are talking about Ronald Reagan or a tornado, etc.), some people have blunted emotions and others can go into a catatonic state. The symptoms are different for each person. |
