Schizophrenia is a mental illness. It is characterized by various symptoms, including disorders of thinking, delusion, and hallucinations. Let’s find out the symptoms of Schizophrenia and how you can overcome it.
What is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that can appear in many different ways. It influences thinking, perception, actions, and even feelings. In simple terms, those affected, perceive reality in a different way. Schizophrenia appears to be common among people with low levels of education and low socioeconomic status.
There are many possible symptoms of Schizophrenia. In acute phases, some patients tend to hear voices or develop delusions. Patients even perceive their own thoughts as someone else’s. The idea of a split personality in those affected is wrong. The disease can occur at any age, but most often, it begins in early adulthood before the age of 35.
What are the Symptoms of Schizophrenia?
Typical complaints range from hearing voices to difficulty concentrating. Often, several of the following symptoms appear at the same time:
Hallucinations: Most people with Schizophrenia hear voices. Less often, they see, taste, or feel things that are not there. The voices can be friendly or threatening. The voices often comment on their own behavior or talk about the schizophrenic patient. The voices can also urge certain actions.
Delusion: Often, the strong feeling of being called to do something unusual, develops. Normal things suddenly seem strange. Affected people relate everything to themselves and see certain signs everywhere that confirm their perception. They also feel that others have conspired against them.
I-disorder: The term I-disorder or Manic depression means that the boundary between oneself and the environment is blurred. The feeling may arise that one’s own experience and thinking are controlled by others, or others may read your own thoughts.
Impairment of language and thinking: Thinking becomes agile and confused, sentences are grammatically incorrect and incomprehensible. The same thoughts are constantly repeated.
Eye-catching emotional life: This can manifest itself as inner emptiness, dullness, and social withdrawal, sometimes as a depressive mood. Sudden mood changes or completely inappropriate behavior can also occur, like laughing on sad occasions.
Restricted thinking: Attention, concentration, and memory are disturbed. Solving more complex tasks creates serious problems.
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During an acute psychotic phase, there are predominantly complaints such as hallucinations, delusions, or ego disorder. After the acute psychosis has subsided, there are more problems with concentration and memory, social withdrawal and lack of drive.
How do Sufferers Experience Their Illness Themselves?
The above mentioned are the symptoms of Schizophrenia; however, personal perception can vary widely. This depends on how severe the symptoms are as well as also how well the treatment and the support from others are working.
Hear Voices
People experience hearing voices differently. For some, the voices are threatening and extremely exhausting in the long run, and they can also intensify the madness. Hearing voices can cause fear, confusion, and self-doubt. Some do not see themselves as sick at all but perceive these voices as part of their personality.
Certain people perceive their voices and hallucinations as part of spiritual or psychic experiences that prove that other realities exist like the extraterrestrial life or the afterlife.
Delusion
Delusions can also express themselves in very different ways. For example, some people think that they have to liberate the world from something or protect it from imminent danger. Some of those affected feel to be moving around in a film. Some people feel that they are being persecuted or believe that others have conspired against them.
In a delusional phase, those affected are often very energetic and restless. They sometimes have extremely positive feelings, are very creative and euphoric. Others experience severe fear and paranoia.
Insomnia
For many sufferers, insomnia is a big problem. Patients wake up at night, have nightmares, or are afraid of falling asleep. They often no longer believe that they will be able to sleep well again but have a strong desire to sleep.
This also leads to exhaustion and concentration problems. Sleep problems can be a sign of psychosis, but they can also be related to everyday stress and addictive substance use.
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Diagnosis
People with symptoms of Schizophrenia worry about being devalued in society. They also fear of being stamped as mad and thus do not tell others about the diagnosis. They often know very little about the causes, consequences, and treatment options for their illness.
Many also miss the opportunity to talk to professionals about their personal experiences. It is always advised to take the symptoms of Schizophrenia seriously and seek help.