Psychotic disorders - Schizophrenia

In the description below a stereotype is used to give you an idea of the disorder. However, not all people who have this disorder display all these characteristics, and not all people have these characteristics to the same degree.

Description

Schizophrenia is a very disabling disorder that influences the life of a person and his/her family to a large extent. Schizophrenics have a blurred stream of consciousness and they behave strangely. They are often guided by delusions; they absolutely believe in things that are not true. For example, they might believe that they are very powerful (king or emperor) or that they are being followed constantly. On top of this, they have hallucinations: they see and/or hear thing that are not there. They might here voices who comment on thing that happen or thing that they do. When trying to start a conversation with a schizophrenic, the speech often is incoherent. They also have difficulty showing emotions in an appropriate way. They have little facial expression and often talk monotonous. The disorder can be divided in three categories:

• Disorganized: these people are very active but act strange and talk strange language.
  
• Catatonic: these people are very passive. They may take a strange pose and stand still for hours.
  
• Paranoid: these people experience delusions and hallucinations.

Schizophrenia is often confused with multiple personality disorder. People with schizophrenia do not have 'multiple personalities'.

Normal

People that use drugs can say strange things. They may also experience delusions or hallucinations. They see the world differently for a while.

Abnormal

Schizophrenics act strangely without taking drugs. Their brain has a similar 'normal state' as someone who has taken drugs. The disorder is only effectively treated with medication that can reverse the chemical brain abnormalities for while. Schizophrenics often must take medication every day, for the rest of their life.