Schizophrenia can be diagnosed if
the person has deterioration of everyday functioning for 6 months, this consist
of taking care of your self, work, relationships, etc. to fall under this
disorder according to the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) you must
show at least two symptoms of the following. 1. Delusions- Unjustifiable
beliefs, like thinking you are controlled by aliens. 2. Hallucinations- False
sensory experience, like hearing voices or seeing things when they are not
really there. 3. Disorganized speech- rambling or talking incoherently. 4.
Grossly disorganized behavior- doing things in a non-understandable manner. 5.
Weak or absent signs of emotion, speech, and socialization. Schizophrenia has
positive symptoms, which are behaviors shouldn’t be there but are like
hallucinations, delusions, etc. and negative symptoms, which are behaviors that
should be there but are not, like absent speech, emotion, and socialization. Schizophrenia
has an early onset for men it usually occurs around their teen’s to early 20’s
while for women it occurs on their mid to late 20’s.
In this article schizophrenia is
explained in more detail here are some of the things provided. Symptoms like
irritability or tense feeling, trouble concentrating; Causes and risk factors
like having a family member that also have schizophrenia; Signs and test
including how long symptoms have lasted or how has the ability to function in
everyday life changed; Treatments that are provided by antipsychotics, but it
does come with a price, side effects, dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, and
tremors; Complications which can be caused by drug abuse which can cause
symptoms to worsen, etc. Here is a video that shows you the world through the
eyes of a schizophrenic.
