SchizophreniaExplained and Treatments
Schizophrenia is a devastating brain disorder affectingpeople worldwide of all ages, races, and economic levels. Itcauses personality disintegration and loss of contact withreality (Sinclair). It is the most common psychosis and itis estimated that one percent of the U.S. population will bediagnosed with it over the course of their lives (Torrey 2). Recognition of this disease dates back to the 1800's whenEmil Kraepelin concluded after a comprehensive study ofthousands of patients that a "state of dementia was supposedto follow precociously or soon after the onset of theillness." Eugene Bleuler, a famous Swiss psychiatrist,coined the term "schizophrenia," referring to what he calledthe "splitting of the various psychic functions" (Honig Having a "split personality" is often incorrectlyassociated with schizophrenia. Possessing multiplepersonalities on different occasions is a form of neurosisvice psychosis (Chapman). Symptoms most commonly associatedwith schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations, andDelusions are irrational ideas, routinely absurd andoutlandish. A patient may believe that he or she ispossessed of great wealth, intellect, importance or power.
In the catatonic form, the person may sit, stand,or lie in fixed postures or attitudes for weeks or months onend. I am haunted by an evasive picture of what my lifecould have been, whom I might have become, what I might haveaccomplished. Professions and family members must help the ill person setrealistic goals. Scientists have since found that byartificially creating lesions in the area of the frontallobes, one's personality can seriously be modified (Baruk196-197). Psychiatric patients are generally insulted bycontentions that their trouble was brought on by badparenting, childhood trauma, or week character (Willwerth79). She's employed full time as a medicalrecords transcriptionist at a hospital where she was oncecommitted (Long). I would entreat them not to be devastatedby our illnesses and transmit this hopeless attitude to us. For the next ten years, I did not require hospitalization. Manytimes, schizophrenics invent new words (called neologisms)with unique meanings (Chapman). As I approach 40, I find myself still struggling withthe same symptoms, still crippled by the same fears andparanoia. As time went on, I spoke to virtually noone.
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