What are the stages of schizophrenia?

what are the developing stages to schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is more properly a set of disorders. It is broken down into five categories:

* catatonic type (where marked absences or peculiarities of movement are present),
* disorganized type (where thought disorder and flat affect are present together),
* paranoid type (where delusions and hallucinations are present but thought disorder, disorganized behavior, and affective flattening is absent),
* residual type (where positive symptoms are present at a low intensity only) and
* undifferentiated type (psychotic symptoms are present but the criteria for paranoid, disorganized, or catatonic types has not been met)

In general, schizophrenia has either positive or negative symptoms: positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions and disordered thought (psychosis); negative symptoms are things like lack of emotion, limited speech or lack of motivation.

Schizophrenia, like bipolar disorder has a biochemical and genetic basis and can be seen in abnormalities of brain structure. However, like bipolar, schizophrenia will not occur in all patients with these abnormalities. It seems to require external triggers to start off the illness. There is strong evidence that the use of marijuana is linked to the triggering of schizophrenia.

The good news is that there are a number of good medications around that are effective in treating the symptoms of schizophrenia (and the same ones are often used in bipolar, as an aside).

You think that you're singled out as somebody special because you hear things that others don't. Then you interact with the voices. At first, you think they're fun. They play with you. They sometimes compliment you. They take you on an emotional roller coaster. You wonder what they are, whether it's just your imagination or somebody else. Then once you have emotionally invested in them, they turn on you and tell you to do things to yourself or to people that you don't want to do. Eventually, you either do what they tell you, and then you end up in jail or in a mental ward, or you figure out that you need help. Then they put you on medication, and you eventually find that what the voices were telling you were all a big cruel joke. And then you eventually pick yourself up with the help of those who care about you and move on with your life either by continuing medication or learning to ignore and cope with the voices you hear.